WASHINGTON, D.C. — Housing security in the Buckeye State was an issue long before the coronavirus.

• Coronavirus casts brighter spotlight on housing security
• Before virus, 1 in 4 Ohio renters spent half of income on rent
• Lawmakers say short-term and long-term solutions needed

A 2019 report by the Ohio Housing Finance Agency said one in four renters “spend at least half of their income on rent and utilities.”

But now with businesses closed and the unemployment rate climbing because of the pandemic, new attention is being paid by lawmakers here in Washington to securing housing for people back home.

“The good and the bad about this is it’s forcing the government and Congress to listen to many of us who’ve been out front saying that we need to do more for public housing,” Representative Joyce Beatty (D, 3rd Congressional District) said in an interview over Zoom on April 10.

Beatty and Rep. Steve Stivers (R, 15th Congressional District) serve on the House Financial Services Committee in Congress, which oversees the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) is the top Democrat on the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee.

“Most of us agree on that, even the most conservative congressmen that don’t want any government role in this, that nobody should lose their apartment or the home they own during a pandemic like this,” Brown said in a video conference interview on April 7.

An analysis by the Urban Institute estimates that one in four U.S. rental units (all federally funded) are now protected from eviction for at least the next few months thanks to legislation passed by Congress and decisions made by federal housing officials.

And in just the last few days, HUD announced that Ohio will receive at least $42 million in federal assistance for housing.

But Beatty and Stivers agreed that these are just short-term solutions, and their committee will have more work to do.

“It’s so alarming, but it’s also very eye-opening and frustrating at the same time that it took a pandemic for us to say we should not have people living in the conditions that they’re living in,” Beatty said.

“Housing starts so many good things and we need to make sure that we are looking after housing security in this country, so I think there will be a lot of focus on that in the coming weeks and the coming months,” Stivers said in a Skype interview on April 21.

This past Monday, Brown introduced a bill that would dedicate $100 billion to help low-income renters keep up with their bills for up to two years.

But he said a long-term solution to housing security has to focus on building more homes so costs can go down.

“We just need to put incentives out there for homebuilders and others to build more housing in more neighborhoods,” Brown said.

Beatty said she’s also been speaking with local officials in Columbus about the need to provide the homeless population with shelter to ride out the virus and provide a sense of dignity as those infected recover.