DAYTON, Ohio — As Steve Naas got his first look at one of his newest purchases, the possibilities washed over him. In a few months, the now-uninhabitable house could be the home of a young family filling all four of its bedrooms with life, and potentially becoming homeowners for the first time.
The house along Miami Chapel Road is one of 100 Naas’s nonprofit CountyCorp purchased this spring for $2.5 million. The hope is that these lease-to-purchase properties, with a little development, could soon become permanent affordable housing for dozens of West Dayton families.
“We want to improve homeownership equity in our community,” Naas said.
It’s been CountyCorp’s mission for the past 40 years, serving as a developer for affordable rentals, and running a homeownership center to help buyers and homeowners across Montgomery County buy and maintain their homes.
This 100-home investment is the largest CountyCorp has ever undertaken, more than doubling the number of properties in its inventories, but Naas said it represents only a fraction of the affordable homes Dayton needs on the market.
The Miami Valley Housing Collaborative estimates more than 40% of renters are cost-burdened, paying more than 30% of their income on housing. They estimate the county will need 20,000 more affordable units over the next five years to meet rising demand.
“When the rental unit price goes from $1200 a month to $1500 in a one-year time frame, with no substantive improvement in the structure,” he said. “That creates a real problem for the community.”
Naas said these rental homes, scattered throughout a few neighborhoods in West Dayton, were on the market for a few years, and many of the tenants reported the former owners offered limited maintenance and support to the properties.
At the time of CountyCorp’s purchase, most were inhabited, a few were in the unit-turn stage, and three had fallen into such disrepair that they were uninhabitable.
“This is an area that we’ll have to do a little bit of care,” Naas said.
Naas is working with Mason-based property management company Nelson & Associates to bring the homes back up to standard, then he said he’ll get to work helping the tenants determine if they want to make these homes their own.
“We don’t expect 100 of the tenants to become homeowners but they’re at zero right now,” he said.
For those who are willing, Naas said he’ll direct them to CountyCorp’s Homeownership Center which provides guidance and connects them with services to assist with down payments. For those interested in continuing to rent, Naas said CountyCorp will help there too.
“We’re not looking to force anyone into homeownership,” he said. “We’re not looking to change their housing at all. We’re looking to be a better homeowner and landlord than what the tenants have had to deal with.”
Naas hopes 15 to 20% of the tenants undertake the process, on par with national lease-to-purchase programs, but for the remaining tenants, he said CountyCorp plans to help them make their neighborhood a safe, desirable, and affordable place to live.
“We plan to really bring all of our energy to bear to make it better for the immediate neighborhoods,” he said.
Naas said that will take cooperation with all the neighbors around CountyCorp’s new properties and ensuring all the homes return to good condition.
“This is going to be a good place for a family,” he said.