OHIO — Data from the U.S. Census Bureau found that in 2022, 2/3 of the homes in Ohio had their owners living inside them.

The number is nearly the lowest it has ever been since the bureau started calculating home ownership rate 40 years ago. One newly proposed program in Southwest Ohio is looking to change that trend.

What You Need To Know

  • The Cincinnati City Council is considering implementing the Community Investment Trust  

  • The program started in Portland, Oregon and helps renters become investors 

  • Those who took part in the program increased their credit scores and participated more in their community 

Cincinnati City Council is now considering the Community Investment Trust, which started in Portland, Oregon in 2015. It would let residents in low and moderate-income neighborhoods buy into real estate properties in their neighborhoods. It helps them build equity and improve their credit scores so they can eventually buy their own homes. 

“There’s a whole history here of generations and generations of low and moderate-income families, Black and brown families, not being able to actually buy a home,” said Cincinnati Vice Mayor Jan-Michele Lemon Kearney. “So we’re trying to see what we can do. So not just in the home ownership realm, but in terms of wealth-building to really close that racial wealth gap.”

The Cincinnati City Council is currently in the planning stages and working with the Port Authority to see how it would work. Cleveland is also working on programs to help renters become homebuyers through American Rescue Plan Act funding.