Finance Committee Hearing at 5:00 PM on November 19, 2024
Families Flourish participant Tasha’La Alls and Board Vice Chair James McDougal presented testimony to Columbus City Council on Tuesday.
The Finance Committee was taking testimony about how to spend federal dollars on housing programs.
James McDougal
Thank you Finance Committee Chairperson Bankston and members of the Finance Committee for holding tonight’s important hearing. My name is James McDougal, and I am vice chair of the Board of Directors of Families Flourish. I’m here to testify about uses for HOME funds under HUD – specifically rental support that keeps people housed.
Unlike providing access to healthcare and food as a right, access to housing is not. The result is homelessness and many people in our city living in substandard housing. The federal government provides rental assistance in several ways. The most well-known form is Housing Choice Vouchers, sometimes called Section 8, and it does not serve all families who qualify for this support.
• In Central Ohio, about 25% of people who qualify for vouchers receive them because the program is underfunded.
• There are about 14,000 vouchers being used in Central Ohio, with the priority for households under 30% of area median income; HALF of the vouchers are used by families whose head of household is disabled.
• About 34,000 central Ohioans are on the Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority waiting list, with the longest person on for 9 years.
• For those who do get a voucher, they must use it within two months or lose it. This is particularly difficult in this housing climate, and in municipalities that have not adopted an ordinance to protect people from discrimination based on their source of income. I applaud Councilmember Shayla Favor for leading the charge to create those protections in Columbus.
As current federal rent support is insufficient, we believe that some HOME dollars be should be invested in alternative rent support to keep people housed?.
• People making 30-50% of area median income, according to the Affordable Housing Alliance of Central Ohio (AHACO), make between $20,000 and just over $50,000 a year but that only allows them to pay $595-$992 in rent and still pay other bills.
• According to Zillow, as of September 2024, the average rent in Columbus, OH is $1,531 per month and $2,500 in Dublin.
Families Flourish provides three years of partial rental support in multi-family, market-rate properties across Central Ohio, 60% of which are in the City of Columbus. We do it with the partnership of over 16 landlords that voluntarily partner with us. Participants get $500 per month support for the first 18 months of the program and $400 per month for the last half, that is paid to their landlord by Families Flourish. The amount never changes because of a rise in the participant’s income, so they can count on it month by month.
Affordable rental housing is critical but does not necessarily on its own lead to economic mobility. That’s why Families Flourish created our innovative model of connecting required life coaching and programs for 3 years to rental support in higher resourced neighborhoods throughout Columbus. It is this unique combination, born at OSU, that has allowed our families to raise their incomes by 58% on average, improve their credit scores 100 points, and experience dramatically better mental health. I thank you for your time.
Tasha’La Alls
My name is Tasha’la Alls and I’m a resident of the City of Columbus. I am a proud wife and mother and I currently work at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. This past August I graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Otterbein University.
My daughter and I have been participants in the Families Flourish program since August of 2022.
Before joining the program, I was a single mom and the rising costs of living left me to settle for poor quality housing and inadequate living conditions. The structure of the previous apartment we lived in was dilapidated and as a result became infested with pests (such as bedbugs and roaches). The landlords had received multiple environmental code violation notices by The City of Columbus Code Enforcement and the surrounding neighborhood wasn’t the safest place to raise a child or family. Unfortunately I couldn’t afford to move at the time and like so many other struggling parents in this city, I felt stuck, both physically and mentally.
Receiving private rental assistance from Families Flourish has been a life altering experience, and for me personally an answered prayer. With the private rent support and help from Families Flourish, I now live in an apartment complex with wide, green outdoor spaces for my child to play.
It’s also a much healthier home environment which has helped to set both my body and mind at a greater ease.
In addition to the rent support, I feel blessed for the support of the coach that I get to work with – and the women in my group whom I meet with monthly. During these workshops, I get even more ideas about how to reach my goals and dreams – not just for me, but for my family.
As an ambassador for the program, I’ve had the chance to meet some of the people who – as private citizens and businesses – have invested in Families Flourish. Their support allows this program to have flexible, sustained rent support for me and the 80 other families now in the program.
I am here to advocate for you to use HUD dollars for more rent support like that provided by Families Flourish. I want a lot more families to benefit.
The combination of coaching and programs – alongside the rent support that allowed me access to a safe, healthy environment – has allowed me to dream big. I graduate from Families Flourish next fall and my dreams include continuing to advocate for safer and healthier living environments for families and their children! Because our children and their families should not only be limited to surviving, they should be afforded the opportunity to survive and to thrive! Thank you.