Reflections On a Disappearing Black Columbus

By Jonathan Beard

homeownership had dropped to 33%. During that same period at least 9 nonprofit community development corporations with Black executives, producing affordable housing in Black neighborhoods, were defunded by city government.

“T“The forest was shrinking but the trees kept voting for the axe, for the axe was clever and convinced the trees that because his handle was made of wood, he was one of them” -- Turkish Proverb

I read a report issued in March of 2022 that documented that the percentage of White rent burdened households (White households living in unaffordable rental housing) had increased from 32% to 40% between 2000 to 2019; the percentage of Hispanic households living in unaffordable housing had increased from 32% to 46%; and the percentage of Black households living in unaffordable housing had increased from 42% to 51% over that same 20-year period. And with subsequent COVID rental price increases and the coming Intel development, it is bound to get worse -- while Black

We have come to that position where most Black households living in rental housing are rent-burdened – in a prosperous city with growing budgets during a time when we had a Black Mayor and/or a majority Black City Council.

What in the hell is going on in Columbus, Ohio – when we go from a position of purported Black political leadership to a position where all the major real estate assets in historic Black neighborhoods have been steered into White hands or controlled by predominately White organizations and Black families cannot find an affordable place to live? We’ve got to demand better.

Given the failure in our elected leadership to secure housing -- a basic human need -- for our community, Black citizens (renters and homeowners) are now leading an effort, building partnerships with allies of all races and backgrounds, to pursue the interests of the Black community (and all Columbusites) in fair housing.

The coalition’s initial proposal scared Ohio’s radical, reactionary state legislature into an authoritarian White backlash. Within 6 weeks of residents filing a draft petition for rent control in Columbus, the Ohio General Assembly, with the reported support of the Columbus Partnership, apartment owners and real estate investors, passed a law to make rent control unlawful across the state. In so doing, they stripped Columbus residents of our right to pass local housing laws that we had held for more than 100 years.

But residents were undeterred and re-filed an amended petition creating an even stronger proposal that features citizen enforcement of enhanced rights by lawsuit, instead of governmental caps on rent. The redesigned proposal creates powerful incentives for landlords to offer tenants fair rents, and powerful disincentives for predatory behavior– but more on the specifics of the proposal in the next issue.

Jonathan Beard is a community development practitioner and public policy expert. He can be reached at JonBeard1964@gmail. com.