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Disappearing open space Each year

Ohio loses 73,000 acres of open space and farmland due to development.17 Ohio’s available farmland decreased twelve percent between 1982 and 1997, from 15.2 million to 13.6 million acres, and its pasture land decreased 40 percent, from 2.8 million acres to 2 million acres. Ohio ranked eighth in the nation in the amount of land that was converted to urban uses between 1992 and 1997. In that same period, Ohio ranked second out of all states in acreage of prime agricultural land converted to urban uses.18 Ohio’s original wetlands areas have declined from about five million acres to less than half a million acres—a loss of 90 percent.19

Crowded housing: 74,000 Ohio households are defined by housing authorities as severely crowded.20 Studies show that a rise in crowded housing often correlates with an increase in the number of foreign-born.21,22

Affordable housing:
As population increases, the affordable housing supply often drops. Ohio workers who earn minimum wage must work 92 hours per week in order to afford a two-bedroom unit at the area’s fair market rent. Ohio’s housing wage (the amount a full-time worker must earn per hour to afford a two-bedroom apartment at fair market rent) is $11.79, but its minimum wage is $5.15.23

According to the Columbus/Franklin County Affordable Housing Trust, the price of homes sold in central Ohio rose 30 percent between 1995 and 2001, 36,000 low-income households in central Ohio spend more than 50 percent of their income on rent, and almost half of central Ohioans can’t afford to buy a home.24

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