Affordable housing in Columbus, is there enough for renters?

COLUMBUS, Ga. (WTVM) - Columbus, a city full of rich history, and now more career opportunities. It’s the second largest city in the state behind Atlanta, but what if someone wants to move to the area? Would rent be affordable?

We did a google search based on the average salary of someone starting out in Columbus. That salary is about $15.00/hour, or about $28, 000/year. According to the Director of Community Reinvestment in Columbus, the average person should spend about 30% of their income on housing.

“Affordable housing is different from low-income housing, they’re both the same generally based around income, but housing becomes affordable when the household expenses do not exceed 30% of the gross household income,” says Robert Scott Director of Community Reinvestment.

Meaning someone making about $15.00/hours could only afford about $700.00/month on rent. “When that happens, the household is considered house cost burdened,” says Scott. Which can lead to poverty and low income based housing. After searching and searching for apartments and houses, we could not find any apartments in that price range. “Housing inventory period has just become scarce, as the demand has far exceeded the supply,” says Scott.

Scott says because the demand for rentals is so high, it is time to come up with solutions for those who need affordable housing. “I think it would take a blended approach, there has to be a willingness from the community in terms of those developers that are developing new units of housing. There isn’t a clear silver bullet that will address the issue,” says Scott.

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