DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) — A new report shows Ohio’s affordable housing shortage is getting worse.

The Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio (COHHIO), along with the National Low Income Housing Coalition, released the 2022 Gap Report. The report shows the state does not have enough affordable housing units for its more than 400,000 extremely low income families.

Amy Riegel is the Executive Director of COHHIO.

“The state of Ohio has a deficit of 270,000 units of housing for individuals who are extremely low income. And this is a 6 percent increase from last year,” Riegel explained.

Riegel said part of the reason for this trend is the number of people who are considered extremely low income increased last year. She said those considered extremely low income in Ohio make around $27,000 or less a year for a family of four.

The other part of the issue is a lack of units. Riegel said the 2019 Memorial Day Tornadoes devastated the affordable housing market in the Miami Valley, and it has not bounced back fast enough.

“I know for a lot of people that was four years ago and you may see that people have replaced their siding or they replaced their roofs. But for those units that were completely destroyed, those units in many cases have not been replaced yet. And we’re still suffering those impacts,” Riegel said.

In the City of Dayton’s 2022 Survey, released on Friday, only 26 percent of people in the extremely low income range said they are satisfied with the city’s affordable housing options. Commissioner Christopher Shaw said city leaders are already addressing this issue.

“We’ve got significant contributions in terms of federal funding sources to promote construction and preservation of affordable housing, via the CDBG program and the home program, and our Dayton Recovery program with our ARPA dollars,” Shaw explained.

Riegel also wants state leaders to be more involved in solving this affordable housing crisis. She said HB 3 was introduced in the Ohio House which would create an affordable housing tax credit.

“We need more jobs that pay higher wages so that individuals are able to afford different types of housing. But we also need to start building more affordable housing now,” Riegel said.