What We Do
Greater Ohio Policy Center (GOPC) develops policy recommendations and disseminates strategies that reduce barriers to equitable real estate development and homeownership. We work to help Ohio’s residential and mixed-use neighborhoods provide stable housing for all residents, attract new neighbors, and thrive economically.
Our 2025-26 Public Policy Agenda
Responsible Growth, Sustained Prosperity
Greater Ohio Policy Center’s 2025-2026 Public Policy Agenda
Lower Barriers to Responsible Development
Ohio’s communities do not have a sufficient inventory of quality, attainably-priced homes for homeowners or renters. This is putting immense pressure on the entire housing market.
And many places have underutilized commercial districts that could provide the amenities and services all Ohioans need. In Ohio’s current real estate environment, financing and producing affordably-priced products is difficult. Outdated zoning codes can compound costs.
State investments that help communities update their zoning codes, adopt new housing production tools, control costs, and lower risks will retain current Ohioans and attract prospective employers and residents.
Help communities do In-fill development and modernize their zoning codes.
Communities know there are many benefits to doing residential in-fill development. But such projects can be hard to finance and build. Other cities around the country are seeing promising outcomes from ‘pattern books’ or collections of architectural designs, which a city or county preemptively approves for use within their jurisdiction. Pattern books, particularly for trickier infill lots and neighborhoods, will help lower developer fees and shorten development timelines.
State funding and programmatic support to help local governments institute common zoning changes will also improve local conditions for development. Such funds can help local communities create and adopt their own pattern books and/or better coordinate operations to more effectively support housing development.
Utilize trusted risk-tolerant financial intermediaries to finance new housing, small businesses, and commercial spaces.
Many central business districts and commercial corridors are under-utilized in Ohio because developers and entrepreneurs are unable to secure risk-tolerant, low-cost capital that is comfortable with weak real estate markets or untested businesses. Ohio should create a Fund that provides grants to Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs), a type of lender trusted by the Ohio Department of Development. CDFIs would use the funds to lend and intensively coach businesses and real estate projects that cannot access traditional bank loans.
Support and expand tools that lower the cost of development and homeownership.
Housing costs are not expected to decrease in the short term, and the demand for quality, attainably-priced homes remains high. The General Assembly should continue to support programs that encourage private- and nonprofit developers to produce homeownership and rental opportunities, such as: the Welcome Home Ohio program and the state Low Income Housing Tax Credit.
Limit residential purchases by institutional real estate investors.
Institutional real estate investors, backed by Wall Street speculators, have been rapidly converting single family homes into rental property. Often targeting ‘starter homes’, this practice is shutting out first-time homebuyers and preventing families from creating permanent, stable homes for themselves and their children. Legislation proposed in the 135th General Assembly offered potential safeguards to reduce institutional investment activities. This legislation and related solutions should remain a priority in the 136th General Assembly.
What we Have Accomplished
GOPC partners with local leaders to:
Monitor emerging challenges to equitable real estate development in strong-markets and weak-markets
Understand local market and demographic conditions through quantitative and qualitative analysis
Develop effective plans for revitalizing neighborhoods, lowering development barriers, and improving opportunities for homeownership
Advocate for state policies that will lower risk for real estate development, while ensuring growth is equitable and provides access to homeownership and vibrant neighborhoods
GOPC also serves as a third-party evaluator on major philanthropic grants that are creating more housing, businesses, and services in distressed neighborhoods.
Assessing Housing options and affordability
Creating attractive, competitive, and sustainable communities means rebuilding markets and ensuring Ohioans of all income levels can access a range of safe and appealing housing options. GOPC has analyzed housing markets and neighborhood conditions throughout the state and provided actionable recommendations to community leaders. GOPC’s work focuses on stabilizing and rebuilding market-rate housing markets, preserving and expanding affordable housing, and bridging the appraisal gap that holds back rehab and new development opportunities across the cost spectrum. Among other activities, GOPC staffs and stewards the Affordable Housing Learning Exchange, a community of practice for local leaders who are working to preserve and expand affordable, stable, housing options in Ohio’s major metros.
Mitigating and Eradicating Blight
GOPC is an expert on tools and best practices that contain and eradicate blight in Ohio’s neighborhoods, which are major barriers to redevelopment of existing real estate. GOPC works with the Revitalization Steering Committee (the RSC), a community of practice for local governments, nonprofits, bankers, realtors, and others who are working to prevent and mitigate blight. GOPC and the RSC advise policymakers and advance state policies that target intervention points in the foreclosure and property abandonment process to return properties to productive use with less expense and prevent future blight that will weaken the real estate market.
Lowering Barriers to Real Estate Development + Redevelopment
State policies and local ordinances, including zoning codes, can increase costs and produce unwanted uncertainty for real estate developers, rehabbers, and individual residents. GOPC works with partners around the state to spot emerging issues that impact Ohio’s residential neighborhoods. With partners, GOPC develops policy responses recommendations that will keep costs low and bridge the “appraisal gap” between what it costs to build or rehab and what the current real estate market values such work. GOPC is always mindful that new development or redevelopment should produce equitable outcomes, particularly in neighborhoods experiencing rapid market change.
Tracking & Evaluating Community Investment
Foundations and nonprofits trust GOPC’s ability to assess the progress and impact of investments in Ohio’s neighborhoods. For more information about GOPC’s evaluation work, visit our Services page.
Related Publications
The city of Akron, in partnership with GOPC and the Reinvestment Fund, has released the Akron Housing Action Plan and Market Value Analysis. The Action Plan and Market Value Analysis will help city officials and other leaders in Akron spur new housing development, keep long-time residents in their homes, and improve the quality of existing homes for all Akron residents.
Community leaders in Portsmouth have recently released the Portsmouth Housing Action Plan, which focuses on strategies to increase housing options in the city. This Plan is a second phase of work by the Greater Ohio Policy Center (GOPC), which completed a housing market analysis for Portsmouth in 2021.
Recent Testimony
Additional Resources
Changing Neighborhoods, Changing Lives: The First 10 Years of COCIC’s Impact in Franklin County
November 2022
Since 2012, the Central Ohio Community Improvement Corporation, better known as COCIC, has worked tirelessly to create stable homes, reclaim commercial property, and restart real estate markets in Franklin County through direct programming and strategic partnerships.
Quality Housing For All: A Four-Year Strategic Plan for Springfield
July 2022
GOPC has released a multi-year strategic housing plan for Springfield. Quality Housing for All: A Four-Year Strategic Plan for Springfield provides community leaders with a roadmap to address current and future housing needs in Springfield. Community leaders have elevated housing as a communitywide priority.
Testimony provided to the Senate Select Committee on Housing on Tuesday, June 25, 2024.
Click here to learn more about Senate Bill 245