Ohio Preservation Compact News



The Ohio Preservation Compact (OPC) is a consortium of the Ohio Housing Finance Agency (OHFA), the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio (COHHIO), Ohio Capital Finance Corporation (OCFC) and its parent, the Ohio Capital Corporation for Housing (OCCH).

The OPC seeks to preserve affordable rental housing for an estimated 14,000 Ohio families over the next 10 years. With funding support from the MacArthur Foundation, the OPC held the first annual Affordable Housing Preservation and Energy Efficiency Summit in October 2009 in Columbus Ohio. The Summit drew over 75 participants from Ohio’s public and private sectors. Participants included bankers, nonprofit and for profit developers, advocates, and city, county and state officials.



The Summit provided information relating to the OPC’s three main activities: 1) Creation of a Preservation Loan Fund, 2) developing an
on-line searchable database of all affordable housing in Ohio and
3) identifying projects “at-risk” of being lost as affordable housing
and developing solutions to preserve them. The OPC is actively implementing these initiatives and will provide additional information
on how the preservation community can become involved in its effort
in the coming months.

The preservation of at-risk housing is the fundamental objective of the OPC, yet the OPC is also interested in assisting existing projects with energy efficiency. A presentation was given by the Ohio Affordable Housing Energy Conservation Initiative to address how projects can become more energy efficient. The Initiative seeks to lower utility and operating costs of operating affordable housing projects across Ohio through the installation of low-flow showerheads, low-flow toilet mechanisms, faucet aerators, energy efficient light ballasts, compact florescent bulbs, insulation, etc. Additional information on the initiative
can be obtained by emailing conservation@occh.org.