Ohio REALTORS™ Share Their Knowledge To Respond to Ohio’s Housing Crisis

It’s easy to say we need housing that is affordable. It’s much harder to build it.

All across Ohio, communities are staring down the same challenge: How do you provide housing that is affordable within the places people already live? Where neighborhoods already have a sense of community and where public infrastructure already exists?

When a builder is ready to make an investment in these communities, why does every policy, code and assumption seems to block the way?

That’s the question the Ohio REALTORS™ and the Greater Ohio Policy Center set out to answer. And the result isn’t just another policy whitepaper. It’s a practical toolkit for action that has been built by professionals who know the barriers firsthand and local leaders who are desperate to overcome them.

Why This Matters: A Crisis Rooted in Complexity

Housing affordability isn’t just about cost. It’s about:

Vacant lots sitting idle in neighborhoods where demand exists.
Regulations that make it nearly impossible to build small or incrementally.
Developers who want to serve the market but hit technical and financial dead ends.
Local governments who are ready to act, but lack the tools.

Ohio’s realtors and community advocates did something remarkable: they listened, not just to policymakers, but to everyday Ohioans, local planners, and small developers. Then they did the hard work of translating that insight into something anyone can use.

The new guidebook doesn’t offer a silver bullet. Instead, it provides three voluntary tools that can be mixed, matched, and customized to break through the barriers that have held back infill housing across the state.

Site Readiness Tool: Helps local governments and land banks think like developers to prep vacant lots for development. This empowers communities to get ahead of the obstacles that usually kill projects before they start.
Code Readiness Tools: Offers zoning and design guidance for the kinds of small-scale, context-sensitive housing that fits into existing neighborhoods such as rear yard cottages, duplexes and triplexes.
Financing Resource Map: Outlines and connects existing public and private funding streams to support projects that otherwise wouldn’t pencil out.

Each of these tools can stand on its own, but together they empower a complete, actionable strategy for building more housing, faster. These tools are calibrated for Ohio communities in a way that strengthens communities rather than reshaping them beyond recognition. This guide isn’t just for planners or policymakers. It’s for anyone who wants to do something about the housing crisis.

Ohio’s housing crisis is big—but it’s not unsolvable. Ohio REALTORS™ and the Greater Ohio Policy Center responded to this struggle by asking what is the next smallest thing they could do, with their knowledge and available resources to address the housing crisis. This toolkit established a menu of responses that every local community can discuss and adopt. With these tools in the hands of Ohio communities, vacant lots can become vibrant homes, and struggling neighborhoods can become strong towns.

Learn more about what you can do about the housing crisis in Strong Towns’ housing toolkit.