COLUMBUS, OHIO — The Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA) has acquired Copperleaf Apartments, a 108-unit affordable housing multifamily development in Columbus for $8.1 million. Built in 1989, the property sits on eight acres located off Sawmill Road on the city’s Northwest Side. The seller was a partnership of companies headed by local developers Don Kelley and Robert Weiler. Columbus Housing Enterprise (CHE), a newly formed nonprofit, has entered into a 75-year lease to operate the community on behalf of CMHA, ensuring the apartment complex will remain affordable for lower-wage-earning families, senior citizens and people with disabilities for the long run.
According to The Columbus Dispatch, the nonprofit will target prospective renters making 80 percent or less of area median income, which is $52,500 for one person and $74,950 for a four-person household. Data from the Affordable Housing Alliance of Central Ohio (AHACO) shows only 29 affordable housing units are available for every 100 extremely low-income households in the Columbus and Franklin County area. AHACO estimates 54,000 low- and moderate-income households in Franklin County pay more than half their income toward housing costs. Central Ohio also faces a deficit of 11,000 to 14,000 new housing units every year to support a healthy housing market.