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Affordable housing advocates doubt 50-year mortgages will help many Ohioans

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (Statehouse News Bureau) — President Trump recently proposed allowing 50-year mortgages as a way to help people afford to buy homes. Leaders of some groups that help Ohioans find affordable housing say some people might be helped on the front lines of the housing affordability issue in Ohio, about how that might affect residents trying to afford a home of their own.

A "Sold" sticker is on a For Sale sign outside of a home.
[Andy Dean Photography | shutterstock.com]
“It’s not a real substantive plan,” said Josiah Quarles, director of organizing and advocacy for the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless works with people who are trying to afford homes. “If you are a 30 year old person, you are not going to be paying off that mortgage until you are 80, if you are still alive. So, it doesn’t really do anything as far as affordability, access or mobility, really. It’s just transferring that obligation onto more years of your life.”

The head of the state’s leading group that works with people experiencing homelessness it’s not going to do much to help most of those who are struggling to afford a home.

“One of the crazy things is that it would only save people about $115 to $150 a month,” said Amy Riegel, executive director of the Coalition on Housing and Homelessness in Ohio. “But for many people, that’s a lot of savings that could really make a big difference right now in their budgets.”

Both Riegel and Quarles said closing loopholes that serve to deny people mortgages and increasing the stock of affordable housing for lower-income homeowners would do more to help Ohioans who want to buy a home.