The holiday season is a time to reflect on what has been accomplished over the past year. For those of us involved with the Affordable Housing Alliance, 2019 has been a year of significant progress. As such, there is much for which we can be both grateful and thankful:
--Community leadership: We are thankful for the leadership of Mayor Ginther, Columbus City Council, the Franklin County Board of Commissioners, Huntington National Bank, and The Affordable Housing Trust for Columbus and Franklin County. Their efforts and funding commitments, which have generated significant corporate and philanthropic investments, produced more than $200 million in new funding to develop and preserve affordable homes in our community--an amazing accomplishment! In addition, central Ohio community leaders are working together to develop a Regional Housing Strategy to guide the use of affordable housing funding moving forward.
--Media spotlight: An important factor in advancing the Alliance plan has been the attention placed on issues of poverty, economic segregation, and affordable housing by The Columbus Dispatch and Columbus Business First , as well as other local media. We are thankful that they have continued to keep the need for truly affordable housing front and center in the community dialogue.
--Our members: The Affordable Housing Alliance is strong because of the diversity and collaboration of our members. We are thankful for those members who have been with us from the beginning and for our new members who joined us over the past year.