Effort to expand affordable housing in Western Holmes County underway

The search to create affordable housing in Western Holmes County is officially on.

“The housing and transportation needs are obviously very great in Holmes County right now,” said Nate Troyer, Historic Downtown Millersburg village administrator. “It’s something that we’ve needed to address for some time.”

Troyer said the search to improve the housing market in Western Holmes County and in Millersburg is important to the future of Holmes County.

To create a game plan, the Village of Millersburg has begun work on a strategic planning study for housing that is being spearheaded by Envision Group LLC out of Cleveland. The end goal of the study is to create a housing needs assessment.

Troyer said currently there are many challenges involved with finding creative ways to introduce new housing options to the western side of Holmes County, but the hope is that through this study new ideas will identify ways to build the housing market in a way that is affordable for families.

“We just had the kickoff meeting Tuesday (Dec. 2),” Troyer said. “It will be about a 16-week process.”

He said Envision is currently doing a housing needs assessment, collecting data and putting it all together. That would be followed by an effort to identify stakeholders.

“Envision will give us an inventory of everything that is available, what the real needs are, not only in Millersburg, but in all of Western Holmes County,” Troyer said. “It’s a huge step for us because this is a huge potential area for development in this community, based on land values alone.”

He said the current state of housing in Western Holmes County affects not only the families who want to live here, but also employers who rely on their employees to do important work. However, with the lack of housing options, more employees are living outside the county and driving to work, something Troyer said is not conducive to enticing a strong workforce population.

“People would prefer to live here and not drive an hour to get to work,” Troyer said. “So if they can’t afford to live here or don’t have good opportunities to find affordable housing, we need to address that.”

The struggle for many families interested in finding a place in Western Holmes County is twofold: First, there is very limited land on which to build, and second, the cost of either building, buying or renting a home continues to skyrocket.

That means people with modest incomes may struggle with rising home prices, and renters needing specific types of housing including size and amenities could struggle to find affordable, quality housing due to limited rental opportunities.

The three stages of the plan include eight weeks of data collection, followed by data analysis and finally housing assessment.

The assessment will explore various types of housing that best fit the area, along with considering demographics and economics. It would identify possible housing sites and include viable financial incentives.

Earlier this year Kelly Hoffee, Millersburg mayor, said the village administrators were seeking to create partnerships to develop a comprehensive housing study that would benefit not only Millersburg, but also the villages of Killbuck, Glenmont, Nashville and other areas that are unincorporated in Western Holmes County, like Big Prairie and Lakeville.

The idea behind the study would be to provide elected leaders with statistical data to inform decision-making and strategic planning for the future when it comes to housing options for families and individuals.

Troyer said finding ways to build quality homes people can afford will be key, along with developing options within village borders, because the goal is to develop housing without taking over valuable farmland.

“If I look into my crystal ball, I think we are beyond the days of traditional developments like subdivisions,” Troyer said. “I think we are going to be looking into areas in towns where we already have utilities in place.”

As an example he identified the former Terrace View Nursing Home property, which has several acres of land with utilities and infrastructure already in place.

Matt Ellington of Avodah Contractors said building developments outside village limits is a huge expense that adds greatly to the cost of building homes or rentals.

“Repurpose that land,” Troyer said. “I think that is what we are going to see more of rather than taking vacant farmland and developing it and extending roads, water and sewage 2 miles out of town. That’s so cost prohibitive. We need to identify these little pockets in town that are underutilized or vacant and do something because the cost is so much less.”

This effort marks the initial steps in investigating how Western Holmes County can build homes that are both attractive and financially affordable.