The 2026 Spring Symposium brought together developers, lenders, syndicators, asset managers, and federal policy experts for a full day of candid conversation about the state of affordable housing in Ohio. Here's what you missed.

Keynote: The Politics of Housing — Bill Killmer, Mortgage Bankers Association

Bill Killmer opened the day with a brisk, no-nonsense tour of the Washington landscape. The headline: housing is having its moment on Capitol Hill, for better or worse. The House passed its version of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing package with nearly 400 votes in February; the Senate passed its bill with 89 votes. But a poorly-drafted investor ban provision (Section 901) threatens to chill capital flows into build-to-rent and even existing multifamily properties. The provision was rushed, inadequately defined, and has created a strange alliance between the Trump administration and Senator Elizabeth Warren. The House is pushing back and trying to fix it. Stay tuned.

On the tax side, LIHTC got its long-sought allocation increase in the One Big Beautiful Bill, but the pricing dislocation that followed has been a rude awakening. Killmer also flagged the continuing push to raise FHA multifamily statutory loan limits (unchanged since 2003), Davis-Bacon reform, and the public welfare investment cap increase from 15% to 20% as provisions worth tracking as the bill works its way toward final passage.

Politically, Killmer was blunt: he expects Republicans to lose the House majority this November, probably by as many as 20-25 seats. The math in the Senate is harder for Democrats, but Ohio's own Senate race between Sherrod Brown and Jon Husted is already tightening. Killmer's read on Democratic discipline was pointed: the party that doesn't hold the White House tends to benefit in midterms, but Democrats will need to resist the pull of their more extreme elements by nominating moderate candidates in competitive Senate races and staying focused on kitchen-table issues rather than chasing impeachment or other causes that energize the base but alienate swing voters. Whether they can do that will go a long way toward determining how big a night they have in November.

OLIHTC and Other 4% Issues — Moderated by Hal Keller, Columbus Housing Enterprise

As we head into the fourth year of the Ohio Low Income Housing Tax Credit, this panel compared notes on three years of experience to discuss what deal structures actually look like on the ground, what's working, what's not, and where the program goes from here. Practitioners from Pivotal Housing Partners, Woda Cooper, OCCH, KeyBank, and Lument were at the table.

The consensus: OLIHTC has been a genuine game-changer, enabling projects in markets and on sites that simply wouldn't have worked otherwise. Brownfields in Columbus. A senior development in underserved Sandusky. New construction in Canton where a 9% application had previously failed. Pricing has run in the high 50s to low 60 cents on the dollar driven primarily by CRA-motivated investors and direct investors like KeyBank that have Ohio state tax liability to offset.

The investor universe is still maturing. National boutique state-credit syndicators have largely stayed on the sidelines, waiting for the program to prove itself before stepping in which means there's real upside potential in pricing and competition once the program gets extended. The certification process at the Ohio Department of Taxation is the big unknown, with first-year deals just now getting through it.

The more urgent conversation: the program sunsets June 30, 2027. OHC is working on a proposal to extend it and make some improvements. More on that below.

State Legislative Update — Ryan Gleason (OHC) and Brian Hicks (Hicks Partners)

This session turned quickly into a frank political strategy briefing. Gleason laid out the statutory vs. regulatory levers for the OLIHTC extension and walked through the proposal OHC is putting together: preservation in rural areas, rural new construction enhancement, a name change, no budget ask this biennium. The goal is to get something into lame duck session this fall or at least build the foundation for the 2027 budget conversation.

Hicks then gave a clear-eyed read of the landscape. The legislature isn't doing much between now and the primary. After that, there are roughly five weeks before they go home for the summer and don't come back until after the election. Lame duck is the real window. The governor's race is a dead heat between Vivek Ramaswamy and Amy Acton. The U.S. Senate race is tight with Husted up about three points on Sherrod Brown in the latest polls, but with $79 million already committed on the Republican side and a half-billion expected in total.

The wild card: a ballot initiative to eliminate property taxes in Ohio is circulating. If it qualifies and passes, the fiscal fallout would dwarf every other issue in the state. It would be chaos for the next governor's first term and any tax credit program would face intense scrutiny. 

The best thing you can do between now and November: invite legislators to your groundbreakings and ribbon-cuttings, support the Citizens for Affordable Housing PAC, and help build the coalition of champions who will stand up in private caucus meetings when someone talks about cutting the program.

HUD/Federal Assistance Challenges — Moderated by Ellen Kirtner-LaFleur, Lument

Scott Ammarell of CMHA walked through the mechanics of the Housing Choice Voucher program and the subsidy shortfall dynamics that, when they occur, force housing authorities to stop issuing vouchers with direct consequences for Project-Based Voucher commitments and the deals that depend on them.

Ryan Cassell of Community Housing Network made the human and financial case for Permanent Supportive Housing. The Columbus/Franklin County CoC needs to increase its PSH inventory by 12% over the next five years to meet documented demand. The research supports the model: a 2021 study estimated a benefit-to-cost ratio of 1.80:1 for PSH serving chronically homeless individuals.

COHHIO's Erica Mulryan provided an overview of the Continuum of Care program, the largest federal funding stream for homeless response, providing approximately $4 billion annually nationwide and nearly $180 million to Ohio CoCs. The program has historically prioritized permanent housing and evidence-based approaches. The current administration has signaled a shift in those priorities, with a July 2025 executive order focused on ending street disorder, an FY2025 funding competition that was challenged in federal court and ultimately blocked from moving forward, and an anticipated FY2026 competition expected to place greater emphasis on time-limited assistance and service participation requirements. Those policy changes—and what they mean for how Ohio's homeless response systems are structured and funded—are something the industry will be watching closely over the next 12-18 months.

Portfolio and Market Forces — Moderated by Sam Merkle, OCCH

Three perspectives on what's actually happening to affordable housing portfolios right now, and the news is mixed.

Sam Merkle presented data from 462 properties across six states, looking at five-year trends from 2021 to 2025. The big number: operating expenses per unit rose 35.7% over the period, against a proforma projection of 12.6%. Property insurance was up 84.3%. Maintenance up 50.4%. Bad debt up 93.9%. Rent growth has been strong—up 24.2% over the same period—but expenses are still winning the race. Sixty percent of properties saw occupancy decline over the five-year window.

There was one genuine bright spot in the expense story: real estate taxes increased just 1.0% against that same 12.6% projection, a result Merkle attributed to the industry's broad engagement on property tax valuation challenges and OHC’s advocacy work.

Kelly Gorman of Novogradac provided the market-level context. Vacancy rates in Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Columbus are all up. For LIHTC properties specifically, the operating expense ratio hit 61.8% in 2024, up from 53.8% in 2016. Insurance is the most volatile line item — Novogradac's data showed a median of $286 per unit in 2016 rising to $821 in 2024, marking the sixth consecutive year of double-digit increases. The 2026 income limit release (expected May 1) is projected to average about a 4% increase, with 17% of areas seeing a decrease — a higher share than in past years.

Stacy Bowser of Lument brought it down to earth with asset management perspective. Staffing is the single biggest performance driver. When a property starts to slide, staffing is almost always the first domino. She walked through practical strategies: plan for onboarding gaps, compete on culture not just pay, cross-train relentlessly. On insurance, she gave a real example: a property where annual premiums went from $32,000 in 2019 to $186,000 in 2025 — nearly 600% — because of a single outdated system that no carrier wanted to touch. Fix the root cause, and competition returns. On lease-up: stop assuming market-rate units are the problem. In mixed-income properties, qualification delays on the affordable side are often what slow things down.

OHFA Update — Presented by the Office of Multifamily Housing

The OHFA team gave the most forward-looking presentation of the day. The 9% round received 62 proposal applications with strong geographic distribution; awards will be announced at the May board meeting. The 4% only/AAL cycle is open through October. And OHFA is actively developing a toolbox that may include additional credit policies or a term loan product to help 2024-2025 award recipients who are experiencing funding gaps.

The headline from OHFA: a complete overhaul of the Design and Architectural Standards (DAS) is underway. New Architecture and Construction Section Chief Jenni Cahill walked through the four pillars of the philosophy behind the 2027 DAS: affordability, durability, quality of life, and accessibility. The goal is to write standards that function like bowling bumpers, not barriers. Good developers shouldn't even notice them. The first draft drops in May with a 45-day public comment period; final board approval is targeted for September; expected to go into effect January 1, 2027.

For OLIHTC, the SFY 2027 round has proposal applications due June 8. Bond Gap Financing guidelines are in development with a first draft expected summer 2026. And OHFA is keeping a close eye on volume cap: at current deal pace, the state could approach constrained territory in 2028, and they're already having conversations about recycling options so nobody gets caught flat-footed.

The agenda and all available presentations can be found on our 2026 Spring Symposium page.