(Video) Port Shorts: The Homesteading & Urban Redevelopment Corporation (HURC)
Housing affordability is a national challenge, and far from a simple one to address. In Cincinnati and Hamilton County, the need for affordable housing stock is enormous.
Nearly 49,000 households in Hamilton County are severely cost burdened, paying more than 50% of their income toward housing costs.
The Port and its managed entities, the Hamilton County Landbank and the Homesteading and Urban Redevelopment Corporation, or HURC, is working to address this enormous challenge in a number of ways. Including expanding quality, move-in ready housing stock.
The HURC provides worry-free housing to residents throughout Hamilton County. It's important for us to provide safe housing so that they are not cost burdened, they have a house that they can affordably live in and not have to worry about fixing repairs or having issues with the roof leaking or the furnace going out. - Deborah Robb, Director of the HURC and Residential Sales, The Port
Since 2015, HURC has rehabbed and sold 30 homes throughout Cincinnati and Hamilton County and plans to complete another 12 homes in 2021. HURC has achieved this success through its dedication to improving the quality of housing stock and increasing affordable homeownership; providing a quality product with minimal overhead.
"We were looking at houses that were like fixer-uppers that we're like, 'okay, we'll have to do this and this and this and that, and that could take who knows how long.' We've never done it before, so the fact that it's just ready to go, and it's pretty, and it's just a beautiful clean slate to make our own." - Carlos Alvarado and Sharon Ford
"Everything is brand new. You can't go wrong. We literally couldn't have asked for anything better. The neighborhood is awesome, Evanston, Walnut Hills - almost like a dream come true."
Particular care is taken on all HURC homes to ensure quality is not sacrificed, even on a tight budget, and most homes feature new appliances, systems, and roofs to ensure buyers are not encumbered with large unexpected expenses in their first few years of homeownership. This year, HURC will break ground on its first new construction homes in the Village of Lincoln Heights and plans to expand into a number of new communities including Mount Healthy and the Village of Silverton.
HURC's work complements The Port and Hamilton County Landbank's REACH program, which rehabs and builds market-rate and affordable single-family homes. Together, HURC and REACH are boosting housing across a range of price points, critical to preserving existing affordable housing.
Meanwhile, each new and rehabbed home creates housing stability and economic opportunity by helping to build generational wealth for more Hamilton County families.