Dec. 5, 2023

COHHIO Advocacy Director Gina Wilt urged members of the Senate Financial Institutions & Technology Committee to amend legislation on recording fees to maintain the historic 50%-50% revenue split between counties and the Ohio Housing Trust Fund (OHTF). In its current form, Senate Bill 94 would “modernize” recording fees to generate additional revenue for county recorders’ offices without any correlating increase for the OHTF, the state’s primary source of funding for local homelessness and housing programs.

“As rents have skyrocketed in recent years, evictions have returned to pre-pandemic levels, and homelessness is on the rise, the OHTF has never been more critical than now. And this bill has the potential to deliver more critical resources to homelessness and housing programs in your communities. That’s why we’re asking this committee to amend Senate Bill 94 to maintain the historic 50-50 distribution of fee revenue between the counties and the OHTF,” Wilt told the committee.

“The OHTF helps address many of the housing challenges you hear from your constituents every day – families who can’t find an affordable place to live, seniors who can’t afford to maintain their homes, tenants who are facing eviction, and people who are struggling to escape homelessness. While the OHTF already provides critical funding to address these problems, the scale of today’s housing needs simply dwarfs the resources that are currently available. Ensuring the OHTF benefits equally from this proposed fee modernization legislation would give the state more ammunition to address housing insecurity in your district.”