investing – Whoopsie Piggle

The current housing shortage in the United States has been most devastating for those who need affordable rental housing. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, no state currently has an adequate supply of affordable housing for the lowest-income renters. In Ohio, only 37 affordable rental units exist for every 100 extremely low-income households.

In an attempt to address the lack of affordable housing in Akron, Freedom BLOC, a local community organization, led a successful petition drive to place two issues on the Nov. 3 ballot. If passed, they would amend Akron’s city charter — but the unintended consequences of the measures would create new problems and erase most benefits.

Issue 11 would “require property owners or operators to permit security deposits for residential rentals to be paid over three or six month periods,” and also criminalize “the collection of an application fee for residential rentals.” These provisions would apply to all landlords, from large rental companies to individual landlords who own few properties.

I own two side-by-side homes in Akron’s West Hill neighborhood. I live in one and rent out the other, which is my primary income source. Like many of my tenants, I live below the federal poverty level and understand how difficult it can be to come up with the first month’s rent and security deposit at lease signing. I support Issue 11’s first provision.

But I will vote no for Issue 11 because of its second provision.

When my rental turns over, I list it on zillow.com. Interested parties apply on the website, which runs secure credit and background checks and sends them to me. Zillow’s $35 application fee is only a few dollars more than the cost of running the checks. It is a seamless and ideal service for a landlord with limited means.

If Issue 11 passes, however, I will have to pay for every prospective tenant’s background and credit checks. My house is leased to four unrelated roommates; their applications would have cost me $140. Furthermore, not everyone who applies ends up renting, which means each rental turn-over could cost me hundreds of dollars.

As forgoing background and credit checks would be reckless, landlords like me will need to increase rent to offset this expense.

Issue 11’s goal is to lower renters’ costs, but it will have the opposite effect.

Issue 12 would add a protected class to whom landlords cannot refuse to rent: people with a criminal history, except for sexual or arson offenders. It also would prohibit refusing to rent to someone based on “income as it relates to real estate transactions,” which is vague, but significant.

I am not opposed to renting to someone with a criminal history, but excluding only arsonists and sex offenders is too narrow. Forcing landlords to rent to those with a criminal history of domestic violence and drug trafficking, for example, will put families and neighborhoods at risk, and potentially lead landlords to sell their rental properties. It will not solve the re-entry problem Issue 12 seeks to remedy.

As for the vague language forbidding source-of-income discrimination, Freedom BLOC’s ballot literature asserts this to mean a “landlord could not turn away a tenant solely for paying rent with a housing voucher.” But the amendment language does not say that. And Akron Metropolitan Housing Authority, not the landlord, sets the rental price for properties leased to someone with a voucher.

When asked by the Beacon Journal for clarification, a community organizer who helped craft the ballot initiative said Akron already has a requirement that a person cannot be denied housing based on where they receive their rent income.

However, the ambiguity of the ballot language and campaign literature raises serious concerns.

In 2025, AMHA determined I could charge $1,152 a month if I accepted a voucher. That’s less than I charged 15 years ago. My monthly mortgage payment was $952, which would have left me $200 each month, or $2,400 a year. Subtract from that the cost for repairs and maintenance, and I would have lost money renting to someone with a voucher had I not paid off my mortgage the year before. Even without a mortgage, I pay over $5,000 a year in taxes and insurance (both of which have skyrocketed since 2020), plus the cost of maintenance and repairs. Accepting vouchers is not feasible in my case.

Laws forcing private-sector landlords to provide public housing are not sustainable. For public housing to be sustainable, it must be fully funded by governments with buy-in strictly from landlords who choose to participate.

Issues 11 and 12 call attention to the very real affordable housing crisis, but the devil is in the details. As written, these well-intended but flawed amendments will exacerbate existing problems, and create new ones.

The issues should not pass. But immediately after Election Day, the mayor’s office, Freedom BLOC and other interested organizations, such as Unify Akron must begin the work on comprehensive housing reform in Akron. Good legislation requires engaging with other stakeholder organizations and should include hearings from interested parties, in this case both tenants and landlords. This takes time, but will lead to better legislation.

This column was first published in the Akron Beacon Journal on Sunday, October 11, 2026.

For 10 years, I rented out the 1909 Arts and Crafts home I own. When the last tenants moved out in 2022, I decided to renovate the house and live in it once again. But those plans came to a crashing halt last summer just when the renovations were at the torn-apart stage.

This past winter, a contractor I’ve known since he was a boy put the house back together, and it looks better than ever.

Rather than rent out the house longterm as I had before, I decided to make it an AirBnB because I believed that would generate more income and cause less wear and tear. Also, it would provide a place for my children to stay when they come to visit. While my contractor worked on the house, I researched how to set up and run a short-term rental.

Not surprisingly, tasteful and comfortable furnishings were cited as important for attracting new and repeat guests. The renovations gave me time to shop for the right items at the best prices. I bought a set of Arts and Crafts-like dishes at the American Cancer Society Discovery Shop on West Market, where complete sets for little money are always available. I also purchased utensils, pots and pans, glasses and other kitchen items from a variety of stores.

Wirecutter, the New York Times’s product review section, recommended a Novilla memory foam mattress as the best affordable option, and also offered $100 coupon off each mattress purchased for a limited time. I bought two with frames for $580 plus tax.

When renovations were far enough along to begin setting up the AirBnB, I contacted Shane Wynn, whom many consider Akron’s photographer because she’s often hired to document important public and private events. Her photography has received both art and journalism awards, but she also owns and manages several AirBnBs with a group of partners.

I gave Shane, whom I’ve known over 20 years, a tour of my rental house. She underscored many of the tips I’d learned online, such as: Install noise reporting machines, the knowledge of which keeps guests quiet; require a two-day minimum stay to reduce troublesome guests; use a cleaning crew and give them the full cleaning fee.

Shane shared with me the places she acquires all things needed for AirBnBs at great prices and offered to help in any way I might need. I asked how much income she thought my house could generate as a short-term rental. Just three years ago, when there were fewer AirBnBs in Akron, it might have grossed twice as much annually as it can when rented longterm. But today, Shane believes it would earn the equivalent of a longterm lease.

“So from where the house is right now, what do I need to do to have it ready for my first AirBnB guest?” I asked. Shane’s response floored and freed me.

“About $15,000 to $20,000 in furnishings and three months of working everyday.” I have neither that money nor that time and knew instantly I’d rent it longterm yet again. The thought that I could immediately stop spending money and pivot to renting the house left me giddily relieved. Her next statement just left me giddy.

“Some of us are going dancing at Jilly’s tonight, do you want to join us?”

Did I ever. Since then Shane and I, along with other friends, have repeatedly gone dancing, taken discounted introductory exercise classes (pole dancing is a killer workout and a blast!) and gotten together for dinners and movies — all of which have gone a long way in lifting me out of a hard spell in my life.

Final repairs on the house were quickly completed and I could have rented it by mid-March, or April at the latest. Instead, I kept mulling over what else needed done. And then I realized it was my heart holding up the transition. The home I call Dreisbach House is filled with the memories of raising my three eldest children there, but it also contains the now dispatched dreams, nurtured for three years, of moving back into the home with someone I’d loved for over four decades.

Dreisbach house newly remodeled and ready for tenants.

I slapped on my metaphoric big-girl britches and cleared everything out of the house (an unoccupied house is a storage magnet) and then hired a Shane-recommended cleaning crew. They spent 10 hours removing all evidence, including a lot of dust, of a multi-year remodeling project. The following day I listed it as a rental on Zillow and had a signed lease five days later.

I’ve long extolled how friendly Akronites are. But it recently occurred to me that there’s an added layer to the widespread largesse. Until settling in Akron in 2003, I moved almost every year or two of my life. Planting deep roots in Akron has allowed me to develop countless relationships. Some have changed, both growing or receding, throughout life’s seasons, but over time, my bench of friends in this community has become luxuriously deep.

As for my AirBnB purchases, I hope my adult children each want a queen-sized bed for their upcoming birthdays.

This first appeared in the Akron Beacon Journal on Sunday, May 25, 2025.