Ten Ohio community banks have combined their capital into a single lending platform aimed at financing affordable and workforce housing developments across the state, a move meant to fill a persistent gap in long-term project financing. The new effort, called the Ohio Lending Partnership, is designed to handle smaller loans that have historically struggled to find a home in traditional capital markets.
The partnership was created by OCFC and Ohio Bankers League Bankservices, according to Affordable Housing Finance. OCFC serves as the lending affiliate of OCCH, a nonprofit low-income housing tax credit syndicator, and the organization has offered various forms of affordable-housing financing since it was formed in 2002, according to Ohio Capital Corporation for Housing. OCFC is also a certified Community Development Financial Institution and a member of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Cincinnati, per the same organization.
Figures on the size of the new platform vary slightly depending on the source. Affordable Housing Finance reported the Ohio Lending Partnership has capital of $24.2 million, while Columbus Business First described it as pulling bank capital into a $24 million funding platform.
Fixed-Rate Loans Meant to Simplify Complex Deals
The partnership will provide fixed-rate permanent first mortgage loans for qualifying developments, including smaller loans that can be difficult to place in the traditional market, the report notes. OCFC will manage loan origination, underwriting, closing, servicing, and asset management for the fund, and it has also contributed capital to it.
The platform is intended to simplify deal structures and reduce the need for developers to coordinate separate loans from multiple institutions, the article states. Organizers say the partnership aims to help housing developments move forward more efficiently and will serve housing developments statewide.
“Ohio’s housing challenges require innovative partnerships and creative capital solutions,” said Jonathan Welty, president of OCFC, per the report. Michael Adelman, president and CEO of the Ohio Bankers League, added that the partnership offers Ohio banks “a practical, scalable way to help address affordable and workforce housing needs.”
Ten Banks, One Statewide Platform
The participating institutions are CFBank, Erebor Bank, Buckeye Community Bank, First Federal of Lakewood, Galion Building and Loan Bank, LCNB National Bank, First State Bank, Belmont Savings Bank, Park National Bank, and Hocking Valley Bank, the article states. The lineup spans small and mid-sized community lenders from different corners of the state, reflecting the partnership’s statewide reach.
A Deepening Shortage of Affordable Rentals
The new financing platform arrives against a backdrop of worsening rental affordability across Ohio. The state had more than 706,000 renters earning no more than 50% of area median income in 2023, but only about 503,000 affordable and available rental homes for them, a shortage of more than 202,000 units, according to the Ohio Housing Needs Assessment. The same assessment found Ohio lost more than 62,000 affordable rental units for very low-income renters between 2019 and 2023.
By 2023, more than 397,000 Ohio renters, or 26%, were spending at least half their incomes on housing, up from a record low of 23% in 2019, the Ohio Housing Needs Assessment found. The state’s median rent for a two-bedroom apartment also climbed 22% after inflation adjustment between December 2019 and December 2024, rising from $963 to $1,174 per month.
More recent figures paint an even starker picture. The 2026 Gap Report from the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio found that 45% of Ohio’s 1.58 million renters are paying more than they can afford on rent. Among the state’s extremely low-income households, 73% now spend over half their income on rent, up from 66% five years earlier, and Ohio has only 37 affordable units available for every 100 extremely low-income households statewide, the coalition reported.
The shortfall is particularly acute in Ohio’s largest cities. The 2026 Gap Report identified affordable-unit deficits of nearly 55,000 in Cincinnati, 54,000 in Cleveland, and 53,000 in Columbus, underscoring the scale of the gap that financing tools like the Ohio Lending Partnership are meant to help narrow.
