HUNTINGTON, W.Va. –The City of Huntington is ready to start tackling the issue of housing which has created a huge problem for the city.
The city recently conducted a Housing Needs Assessment, and they found that they are short roughly 1,000 rental units and 1,800 for-sale-homes. That has created a 2,800 gap that they can’t accommodate for even before factoring in Marshall and the need for more student housing.
Huntington Mayor Patrick Farrell was recently on MetroNews Midday to talk about the housing needs issue.
He said that this is becoming such a problem it is holding the city back and that this will be one of his main focuses moving forward.
“Without housing employers can’t expand, families can’t build equity, students don’t stick around after graduation and neighbors fall further behind and so we know that even after we do all the things that we need to do with public safety and infrastructure, that if we don’t build housing the city’s not going to grow and so it’s going to be a focus for us,” Farrell said.
He said that the main housing they need is affordable housing, student housing, single family homes, and rental housing.
Farrell said that if they could replace the boarded up and dilapidated houses that are in neighborhoods, it will improve the communities and city as a whole.
“It brings new life to every neighborhood and so we think that investing in neighborhoods is the right thing to do,” he said. “That it will make everybody’s property value go up, it will increase the population which will increase the tax base which will then give us even more ability to do the things we want which is build infrastructure and make it a great place for people to live and work.”
The study also found that roughly 24,000 people who work in Huntington commute to work: with 10% of those commuters driving more than 50 miles each way. And it was found that 22% of those who commute said that they were interested in moving closer to work.
He said that if they could capture at least 10% of that population then they would see a growth in the city.
Farrell mentioned that there are going to be many collaborators coming together to help tackling the housing issue easier, with Marshall University being the main one.
“Find ways to put our assets all in together to find a way to unlock some of the potential,” he said. “We have a land bank, we’ve got some abandoned homes, and we know we’ve got investors, so let’s try to bring all those things together where we can some of the investors to buy up some of these homes or take over some of these blighted properties and turn them into a productive asset for the city.”
In conjunction with the housing issue, Farrell has also been working on tackling the homeless issue. He announced a little over two months ago that the city was making a new overnight shelter, however that has quickly expanded into offering a lot more for those who need it.
The Huntington Homeless Services Hub is expected to offer mental health counseling, substance abuse treatment and long-term help in trying to find housing.
He says that it is on the right track to be opened hopefully before winter.
“It’s going great, again it’s about the collaboration, it’s about the partners we have at the table that are really going to make this thing work,” Farrell said.
He also mentioned that the support for both the shelter and the housing issue plan has been positive.
“It’s been very enthusiastic at this point, and I expect it to continue to grow as more and more people hear about it, they’re going to want to participate,” he said.