Updated: 9:25 a.m.Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2016 | Posted: 5:29 p.m. Monday, Jan. 25, 2016

Many Ohioans struggling financially

By Randy Tucker

Staff Writer

Ohio continues to ranknear the bottom among all states for the financial security of its residents,according to a report released Monday by the Corporation for EnterpriseDevelopment, or CFED.

Whilethe state has shown improvement in job creation and public policy supportingworking families, Ohio ranked No. 36 — downfrom No. 35 last year — out of the 50 states and District of Columbia on CFED’s 2016 Assets& Opportunity Scorecard.

CFED,a non-profit dedicated to helping low and moderate-income families buildwealth, ranked the states based on an analyses of such data as householdincome, poverty rates and homeownership. And for the first time this year, thereport looked at racial disparities across a number of the more than 60measures used in the rankings.

Forexample, researchers found that while about 65 percent of Ohio households are homeowner households —slightly higher than the national average of 63 percent — the homeownershiprate for whites in the state is 1.8 times that of the state’s black andHispanic residents. In addition, the richest 20 percent of Ohioans are 2.6times more likely to be homeowners than the poorest 20 percent.

That’sbelow the national rates, which show whites are 1.6 times more likely to behomeowners, and the wealthiest 20 percent are 2.2 times more likely to own ahome than minority families, according to CFED.

“We’vemade progress in certain areas…but some of the more troubling statistics arethe racial disparity in homeownership, under-employment and the banked and unbanked,”said David Rothstein, a spokesman for Neighborhood Housing Services of GreaterCleveland, which co-released the scorecard with CFED.

Highunemployment, stagnant wages and limited access to capital continue to holdback a large, mostly minority, segment of Ohio’s workforce, according to Rothstein.

Butthe state could take some basic steps to help reverse the trend, includingestablishing a broader, more inclusive down-payment assistance program to helppoor families achieve homeownership, and improving access to fair and safemortgage products, he said.

“Iseverybody meant and ready to be a homeowner? No. But it’s still the No. 1 waypeople build and pass down assets in this country,” Rothstein said. “Having astate housing policy is a crucial step, but, right now, we don’t even have a astate down payment assistance fund. So there’s a lot we can do.”