05-03-17 Community Relations - Laserfiche WebLink

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Jesse Davis, P.O. Box 10205, stated, I'm all for housing. I'm all for housing the average worker and the lower-class people, but these price ranges are certainly not going to cater to those people. I've talked to numerous people that have gone through extremely extensive application processes to get into some of the co-op affordable homes. I've done a lot of work in the houses over by the YWCA. The problem is that these homes may be bought for$165,000, but they will only market for$75,000. It's not going to do us a bit of good to put those kinds of homes in neighborhoods that the average home on market is $50,000 or$55,000. There are a lot of questions that go unanswered in the City. For one (1), the Heritage Foundation had three (3) homes that$500,000 of tax money went into. I asked questions about where that money came from and I got different answers. Economic development should mean to maintain and grow the tax base. We don't do that. We give out free tax dollars like candy. I just don't get it, it is not fiscally responsible. It seems to me that the City is catering to the people that can't afford the $300,000 homes and condos. Councilmember Oliver Davis arrived at the meeting at 7:23 p.m. Committee Chair Williams-Preston, stated, This is my passion. Development is coming to the west side. My focus is to make sure people on the west side benefit and participate in and from the development. This is not the only answer but this is one (1)piece that is missing that no one is talking about for those folks in the middle. If we don't come together and do something, we will all be gone. Development is coming. If we are not intentional in our efforts, gentrification will continue to happen. There is a five (5) step plan to acquire and consolidate parcels. This is a conversation to make sure we can do this. There will be new houses and we are trying to give people the opportunity to invest in their own neighborhood. This particular project is not the whole thing. There's been a lack of investment for so long that once it comes up, many people start asking a lot of questions. That is what this conversation is about. We need minority contractors on these projects. That's why we are having this conversation. We can't just do rehab. We can't just do community gardens. We can't just do building. We have to be strategic. We need to build around schools. We will have more conversation. This is the very beginning. We need ideas and we will talk to the administration. We are asking for$6 million that will help one-hundred (100) families. We also voted to give $5 million to one (1) investor that is building luxury apartments that none of us can afford. There are a lot of resources out there, but some folks don't know about them. It's not about one (1)program fixing the problem, it is about layering the resources. It's not one (1) or the other, the investment has to come from many different forms. Ms. Mannix stated, I care very much about affordable housing. Mutual Homes has twenty-four (24) families living in it with eighty-two (82) families on the waiting-list. I know there is great need for affordable housing. I also think there's owner-occupied rehab needed and we need to get all the programs together. The average monthly payment for these houses would be around six-hundred and fifty-six dollars ($656) which is honestly cheaper than what most people pay in rent. Also,people won't be paying more than the appraised value of the home, so there should be no worry of getting under water. 7