CITY COUNCIL CANDIDATE RESPONSE to AWIH Survey Tina Cannon - DISTRICT 10 Q1: What are your proposals for providing more affordable housing in the city? What are your proposals for providing more affordable housing in your district? According to the Housing Market Study commissioned by the City of Austin e are short approx 40k affordable homes in Austin. I support a comprehensive economic analysis, including both supply and demand factors, essentially creating an economic business plan to address our communitys affordable housing needs. In fact, I would go a step further and be certain that the analysis included comparative modeling from similar cities and the results of a variety of programs both from a supply/demand view but also from the impact of home values, property tax impact and true affordability as measured against logical indexes. Q2: Over half of the city population lives in rental housing. What will you do to ensure landlords are accountable for the safety and habitability of their property? Where the property has been declared unsafe or uninhabitable, what action should the city take to ensure the property is safe and habitable? Close loopholes that allow for owners of multiple properties to be identified and held to account. Meaning property owner Bob Smith has a violation at one property, then a separate then another. I would want to see a consolidated report of violations by the same property owner/management company. We need to increase staffing at Code Compliance. Q3: What ways for funding affordable housing should the city be promoting? (include examples such as use of publicly owned land, funding incentives, city budget, etc) Yes, publically owned land, rezoning for SF-1 SF-2. Using the Code Next process to include affordable housing. There are sensible solutions when we bring people together to explore options and innovations. Density does not equal affordability; mirco lofts fail to address family use. (1)Reform our broken property tax system that is unfair to homeowners. (2)Homestead exemption. (3)Open the door to single-family development, expand secondary dwelling and removing code obstacles (4)Affordability should not be geo-specific. (5)Increase single family inventory Q4: The housing needs of people with disabilities are sometimes overlooked in housing plans. How will you ensure affordable housing options for people with disabilities? Work with ADAPT and ensure their voices are heard in the process. Q5: Should developers ever be permitted to apply for exceptions from affordable housing development requirements? Please explain. Each circumstance would need to be understood before I give a blanket yes/no. There may be extenuating circumstances that if a benefit to affordable housing I would consider. I support the requirement for the developer to include actual affordable units. I want to broaden the definition of affordable to accommodate actual family use. I do not favor the loophole that allows developers to pay their way out of providing housing throughout the city. This only further segregates low and moderate income resources to geo-specific areas of town. Q6: What are your thoughts about promoting rehabilitation of homes for owner occupants and the types of funding available for this activity? What are your thoughts on rehabilitation of rental homes (including large and small apartment complexes, duplexes, four-plexes, and single family housing)? Fully support measures that provide for affordable living for my fellow Austinites. Q7: In your view, what are the best options for Austins homeless persons and families? Partnerships with churches, non-profits and advocate groups working with the City to find comprehensive solutions. Q8: Affordability includes not just rent or mortgage payments, but also our utilities. How do you propose the city keep water and electricity affordable for low-income consumers? I have openly called for a complete operational and financial audit of our Austin Water Utility and would extend that to AE as well. I support the Citys ownership of the utilities and will use my finance and audit skills to push for accountability, to push for financial responsibility, and push for strong renewable investments. Q9: What are your ideas for achieving greater geographic dispersion of affordable housing? As I mentioned earlier, I do not favor the loophole that allows developers to pay their way out of providing housing throughout the city. This only further segregates low and moderate income resources to geo-specific areas of town. Q10: Would you support an affordable housing project being built within a few blocks of your house? Why or why not? Yes, as a child that grew up in affordable housing, our city had a voucher program that basically allowed my single mother and I to choose different areas of town to live. Being able to see how I wanted to live in the future, to see how education and employment was a way out of poverty, helped propel me to do more, to be more to push myself harder toward what I could physically see as an achievable goal.
Posted on: Thu, 25 Sep 2014 13:58:28 +0000
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