Seriously, after years of study, this is what they have come up with? I’ve been biting my tongue on this one for a while, waiting and waiting and waiting for something better, but with no money and a stern warning not to ask for any from the Mayor, I guess there isn’t much more to come up with.
Anyways, here’s the plan draft outline. I’m not sure it will ever get finished. The Mayor had asked them to be done by July 1, 2009, but they never met until July 19th, 2009. At one point they wanted it done by May 1, 2009. Here’s some more of the committee’s sordid history, filled with delays.
Anyways, a year and a half after the plan was to have been done, we have a draft outline that doesn’t resemble what I heard the committee talk about, and we aren’t much further than where we started:
At its first meeting in July 2009, Mayor Cîeslewícz outlined six (6) aspects of “Housing Diversity P1anníng” that the Committee should explore.
l. Where We’ve Been & Where We Are (Working title on brief history of what started IZ, and where We are now in terms of housing market-both rental and owner-in Madison).
2. Explore ways to meet worthy goals of more affordable housing and greater dispersion in the community. 3. Housing policy is intimately related to school policy. The Committee should take into account how it will create stronger public schools.
4. Low-income housing must be a regional responsibility.
5. Proposals or recommendations that expend new City tax dollars will not be viable. The Committee should Work Within existing City resources.
6. Home ownership is not necessarily good for everyone. Strategies should be appropriate to income level.
a. Tbd
b. Tbd
7. Implementation
I have no idea what the TBD is or why the outline says 6 items and they list 7. Here’s what little more there is . . . .
As a means to organize the Committee’s thinking this report is broken down into the categories itemized in the Mayors letter to the Committee.
1. Explore ways to meet Worthy goals of more affordable housing and greater dispersion in the community.
a. Fair Share Housing Resolution
b. Section 8 Policies
c. Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Program (WHEDA)
d. Financing & Subsidy
e. Approval Process2. Housing policy is intimately related to school policy. The Committee should take into account how it will create stronger public schools.
a. School District Boundaries – especially elementary schools
b. Provide for housing covenants within the district
c. Look to build sustainable communities as a neighborhood lead
i. Number of elements to creating sustainable communities
ii. Fine- grained approach to new housing
1. Service delivery
2. Employment
3. Safety
4. Land Use
5. “Commonweal”3. Low-income housing must be a regional responsibility.
a. How to accomplish in a system of local control
i. Regional Land Use Policies
ii. Regional Tax Base Sharing
iii. Regional Affordable Housing Development
iv. Regional Government Structure4. Proposals or recommendations that expend new City tax dollars will not be viable. The Committee should work within existing City resources.
a. Planning
b. Housing Fund Coordination
i. Maintaining levels of investment
ii. Leveraging public/private sources
iii. Planning for implementation5 Home ownership is not necessarily good for everyone. Strategies should be appropriate to income level.
Seriously, is this some kind of a joke? The Housing Committee never meets because the Mayor has appointed a bunch of people who don’t make it a priority to get quorum, and this is as far as the Housing Diversity Committee has gotten. 8 years ago, when the Mayor was running for the first time, he promised to do something about affordable housing. It’s almost 8 years later. What do we have? What’s different? What has changed with this administration? They have all but killed the Affordable Housing Trust Fund. During the budget they killed what was left of Inclusionary Zoning, including basically tossing out nearly 40 affordable housing units. I can hardly wait to see what is next! Do you think this mayor’s race will focus at all on issues like this? If we just focus on jobs, what will that get us if we don’t have affordable housing for people to live in?
Um, I think you need to talk to your webmaster, there isn’t much on this page. Perhaps something became lost or deleted?
Surely this is not the total culmination of years’ worth of effort, right? Maybe it’s a late April Fools joke? I mean, a highly skilled and competent group of individuals entrusted with planning for our city’s future couldn’t have spent so much time doing absolutely nothing. Tell us that isn’t so.
Well, you’ll have to excuse me now, I’m just go along on my merry way confident that our city is in good hands. After all, that’s what we’re paying for, right?