City of Champaign Candidates on Affordable Housing

This question was created by journalists and community members during the Democracy in CU: Let’s talk solutions to community violence event on March 14th.

How do you plan to incentivize construction of quality affordable housing city-wide?

MAYOR

Deborah Feinen:

We are working in conjunction with the Housing Authority on affordable housing. I am open to looking to see if we can use some of our bond cap in more impactful ways to achieve city wide affordable housing. Our current annual action plan can be found here: http://documents.ci.champaign.il.us/v/1-6WaGeEd45vpln-27FJYv2ZUI8f5n7w8

A new Consolidated Plan will need to be done very soon as the Consolidated Plan expires in 2020.

CITY COUNCIL

Tom Bruno:

Our Bristol Place development is a great example of City action I supported to remove blighted housing and replace it with new, safe, high quality affordable housing.

Andrew James Christensen:

In a lot of cases, new construction may not be as valuable in providing affordable housing as rejuvenating the available housing stock in town. New construction drives up the cost of renting and leaves older buildings vacant and unmaintained. According to a federal housing analysis, the city has been building beyond its means for years - Champaign’s rental vacancy rate is almost double the national average, and this directly harms rental property owners and renters as it deflates the local economy. The quantity of new residential buildings and the apartment unit density of those buildings needs to be reined in.

All new construction should be held to inclusionary mixed-income zoning rules which can help reduce wage-based segregation in the city and increase the availability of affordable housing everywhere. There also need to be requirements about materials and type of construction to ensure that the structures we are adding to our skyline are meant to last and don’t quickly degrade into liabilities for the taxpayers.

Matthew Gladney:

I would be open to utilizing some of the incentive methods the city has used for higher-priced housing development, in order to attract more quality affordable housing development.

William Kyles:

I would like to take a second to advertise programs that we already existent that would help maintain or increase upkeep already existent programs such as the Section 108 loan program, IDHA abandoned home program, and other home improvement programs that would help maintain and increase our affordable housing stock.

I would like to leverage programs such as the Enterprise Zone program, the Section 108 loan program, and partnerships with local agencies such as local banks, the Housing Authority and Habitat for Humanity to attracts developers that are in the affordable housing development market.

Developments such as Bristol Place and the Taylor Thomas Subdivision are examples of how these partnerships and programs can be utilized to increase affordable housing throughout our community.

Pattsi Petrie:

First step is to work closely with the Housing Authority of Champaign County. That board has members representing Champaign, Urbana, and the county. Second, the identify national/local companies who build/develop affordable housing. Across the county, there are many exciting project from a Planned United Development for tiny houses, to 3-D printed houses at a cost of $5000 each, to repurposing rail cargo container cars for housing or other projects, to repurposing existing building, etc. In other words, there are a significant number of models for constructing quality low cost housing at a low cost. Finally, pursue any available federal and state grants.

Jon Paul Youakim:  

I would want to ensure that new developments and neighborhoods are not all wealthier housing such as Ironwood or Cherry Hills. There needs to be a healthy mix of housing affordability in each neighborhood. This will create a neighborhood and a community that is more resilient to economic downturns. When maintaining and redeveloping older neighborhoods we should make certain that the zoning encourages affordable housing. I would also want open communication between city inspectors and the council to determine if we are allocating the appropriate resources to housing inspections to ensure quality housing.

NOTE: We reached out to Azark Cobbs, Kenton Elmore and Michael LaDue and received no or incomplete responses.