General Questions
1. Do you believe there is an affordable housing crisis in our community? If not, what is your position regarding the need for affordable housing in Madison?
While Madison enjoys a higher quality of housing and relatively better level of affordability than many American cities, I believe there is a need for more affordable housing. It is also important to support City and Private sector housing programs and take continuing actions to:
a) Maintain and improve the quality of our current housing stock, including accessibility, energy conservation, and preservation of neighborhoods.
b) Increase the opportunities for Madison’s workforce to find and purchase homes within our community;
c) Continue to help those who are currently unable to maintain stable housing find and maintain longer term housing.
d) Plan and assist in the development of new housing that contributes to better neighborhoods, more efficient transportation, and quality of life.
If we do not continue to maintain and improve our housing programs we could face a crisis in the long run similar to other communities.
2. How much, and what type of affordable housing is in your district? Do you think there should be more or less than the available supply in your district? [Mayoral candidates, please answer in regard to the entire city.]
More affordable housing is needed both for workers such as teachers, firefighters and nurses as well as low-income residents. Part of the role of the City and my role as Mayor is to guide the development of new housing and work with developers, community groups, businesses and neighborhood groups to assure future levels of affordable housing and good neighborhoods through the City of Madison.
3. List any housing issues you have worked actively on in the last year, either as an elected official or as a member of the community.
As mayor, I have actively worked to pass and improve the Inclusionary Zoning program and funded the planned revision of the City’s outdated zoning code. I have also budgeted funds for the Affordable Housing Trust fund.
4. What is your definition of affordable housing? Where do you see the highest need, or what would be your priorities in targeting various income levels?
The City has traditionally used a definition of ‘affordable housing’ that relates to the households size and income of the family. This is usually set at spending no more than 30% of a particular income level for housing costs.
5. Aside from the Affordable Housing Trust Fund and Inclusionary Zoning, what are your additional new ideas for addressing the affordable housing crisis?
We are working hard on poverty and jobs issues. I have increased city support for Madison Metro by 35% in four years and we will go two years without a fare increase. In my last budget I increased OCS funding by over 6.5%, CDBG by about 45% and child care assistance by almost 50%.
6. What initiatives in other policy areas could support more affordable housing (for example, transportation, economic development, childcare...)?
See answer to number 5. Many of the other initiatives I support such as workforce development, sustainable transportation policies, coordinated plans, and principles of new urbanism, will positively affect the long- term supply and quality of affordable housing.
7. What is the position of your campaign on contributions from landlords, realtors and developers? Have you pledged not to accept some or all of these contributions?
I avoid contributions from developers with active proposals before the City Council and I have turned back hundreds of dollars in contributions.
Affordable Housing Trust Fund
8. How much money should be put in the trust fund each year and where should these funds come from?
I have added $1.6 million to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund since I have been mayor. There are a variety of funding sources for the Fund and they are spelled out in the ordinances. The amount put into the trust fund should depend on the fiscal condition of the city at the time the budget is developed.
9. What percentage of the fund should be used to create affordable housing each year? Why?
The amount that should be used every year is capped in the ordinance and the idea is to allow the Fund to grow over time. The City Housing Committee and the original Trust Fund committee recommends building the Housing Trust Fund to a level of $10 million.
Inclusionary Zoning
10. What is your perception of the Inclusionary Zoning ordinance? What changes, if any, would you make to the ordinance?
I led a work group made up of all the stakeholders to hammer out compromise improvements to the ordinance. Early results indicate that these changes are working to get the results we intended. In addition, I created an oversight committee to monitor the ordinance and propose additional changes should they become needed.
Fair Housing and Tenants Rights
11. What resources are you willing to dedicate to increasing and improving enforcement of Chapter 32 (the landlord-tenant ordinance)?
I would like to hear more about this issue. To my knowledge, no housing advocates have raised this issue.
12. Are there any housing ordinances currently in existence that you would amend or change? Which ones � how and why?
None at this time. However, my initiative to rewrite and update the City’s outdated zoning codes will help streamline the development review process.
13. How can the City improve enforcement of accessibility requirements under the Federal Fair Housing Act in new housing?
While the Federal government has the primary enforcement role for the Fair Housing Act, I am sponsoring a local conference on accessible housing on April 23, 2007 at Monona Terrace. Conference participants will examine ways our community can increase the supply of accessible and barrier-free housing
Homelessness
14. What is the role of the City in the homeless shelter system?
The City does not have the primary role in the operation of the emergency shelter. It is essentially a county responsibility as part of the overall social service system, supplemented by the faith community and community groups. We have traditionally used strategy and our limited resources to work with community-based groups to promote the creation of transitional and permanent housing with support services that address some of the primary causes of homelessness or to prevent homelessness.
15. What is the responsibility of the City to provide support services such as case management?
I support case management. The City works together with the Federal Government, the County, United Way, Community Shares, the faith community and community groups to fund and promote a wide range of programs and services that try to prevent homelessness, support a safety net of shelters, provide street outreach, and build a range of housing and case management services that help the different categories of homeless people. The City has traditionally supported innovative approaches to improve the overall system, strengthen efforts to prevent homelessness or move homeless people more quickly into stable housing. We also work closely with community groups to improve their capacity to work together.
Case management is an important tool needed to move people in to permanent housing.
16. What can the City do to prevent homelessness?
City strategy for quite some time has been to address the root causes of homelessness. That should continue. We also provide more than 800 units of low cost housing and more than 1400 rent assistance vouchers to help lower the housing costs of low-income people. These are all effective actions to reduce homelessness.
17. What do you think are primary obstacles to getting out of shelter for those people who do have an income, and how can we eliminate those obstacles?
Barriers could be things like first month’s rent and security deposits. We should support nonprofits that provide those things. Also, various studies, including one sponsored by the City, have identified the availability of appropriate housing and effective case management as two of the primary contributors to successful graduation from shelters. An additional factor is the length of time people spend on the streets or in a shelter, the longer the stay, the greater the challenge and less likely the success of re-integration into the community and more permanent housing.
Allied Drive
18. During revitalization efforts, what can the city do to prevent displacement of good tenants who currently live in the Allied Drive neighborhood?
During the recent nuisance abatement issues, we used a number of strategies, including working with non profits, to make sure tenants who were not contributing to the nuisance abatement were not displaced and received relocation assistance. We will continue those strategies.
19. Do you believe that the way to fix the Allied Drive neighborhood is to have 50% homeownership? (If yes, please explain. If no, what should it be?)
One of the elements of a healthy neighborhood is a good balance of ownership and rental opportunities within an area. Allied has 614 rental apartment units and a vacancy rate that runs 20% to 40% with high turn over among tenants, including the 104 new apartment units added by Avalon Village. The promotion of home ownership opportunities for a range of incomes, including current residents of Allied, is one way to improve the quality of life and provide a range of housing choices for neighborhood residents. It will help to improve the overall quality and stability of the neighborhood.
In addition, providing home ownership opportunities is one of the primary goals that we used to convince the Common Council to acquire the former Hauk properties, which can be the catalyst for redeveloping and revitalizing the Allied Drive neighborhood. Soon we will have an RFP that will spell out in some detail our goals for home ownership and rental with average median income targets.
