Jordan is right. The reports this morning only confirm what many folks have
been saying for years.
City planners reported that between 1990 and 2000 there was a net loss of over
1,500 housing units in Minneapolis. Between 1991 and 1998 the City demolished
more units than it added. The Family Housing Fund found that there are roughly
12,000 homeless people metro-wide and that there are 68,900 renters with incomes
below $10,000 in the metropolitan area, but only 31,200 housing units with rents
they can afford.
The housing crisis is real. It is time to take change course and really take
action. Here are some ideas I have been promoting in my campaign. They are not
necessarily original with me, but I offer them here as a ideas that those of us
concerned about the housing problem can discuss and perhaps unite around as we
move ahead to work for solutions to this serious problem facing our city. Here
is my list of the top strategies to start with:
- Stop demolishing and start emphasizing maintenance, preservation and
renovation.
- Focus on in-fill and sell some of the 860 city-controlled vacant lots for
new housing.
- Require that one of every four units in any city-funded housing project is
affordable.
- Provide incentives and ease the process for the private sector to create
new housing.
- Develop design standards for single and multi-unit projects that work for
all neighborhoods.
- Educate ourselves about housing needs, resources and creative options like
carriage housings, co-housing, cooperatives, lease to own and targeted home
buyer assistance programs.
It is time to bring all the stake holders --- neighbors, neighborhood groups,
housing service and resource centers, developers, property owners, funders,
architects, planners and those with housing needs Ñ together as equal partners
to solve our housing crisis.
Cam Gordon
for City Council
Ward 2
Green Party Endorsed
www.camgordon.org
Fresh Leadership, Creative Solutions, Responsive Representation
Cam Gordon
Candidate for Minneapolis City Council,
Ward 2
914 Franklin Terrace
Mpls. MN 55406-1101
(612) 332-6210
http://www.camgordon.org
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