Last week I wrote here about the fight to save the Housing Trust Fund. I’ve meant to write about our success, but have been busy with preparing for the next round of Affordable Housing Issues.
In case you haven’t seen the results: here is a brief recap.
The Transfer Ordinance Passes
First, the all important transfer ordinance, which is necessary to put Trust Fund money back into the account from which it can be spent on affordable housing projects, was unanimously voted out of committee. We expect it to be adopted this Thursday.
The Other Bills Fail
Second, Councilwoman Blackwell withdrew both her bill to divided Trust Fund resources equally among each of the ten council districts and her bill to kill the Trust Fund entirely.
As we had suspected, these two bills were Councilwoman Blackwell’s way of creating a crisis atmosphere around housing issues, and allowing her to hold hearings at which she could raise concerns about the Administration’s housing reorganization plan. As I have pointed out here and as I did in my testimony as well, I have my doubts about some elements of the Mayor’s plan as well.
The Housing Reorganization Issue
We waited for the hearing last Thursday for three or so hours while Councilwoman Blackwell negotiated with the Mayor. At the end of the negotiations, the Administration eliminated some references to the housing agency reorganization in the Consolidated Plan—which had to go to the federal government relatively quickly in order to get Community Development Block Grant Funds. The Mayor still is insisting on proceed with housing reorganization albeit at a bit slower pace. And it seems he has promised more consultation with Council and the unions involved.
The Role of Council
Councilwoman Blackwell also raised some concerns about the role of council in the process of distributing Housing Trust monies. To satisfy her, the Mayor agreed to amend the Executive Order that created the Housing Trust Fund Oversight Board to include three additional City Council appointees. Originally there were three Administration appointees, one Council appointee, and four appointees that come from the community of affordable housing activists. The Mayor’s move increases the number of Oversight Board members from eight to eleven, thus diminishing the power of the housing activists. In making this change the Mayor went back on a commitment he had made to housing activists when the Trust Fund was first created. As the journalists say, whether this makes an practical difference remains to be seen.
I address the question of the role of Council in guiding the Housing Trust fund in my testimony.