The Daily Progress ran a good article the other day (click here) on my first major legislative proposal: creation of a Charlottesville Affordable Housing Investment Program (CAHIP). From day one of my campaign for City Council earlier this year, I talked about creating a dedicated fund for housing, as over 300 other localities across the country have already done. The proposal we've come up with (click here to download & read it) would consolidate, dedicate and expand support for affordable housing in what I believe to be a sensible and comprehensive manner. And it does so without busting our City budget -- even when CAHIP is fully funded, which may take a couple of years, the City would still be spending well under 1% of our annual budget on affordable housing development.
City Council will be taking this proposal up for consideration at a Budget Work Session on Thurs., Dec. 14, from 5:00-7:00pm in the basement conference room of City Hall. For anyone who agrees with our regional Chamber of Commerce that affordable housing is the "#1 Issue in the #1 Community," I hope you'll concur that this proposal is a step worth taking. It certainly won't solve the affordable housing problem in our area, but -- as Jim Duncan succinctly put it -- "it's a start."
Monday, December 4, 2006
CAHIP
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2 comments:
Dave,
Good to see you joining the blogosphere! I'm a Blogger neighbor: These Snarcophagic Times.
Admittedly, I haven't actually read your proposal yet, just talked with you about it a few times. But if it doesn't have one, may I suggest a rent-assistance component to the affordable housing plan and some kind of breaks for boarding houses which can rent to those just getting established (or re-established or rehabilitated) in the area? It's not just homeowning which has gone up around here, and I've been wondering whether a voluntary rental account program would help that, especially with seasonal workers.
Hey Tat! Thanks for the feedback. I agree that rental housing needs to be a focus as well as homeownership -- not everyone is in a position to buy a home. The CAHIP proposal includes targeted funds for the Housing Authority and for special needs housing providers to increase and improve the stock of affordable rental housing for the working poor, the elderly and the disabled. We also need to continue to put pressure on the University to build more student housing -- UVa currently only houses 1/3 of its student population on grounds, which puts a lot of pressure on our rental market and drives up rents for everyone else....
Snarcophagically yours,
Dave
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