The City of Akron’s Director of Neighborhood Assistance was initially pessimistic about the viability and longevity of housing reform proposals that Unify Akron’s cohort of locals planned to deliver.
Over several months, Eufrancia Lash said he came to see the issue differently.
“This was one of the best events and processes I have ever attended and gone through,” Lash said after Thursday evening’s three-hour meeting. His department handles many of the city’s housing issues, from fielding code compliance complaints to managing vacant properties and determining their safety.
Ward 8 Council Member Bruce Bolden, who chairs the Housing and Neighborhood Assistance Committee, watched Thursday’s presentation from the front row inside the church sanctuary at The Well CDC, sitting next to Akron Mayor Shammas Malik and Harry Nathan Gottlieb, the founder of Unify America. Bolden said he was pleased to see locals — via the civic assembly’s delegates — assemble to address an issue that has plagued Akron for decades.
“You always have your voice,” he said.
Last week, delegates said they were acutely aware the city had no obligation to implement their proposals, given that Unify Akron does not hold any lawmaking power outright. Still, on Thursday, they passionately presented their proposals to city officials and requested their aid in seeing them to fruition.
Their pleas appeared to mostly be answered. When Malik took the stage, he emphasized the importance of building reform “from the bottom up,” adding his administration’s commitment to review progress toward implementation of the “Plan of the People” every six months for two and a half years.
“Every single one of the things in this plan will be debated and discussed and will get dialogue both with administration in council and the whole community,” said Malik, who took notes during the presentation.
For the past three months, approximately 60 locals participated in weekly meetings to learn about, discuss and debate Akron’s housing crisis, leading up to Thursday’s presentation to city officials.
“We’re at this point now where everyone’s excited, but the proof of the pudding is still yet to happen,” delegate Wendy Duke, the founding drama teacher at Miller South School for the Visual and Performing Arts, said from the podium.
Members of the cohort voted on the following proposals, which received at least two-thirds of the group’s votes:
- Dedicate a group of judges to staff housing-related cases.
- Create civil housing citations classified in a space between a fine and outright criminal prosecution.
- Create a comprehensive database of code violations and more aggressively enforce repeat offenders.
- Designate criminal status as a protected class in housing discrimination cases. For example, whether one’s specific criminal history is a danger to the community they wish to rent or buy in and how long ago actions were.
- Zoning reform: Permit the construction of “tiny home” communities in the city, part of a comprehensive policy overhaul.
- Create a dedicated housing revenue fund.
- Start a fund for low-cost repair loans for local homeowners who cannot access bank funding for emergency repairs.
- Establish affordability programs that help with down payments.
Successful measures were endorsed by 93% of the cohort, or 56 out of 60 delegates.
Two issues, however, did not secure the necessary votes. Delegates voted down initiatives to hire more housing inspectors and to create a fund dedicated to the building and preservation of homes.
The delegates concurred that the most tumultuous topic of their discussions was the methodology of funding, such as who to tax and why. Ultimately, these financial concerns tanked those issues’ chances of passing.
Unify America founder: Community and its leaders must work together
The event concluded with remarks by Gottlieb, the founder of Unify America.
Gottlieb compared civic assembly to the Ancient Greek tale of Sisyphus, who was tasked by the gods with rolling a boulder up a mountain until it inevitably rolled back down. Gottlieb said it is necessary for the community and its leaders to work together instead of handing their plans off entirely to one or the other, which he said would cause the proverbial boulder to roll back down the mountain.
He then asked the crowd if they loved Akron. Hands erupted across the room.
“There’s nothing wrong with love as a noun, but that’s easy love,” Gottlieb said. “But real love is a verb; it’s what you do. And for the last few months, you’ve been doing it.”
Malik, Bolden say housing initiatives could become ordinances, part of city charter
Bolden said in addition to Malik’s proposed down payment assistance program, the city is drafting comprehensive zoning reform. He and Malik also agreed that the city can move to transform some of the housing proposals into ordinances or part of the city charter to ensure staying power.
Malik said that the timing of his affordability program and that proposed by the delegates bodes well for future collaboration.
“The timing is kind of funny as it’s something we were already moving forward with,” Malik said, “but that doesn’t mean the feedback from the report can’t help inform how that program looks.”
“You’re going to hear about this whole thing as it moves forward, and it is going to take time,” Bolden added. “There’s going to be changes made in every neighborhood, and we’ll make sure the people living there are involved.”
