Ann Arbor City Council: Fund Affordable Housing Now
Dear Council & Mayor Taylor,
As the Ann Arbor News editorial board put it in their February 27th editorial:
Ann Arbor can’t have it both ways.
Being a beacon of inclusion, compassion, diversity and sustainability doesn’t exactly jibe with being the eighth most segregated metro area in the country.
Shielding your eyes from acute concentrations of poverty in a neighboring community while paying lip service to ideals of tolerance and altruism — that just won’t do.
As the County’s 2015 report on Housing Affordability and Economic Equity clearly shows, housing affordability for most of our residents (and potential residents) is an increasingly big problem, especially for the most vulnerable among us. With the mental health millage funding, we have a dedicated stream of funding we can build on to start turning this tide and working to meet our goals. As mental health advocates articulate clearly, housing is a fundamental component of being able to effectively serve residents who need this help.
Many of us have benefited from the history of red lining, exclusion and segregation while our poorer, often non-white neighbors, and our lower wage service workers have been pushed out of the city entirely. They can drive (or bus) in for our jobs but increasingly excluded from full residential membership in our city. We are a better city when we’re a more diverse city. We have a moral obligation to share our collective wealth with more than just wealthy landowners and university students.
I’ve heard some Council members suggest that the amount of money this would provide is so small as to be inconsequential. I agree that it is not enough, but it is plenty enough to do a lot of good, and more than we have dedicated in the past. Helping more is better than turning a cold shoulder; and it is the first step to building toward a much more comprehensive strategy.
Scott Trudeau
Ward 1
