Ward 2 — Lindsay Ferris Martin

Candidate Questionnaire — Ward 2 — Lindsay Ferris Martin

Ward 2 contains the neighborhoods of 7th Street, the West Side, Summit Hill, Railroad Island, Lowertown, and Downtown. It is currently represented by Councilmember Rebecca Noecker. There are five candidates running: Sharon Anderson, Bill Hosko, Lindsay Ferris Martin, Helen Meyers, Rebecca Noecker. We have received responses from Councilmember Noecker, Sharon Anderson, Lindsay Ferris Martin, and Bill Hosko.

1. How do you plan to increase housing affordability in St. Paul?

Affordable housing” is such a small part of the overall dialogue surrounding density, bridging the wealth gap and integrating a healthy mixture of incomes into each of our unique neighborhood pockets. We need to be focused on the more robust conversation on how to; with baby-steps and low-cost investments integrate ownership; rent and small business advocacy in a way that brings more dignity, more comfort and more pleasure to ALL of our neighbors. We first must look at the resources we currently have in place that will propel our communities forward. Leveraging federal dollars is not the be all end all to the “affordable housing” or density solutions.

2. What do you see as the main cause for the shortage of affordable housing in St. Paul?

I see the lack of interest to leverage our single-family homes, incentives for home improvement, lack of financial education in investments (real estate, ownership and how to leverage your property for additional income and entrepreneurship) as a large part of the puzzle missing from our conversations regarding our affordable housing issues. There are more homes available for sale right now than there are apartments for rent. The value of square footage and monthly payments favors economic relief and equity for homeownership vs higher rent, smaller square footage and with no option for ownership and for our neighbors to build upon their wealth.

According to Realtor.com there are 3,237 homes for sale in St. Paul, while there are only about 1,711 vacant apartments in St. Paul (according to Apartments.com). We have to expand what the discussion of affordable housing looks like for our neighbors instead of trying to force everyone into rent-only apartments.

3. How can the city eliminate homelessness?

First, we need to make a clear distinction between encampments and homelessness. Those are two very different issues that require different approaches to resolve.

Second, If we’re talking about homelessness we need to look at who specifically is experiencing homelessness and how we can best reach them. Moreover, we need to better understand their “how,” how did they get to the point of homelessness, this question asks for an after-the-fact resolution versus a prevention approach. According to USICH (United States Interagency Council on Homelessness) as of Jan. 2018, Minnesota had an estimated 7,243 homelessness.

979 were families: Why were the parents struggling? Did they lose jobs, rent vs own? What type of financial education have they been exposed to? Is anyone suffering from mental health, addiction or a financial taxing medical condition? Has either parent been incarcerated and found it difficult to get a job? Is there a language barrier that keeps them from integrating into the community that could help propel them forward?

301 were veterans: Are they experiencing PTSD and lacking resources needed to help integrate them back into civilian life? Have they been able to access financial education to help them learn how to leverage military benefits and resources? Is there a better way to help our veterans transition into a common workplace or help them find work that compliments the skill set they acquired during their service?

1,066 were young adults (ages 18–24): What was their last few years like? Was financial education or mentorship part of their journey into adulthood. Did they leave school early? Feel prepared for life after high school or did they get lost in the real world? Did their families experience family conflict and what resources were available to them during that time? Have they or their family members experiencing mental health issues or addictions? What was their exposure like and what resources were available to help them?

16,500 public school students have experienced homelessness over the course of the year (according to public school data)

* 416 students were unsheltered

* 5,273 were in shelters

* 1,355 were in hotels/motels

* 9,526 were doubled up

In cases of our students, we really have to look at the family life and what’s going on. We have to bridge our schools, communities and resources to help supplement the basics of life essentials and stability in these kids’ lives to help keep them focused, educated and prepared for what will come next in their journey. The first steps would be empowering our teachers to detect warning signs and then to connect to resources and mentor-like adults to help move the child forward. The second part is to look at what happens when school is over, after school care, food insecurities, showers and essentials for hygiene, temporary housing, mentoring and tutors and apparel donations. How are these basics being connected to the students in need?

4. Do you support changing the city’s zoning to allow quadplexes everywhere in the city? If not, please explain why.

The word “everywhere” is glaring in this question.

When we look at zoning, we need to make sure we’re not asking for individual property owners to relinquish some of their own freedoms.

We need to make sure when we zone we are not discouraging more functional, engaging, interactive and quality of life development to occur.

We need to make sure that when we look to zone we are not looking at long-term commitments that require a large financial impact on our neighbors and businesses

Looking at density, we need to look at resources we already have and giving a density a human scale, making room for not just housing but varied activities that can add vitality and quality of life.

5. Do you support eliminating minimum parking requirements? If not, please explain why.

I believe our city should empower our homeowners, developers and business owners to decide for themselves how much parking they will need to meet their needs. Eliminating parking minimums could result in no change at all to overall parking supply, but what it does do is give people the right to decide for themselves.

6. Do you support funding the city’s 4(d) affordable housing program? If not, how will you preserve at-risk Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing (NOAH)?

I’m still learning the ins and outs for this housing program, but it is my understanding the primary source of development funding comes from LIHTC (Low-Income Housing Tax Credits) — a federal tax credit administered by state agencies. In addition to the above federal tax credit, it is my understanding there are additional federal block grant programs developers can leverage and additional tax credits for clean energy or for using historic buildings. So on top of that, St. Paul wants to give a 40% tax reduction (per affordable unit) to developers who commit to offering a minimum of 20% of their units for 10 years to low-income rents. But the developer can increase rents up to 3% annually. On top of the tax reduction, the city will pay $100 and up to $100 per property for administration fees and maintenance. The average rent ranges from $826 per month to $1,641.

I have always said I feel that affordable housing is one-sided and does not help bridge our wealth gap as the residents leveraging affordable housing are confided to many restrictions. Example(s): they are not able to have a savings account for emergency funds or to save up for a downpayment on a home. They have to be cognizant of promotions and how that will immediately affect their rent. They are confined to working in certain areas and their children are confined to specific schools. This can cause a huge instability for families and could lead to an unstable environment that contributes to a lot of educational struggles for our children in the community.

NOAH, however, takes away the restrictions for our residents allowing them to seek well-paying jobs, access to good schools and healthy recreational opportunities.

We need to look to incentivize preserving and rehabbing small building mixtures into our city development plans (creating a human element).

We need to incentivize for preserving older buildings, including encouragement and incentives for the prevention of building deterioration and deferred maintenance.

Furthermore, we should be looking to bring education and additional resources to homeowners who could leverage their own properties for low rent opportunities to add additional income to their households.