Ward 5 — Suyapa Miranda

Candidate Questionnaire — Ward 5 — Suyapa Miranda

Ward 5 contains the neighborhoods of Como, North End, Payne-Phalen and Railroad Island. It is currently represented by Councilmember and City Council President Amy Brendmoen. There are four candidates running: Councilmember Amy Brendmoen, Bob Blake, Jamie Hendricks, and Suyapa Miranda. We have received responses from Amy Brendmoen and Suyapa Miranda.

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

Housing is a human right. It is essential to basic survival and integral to everyone’s ability to access education, health care, food, jobs, and transportation options. For too long, many Ward 5 residents have struggled to find or maintain safe, dignified, affordable housing — but when we come together and listen to community we can create solutions. When all residents have stable housing, everyone in our community benefits. I will advance housing for all by:

•Collaborating with community on proposed housing and development projects with a focus on affordability and sustainable housing/green development

•Working to ensure that families are not priced out or displaced from their homes in Ward 5 because of rising rents or new development

•Using tools like the Equitable Development Principles and Scorecard, created with community voice, to directly engaged residents in guiding development in their own neighborhoods

•Providing funding for organizations serving seniors / longtime residents to address home repairs and updates so they can age in place

•Working in collaboration with local nonprofits that provide services to seniors to administer small grants programming

•Elevating the relationship between health and housing

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

First of all, affordable housing is not a lucrative business and developer tend to shy away from building long-term affordability options meeting the needs of community at 30%AMI.

3. How can the city eliminate homelessness?

Housing and health services are Key to stabilizing the homelessness situation

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

Yes and no, quadplexes is not a solo answer to affordability.

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

Yes, with a traffic study report supporting this effort

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)?

Yes, I believe this is a start, but the program simply doesn’t go far enough when it comes to addressing the housing needs of community, starting at 30% AMI would be a great start. I would also like to see MN State do an audit on the overall program effeteness. I really do support organization the Minnesota Community Land Trusts who have a history of leveraging State investments with other private and public funding to create over 1,250 permanently affordable homes for working families.