Coalition for Nonprofit Housing Development Questionnaire

HOUSING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

Question:

1. If neighborhoods are our first concern, how do you plan to encourage private sector developers to work with community development corporations and other community based nonprofit organizations in joint efforts to improve neighborhoods?

The business community is increasingly becoming aware that good citizenship is good business. Initiatives such as the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s “Neighborhood Networks,” which involves the business community in establishing and maintaining computer learning centers in District housing developments, open avenues of cooperation between the public and private sectors and help produce a better trained workforce. As mayor, l will take the lead on ensuring that the business community is fully aware of initiatives such as HUD’s Neighborhood Networks and I will vigorously encourage business and industry participation in projects that further develop our neighborhoods and help the people living in them.

Question:

2. The District paid part of the cost for acquiring the land for and constructing Lorton Penitentiary, which will close in 5 years. Will the District be reimbursed for its share of this cost? What will you do to prevent an outright land grab by Virginia-based development interests through their congressional and state government representatives?

The District will not, unfortunately, be reimbursed for its share of the cost for Lorton’s land and construction. Under the President’s National Capital Revitalization Plan, the federal government assumed responsibility for Lorton's operation last year. No reimbursement provision was included and the land was turned over to the federal government, which will ultimately decide what becomes of the property after the prisons mandated closure — not in five years, but in 2001. I did not support the President’s Plan as drafted and approved by Congress because I felt the District would be shortchanged on a number of fronts. Lorton was one of them. Not only does the District lose out on its share of the costs; we also must pay environmental clean-up costs at the Lorton site. That’s likely to be a hefty sum.

Question:

3. How would you more effectively and creatively use the housing resources already available and also leverage private funds to maximize production under your housing policy?

The District can-and must-be far more effective and creative in this area. In the past, the Department of Public and Assisted Housing simply failed to pick up millions of dollars in federal funding. That is simply unacceptable. As mayor, I will pursue every available federal dollar for public housing construction and renovation. I also want to see many more mixed income developments such as Wheeler Creek, soon to rise from the ruins of the Valley Green housing development in Southeast. Residents and former residents of Valley Green played a part in the decision to raze their former homes in favor of a new development, a factor I considered critical to the success of such a project. The residents I have heard from embrace a philosophy that mixing middle-income people with low-income people will yield a community in which everyone will take pride. The plan includes a day care center, a community center and a job-training program run by a private foundation. Wheeler Creek, which is being financed by the federal and DC governments and by private investors such as NationsBank, is a creative and effective approach to meeting our housing needs. As mayor, I will work to replicate such public-private ventures to address needs throughout the city.

Question:

4. What are your top three priorities concerning neighborhood revitalization?

Bringing residents back into our neighborhoods is the surest path toward revitalization. Homeownership is crucial. There are no better stewards of our neighborhoods than people with invested interest in the vitality of their communities. New homeowners breathe new life into their neighborhoods. My top three priorities for neighborhood revitalization-reducing crime, improving services and properly developing neighborhood commercial centers-all aim toward the ultimate goal of attracting homebuyers. We can bring more homebuyers into our city by supporting programs such as HomeFree USA in Northeast, a not- for-profit organization working in partnership with Freddie Mac to help people buy homes in the District through credit-counseling, mortgage consulting, and down-payment and closing cost assistance. Government must do its part by making our neighborhoods safe, clean and convenient places to live.

Question:

5. A recent HUD report indicated that in the Washington area 68,000 families spend more than 50 percent of their income on rent and 45,000 people are eligible for housing assistance but can’t get beyond long waiting lists. If you are elected mayor, what will you do to alleviate this affordable housing shortage?

Again, the first step must be to go after all available funding and to use it wisely once it’s in our hands. There are still far too many public housing units with boards on the windows and chains on the doors. Despite the fact that public housing is currently under receivership and not completely subject to city government oversight, as mayor I would seek a more proactive and cooperative relationship with the receiver to ensure that longstanding problems, such as lengthy waiting lists, are remedied. Under receivership, the Department of Public and Assisted Housing has spearheaded some significant improvements to our public housing owned properties that sit vacant while they could be providing people with a place to live and their owners with rental incomes. Government must stimulate production of affordable housing in the private sector. As mayor, I will replicate the methods of successful non-profit groups like Manna Inc. in order to renovate housing in an efficient and cost-effective manner. I will encourage renovation of private property through aggressively promoted incentives and streamlined permit processes. Additionally, I will push measures that permit the use of bonding authority to provide investment capital and allow for forgiveness or extension of taxes and other governmental costs to bring vacant and abandoned properties back onto the market.

Questions:

6. This city is in the process of revitalizing the downtown area to attract and benefit middle and upper income residents. This has a negative impact on low-income and homeless people, such as displacement and a lack of affordable housing. How do you plan to address these negative consequences?

We must be mindful of the impact development has on surrounding residents and intervene where we can to reduce the number of low-income residents who are displaced. We also must ensure that we have enough affordable and adequate housing for those residents who are displaced, and the mixed-use developments (cited in my response to question 3) are a good starting point. Displacement can be an unfortunate side effect of revitalization and one that I would like to see alleviated wherever possible. Still,   I believe the benefits of a booming downtown far outweigh its negative consequences. A healthy city brings brighter prospects and more opportunities for us all. Increasing our business tax base pays dividends in the form of a better school system, infrastructure improvements, and other vital services that are attributes of a fiscally sound city. Homeless people face different challenges than low-income people but they, too, stand to benefit from increased fiscal strength of their city in the form of better health. nutrition and shelter services.

Question:

7. Would you consider requiring that all development projects on city owned sites or developments requiring substantial government assistance have a neighborhood community development corporation as a developer partner in order to enable CDCs to increase capability and be able to apply profits earned to development projects in their respective communities?

I would certainly consider implementing such requirements. It seems to me that neighborhood Community Development Corporations are better positioned than the city government to ensure that development projects meet the needs of their individual neighborhoods so long as adequate safeguards are in place to prevent abuses. I support enhancing and increasing direct relationships between the business community and our CDCs. One example is Citibanks involvement in Marshall Heights. A new Citibank branch is under construction in the Marshall Heights community as part of that neighborhoods redevelopment. Citibank will continue to provide the community with meeting space in their facilities for the CDC and other groups before, during, and after business hours. The roof raising, planned for October, will serve as an introductory venue for Marshall Heights businesses by their direct participation in the event. I consider initiatives such as this vital to successful and sustained development. As mayor, I would serve as the necessary link between business and communities and facilitate an ongoing dialogue on revitalization.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Question:

8. How can you improve licensing requirements and renewal of it for restaurant managers?

I will streamline the process of doing business in the city. Procedures for opening and maintaining an enterprise-whether it's a restaurant, barbershop or clothing store-should not alienate new merchants. The current process can be so hugely cumbersome and restrictive that entrepreneurs often decide to start their ventures somewhere in the suburbs, where they find friendlier government processes, or they abandon their plans altogether. Our government must support and encourage their endeavors. There should be a convenient “one-stop” shop where all city licenses and permits required for opening and maintaining an enterprise may be obtained. Information on tax incentives for new businesses should be readily available, and costly and unnecessary complicated regulations that drive business from the city must be either eliminated or rewritten. These are some of tile steps I will take as mayor to make our city a friendlier place to do business.

Question:

9. What, if any, plans do you have to insure that DC’s neighborhoods receive a fair share of private and public investment dollars.

As I emphasized in both questions 3 and 5, we are shortchanging ourselves by not aggressively pursuing and wisely spending every available federal dollar. In my capacity as chairman of the DC council’s committee on local Regional and Federal Affairs, I convened series of hearings to determine whether the district was making full use of the federal grant money already available. We concluded that it was not. This will not be the case in my administration. To secure private investment in our neighborhoods we must trumpet programs such as Neighborhoods Networks (the HUD initiative cited in response to question D, which is actively tackling the welfare-to-work issue by providing District residents with learning opportunities, skills building and self-esteem programs located in their communities. I strongly support this effort to prepare former welfare recipients for the workplace and will continue to do so as mayor. I would like to see these centers established in every public housing development. Businesses that invest in such programs benefit from a larger pool of well-trained potential employees and the neighborhoods benefit from the brighter financial prospects of residents.

LOW-INCOME/SPECIAL NEEDS POPULATION

Question:

10. If elected mayor, what are your plans, if any, to restore the emergency assistance and other human service funds to the DC budget? Emergency assistance funds are used to pay for rent or mortgages and utilities to keep families in homes. Since 1995 when these funds were eliminated, one in every 200 families in the District has applied for shelter.

The unfortunate reality of our financial condition is that it has forced us to cut many worthwhile programs, including housing assistance funds. The surest step toward restoring these programs and sustaining them in the long term is to get our fiscal house in order. Sound financial management is the key to unlocking the resources required for housing, education, infrastructure Improvements and other pressing needs. Once we have succeeded in reducing our accumulated deficit, l would like to implement an effective mechanism to provide emergency assistance on a short-term basis to those who are in need.

It is critical that we remain cognizant of the shortcomings of large, high-density developments in the District and explore tile expansion of smaller, low-density and mixed-income housing which better suits our city’s residential communities. Integrating housing for people with low incomes or special needs into neighborhoods is often divisive undertaking. Campaign for New Communities (CNC), a nonprofit organization on East Capitol Street, has developed a curriculum to educate people interested in opening group homes for people with special needs. The basic tenets of the CNC model are openness, community education and coalition building. A certain amount of resistance is inevitable and certainly understandable, but the CNC approach has been successful in diminishing rancor. Government should use tried and true methods to help overcome resistance and, as a practical matter, we must endeavor to fairly distribute special needs housing throughout the city so that all areas are served and no one area is overburdened.

12. What efforts would you make to assure an adequate stock of affordable housing for low- income residents and the special needs population (for example: the mentally ill, people in recovery, people with disabilities, the elderly and youth)?

Working with the many non-pro fits that are doing great jobs providing direct services to the special needs population is a good starting point. We must first identify the greatest housing needs of this population and then develop thoughtful, cost-effective approaches that meet those needs. l have a strong interest in promoting programs to assist people with special needs, particularly those with physical and mental disabilities. My brother, Johnny, l 8 months my senior and my only sibling, is mentally retarded. l majored in special education at the University of Texas and when l first came to Washington 33 years ago, I worked as a special education teacher for three years. As l indicated its my response to question 5 and elsewhere, I would seek to alleviate the shortage of affordable housing by aggressively pursuing and utilizing all available federal funding, promoting incentives to encourage renovation of private property, streamlining permit processes and exploring other ways to stimulate the production of affordable housing. For example, the District could encourage the rehabilitation of its aging housing stock through the use of tax credits and other incentives for developers who renovate dilapidated and vacant housing for new residents while devoting a specified portion of the units to low and moderate income people.

13. What are your views on the elimination of the TAP (Tenant Assistance Program)? Do you propose any other forms of rental subsidies for low-income residents?

I was not on the City Council when it first voted to phase out the Tenant Assistance Program. Nevertheless, I understand the motivations behind that vote, and in this year’s budget process l concurred that we could no longer afford this program under current budget constraints. l was also very concerned that what was initially meant as a temporary, transitional type of assistance had instead become a long term subsidy. Once the District improves its fiscal position, I would be amenable to restoring some funding for temporary housing assistance, provided that it is purely temporary. The emphasis for those whose needs are more long-term, however, should be upon expanding the pool of affordable permanent housing.

14. How do you plan to address the housing needs of large low-income families?

The District must take steps to ensure that its inventory of current public housing units is being utilized properly and to its fullest extent. One way of accomplishing this critical objective is through improved collaboration with the public housing receiver and the federal government to ensure optimal use of our inventory. Additionally, District practices in this area must reflect an understanding of the challenges large families face and endeavor to address those needs.

EDUCATION

15. Would you as a mayor he supportive of a referendum to set up a District of Columbia school tax to assist our schools with technology resources and improve the quality of education in the District? If schools are a priority, what reform issues are in place and there is a timeline and list of persons responsible to effectively carry out these tasks?

I do not support a special school tax, but would not be opposed to a referendum on the issue. Frankly, l don't think that D.C. residents, who are already overtaxed, would look favorably on a special tax for schools. What is most important here, once again, is the District's ability to effectively utilize all of its resources — both public and private. Superintendent Ackerman has my support as she moves swiftly to address chronic problems that afflict schools. As mayor, during my first 100 days in office l will contribute to her reform efforts by:

• Convening meetings with the heads of all government entities that have a stake in our children education to map out a plan that involves all government entities in the education of our children. These include the Superintendent of Schools; the Director of the D.C. Public Library; the Chief of Police; the Chief Management Office; the Chief Financial Officer; the Chairperson of the Council's Committee on Education; and the Chairperson of the Financial Control Board.
• Convening a meeting of other vital stakeholders such as the business community, parents' groups, and unions to address their concerns and involve them fully m the education of our students.
• Evaluating all the agencies under the mayor's purview to determine educational and training priorities defined in their mission statements and budgets.

Requiring that the Department of Recreation and Parks work with the superintendent and the library director to develop a curriculum for their after-school and day care programs that complements what is being taught in schools.

16. Maryland and Virginia have both positioned their slate universities as Integral elements of their business and job creation efforts since 1980. Meanwhile, the district has slashed tire University of the District of Columbia (UDC) budget by more than 50% since 1990. How do you propose to integrate UDC into similar public/private partnerships to generate business and job opportunities within the District? What will you do to help change the perception of UDC as an “expensive luxury” into a perception as all essential investment in the economic and social future of the District of Columbia?

Maryland and Virginia public colleges and universities are moving aggressively to target the needs of employers in the region. UDC, however, has not done so and, as a result, has not realized its potential as a business and job engine in the District. UDC can play an Important role in preparing our city's young people for jobs in the District's key industry sectors-especially government, information and technology, and services — by addressing the needs of area employers in these sectors of the local and regional economy Effective tailoring of its curricular offerings can go a long way towards enabling UDC to maximize its attractiveness to potential employers of its graduates.

In terms of addressing the perception of UDC as an “unnecessary luxury,” I believe strongly that we must ensure that UDC’s administrative costs never return to their previous levels. Despite its well-documented budgetary problems, I believe that with proper management and fiscal oversight, UDC can continue to offer a full and varied range of undergraduate and graduate programs. To do so, however, requires sound personnel policies procurement practices and rigorous attention to administrative costs. As mayor, l can articulate these priorities and will personally commit myself to working to ensure that UDC receives the support it needs to survive and prosper.