Coalition for Nonprofit Housing Development Questionnaire

August 25, 1998

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?

Answer: I believe the answer lies in creating additional, alternative financing sources for CDCs and other nonprofit projects. The DC Statehood Slate supports starting up several cooperative banks, with the mandate of providing loans in situations and locales that commercial banks have historically not served well. Additionally I propose the creation of a loan guarantee agency, which would identify economically and socially worthwhile projects and guarantee some portion of a loan being applied for at a commercial bank. This is designed to get the commercial bank to approve a worthy loan it would not otherwise approve, thereby increasing the amount of financing available for such projects.

Question:

Answer: First of all, my preferred use of that site would be a continuation of the site as the District's prison. If that does not happen, I definitely feel we must fight for our share of current market value of the site. If that is not forthcoming, I believe we can file a lawsuit and an injunction to ensure we preserve our interests.

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?

Answer: CDCs.

Question:

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

Answer: First, we must end the blight caused by neglected properties, the result of careless speculation. The owner of these populations should be warned and fined, and eventually the properties should be confiscated and put to productive use. Second, we must increase the incidence of homeownership. Homeowners are invested in their neighborhood and their neighbors. Our plan is to induce large scale landlords to sell their apartment complexes to tenant cooperative, which will divide the units into condos and rent-to-own to the renters. Third, we must not let economic development to be driven by large, outside business interests. We must invest in the grassroots businesses in the District, which will actually enhance neighborhoods, rather than destroy them.

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?

Answer: We will enact our real estate speculator's “use or lose” policy. Next, we must protect rent control against its continual attacks, to keep rents affordable. Finally, we must create the opportunity for renters to buy their own home without the need to a down payment, beyond what she/he would pay in a security deposit.

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?

Answer: We should not build these giant megaplexes, which do not pay their own way anyway. The confiscated buildings mention earlier would be put to constructive use as women's and homeless shelters, among other things.

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?

Answer: Yes, I do support requiring these larger scale projects to partner with community based nonprofits. We cannot let the tail wag the dog, however. Our enthusiasm in achieving these partnerships should never blind us to the true overall benefit or cost of the lager-scale project.

Also, the main tool to increase CDC capacity cannot be tag on to downtown development projects. Instead, we must create alternative financing mechanism for our home spun businesses.

Question:

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

Answer: The surrounding community should have a say in policing local business establishments, like bars and restaurants. The local ANCs should have power to direct inspectors to sites where supervision is not sufficient. At the same time, the DCRA should have clearer guidelines, better management, and shorter turn around times on applications.

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?

Answer: As indicated earlier, we need to create cooperative banks, and a loan guarantee agency. This is the only real neighborhood development, because the decisions come from the community itself, and not from an arrogant and powerful, national corporation.

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.

Answer: I would use the Fair Budget Coalition's restoration budget as the starting point. We need to preserve TAP for those unable to work. We need more family shelters, so that families are not split apart when they become homeless, which is traumatic already. Additionally. we must do all possible to make homelessness a truly rare occurrence. Eighty percent of all renters are one paycheck away from potential homelessness. Once homeless, a job is exceedingly hard to get. I have a plan I call Renter's Maintenance Insurance. It would work like unemployment insurance. A small portion of a tenant's rent would go into a pool. Once during every two year period, if the tenant were to become unexpectedly unemployed. She/ he could have her rent paid for up to six months, allowing time to find another job.

Question:

11. How do you plan to address NIMBYism in the District in reference to low-income housing and special needs housing?

Answer: First, low-income housing of all types must appear to actually be desirable, well constructed and conceived communities. People should be delighted to live next to this housing because it should enhance their neighborhood. And, where possible, major complexes should add value to the neighborhood by providing improved public space, like an open playground for neighborhood children.

Question:

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)?

Answer: We should provide service-enhance apartment communities, providing different levels of assisted and semi-assisted living for disable people, mentally retarded, and elderly. These apartment communities should be subsidized on a sliding scale, based on disabled person's ability to pay (including all income sources). These communities should include on-site counselors/therapists. I believe this is a superior and economical solution to the TAP cuts for disabled people. An additional advantage would be that the social workers who serve these individuals would able to do so more efficiently when many would be concentrated in several communities around town.

Question:

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?

Answer: If TAP was "broken", as the other candidates allege, then it should have been fixed by bringing creative solutions to the problem. The image that able bodied people were taking advantage of the system as a type of welfare could be fixed by my proposal for a new program called Renters Maintenance Insurance, which would operate like Unemployment Insurance. Renters would pay into the system, as a small part of their rent, and would be able to draw out of the pool for six months, if they were unexpectedly unemployed. This would not be "welfare" but, rather, an insurance plan. The PR problem is fixed. Meanwhile, fewer people would become homeless while they are conducting a job search. For the elderly and disabled, some version of TAP should be continued. Additionally. subsidized housing as discussed in question 12 should be implemented.

Question:

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

Answer: Houses are the only way to get comfortable living quarters, with lots of space, for a little money. Therefore, these families must be moved into single-family houses, duplexes and row houses. There are plenty of beautiful, inexpensive houses in District, especially in Anacostia. There are also well constructed, but neglected houses with great potential. These need to be rehabilitated, perhaps with sweat equity, to provide low-income housing.

Question:

15. Would you as a mayor be 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 is there a timeline and list of persons responsible to effectively carry out these tasks?

Answer: Yes, We need to bring many more resources to bear on our school system. I would immediately halt the new convention center project, which will drain $1 billion of public resources, and raise taxes for school improvement instead. This will free up $100 million per year. Our first priority must be to cut class size in half. Until we cut class size, quality learning is not going to occur, so that is priority #1. Then, we need to provide adequate computer training to our schools, because even minimum wage jobs will soon require computer literacy. But more important than just buying the equipment we need training and support to make sure the equipment is being utilized. These initiatives would begin during my first year in office

Question:

16. Maryland and Virginia have both positioned their state universities as integral elements of their business and job creation efforts since 1980. Meanwhile, the district has slashed the 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 an essential investment in the economic and social future of the District of Columbia?

Answer: It is criminal the way that our Council and our CFO conspired to strip mine and ruin our only public university. As President Clinton said, we need to build a bridge to the 21st century, with education as its foundation. This must be done, not only for youth, but also for those of us needing to be retooled for a mid-career change. We should give UDC all of our outside contracts training the government workforce. This will help prepare students for the workforce. And provide a way for the city to fund educational programs without additional cost. Finally, we need to survey and identify skills now employed in the DC, and develop programs to meet these skill requirements. We have jobs right now in the District that go taken by people from the suburbs because we are next matching up our peoples' skills with the opportunities. We must pro-actively go after these opportunities.