1.)What is your personal experience with homelessness and or housing insecurity? If you have not personally experienced homelessness or housing insecurity, but have been close to someone who was experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity, what do you see as your role? Do you believe housing is a universal human right?
I believe housing is a universal human right. I have experienced severe financial insecurity, and there were times where I wasn't where I was going to be living. I was blessed enough to have peers who were able to keep me housed during that time.
2.)According to federal statistics, almost 26% of the population (1 in 4) identify as having a disability, yet the percentage of housing that is accessible has stayed stagnant at less than 3% for over two decades. What steps will you take to make sure that builders and remodelers of housing affordable to households with low-incomes expand accessibility?
I think we need to appeal to builders and remodelers to include accessibility in their housing projects. I do not know specifically how to go about this, but I am open to ideas, whether this is providing cost/supply subsidies.
3.)It has been documented that Cincinnati is short of 28,000affordable homes. This 28,000 figure is specific to housing affordable to those of us at the bottom of the economic ladder, making around $18,000 a year or less, roughly Ohio's minimum. What new city legislation would you support or champion as a council member that would ensure more affordable housing is available to Cincinnati households at this level, where the need is greatest? What would this new legislation do?
Write an ordinance ensuring that for the foreseeable future, housing developments that are eligible for any tax incentives must include a percentage of permanently fair and affordable housing units. I would also focus on zoning codes that allow for denser properties to be built.
4.)About 50 Cincinnati families are now being evicted from their homes daily, and many more are effectively evicted when landlords raise rents and refuse to renew leases. Pay-to-Stay housing protections allow for families who are being evicted for non-payment of rent to pay all owed rent and to stay in their home. Will you push, in earnest, for housing protections? What additional city legislation will you pursue to curb, on a meaningful scale, Cincinnati’s massive crisis of eviction and displacement?
Yes. As mentioned before, housing is a right that needs to be protected and defended. I am uniquely equipped through my experience as a case manager to have ideas as to what services supports can assist families with non-payment, whether that is assistance in obtaining employment, applying for disability, or other financial barriers that contribute to non-payment. I would use that experience to focus on highlighting and supporting programs that focus on holistically addressing this issue.