[Updated, January 30, 2025] Let’s start with a question. Do you believe that housing is a human right? I say yes. Not only that, I fully believe that nothing that people need to survive should be sold for profit. Food, clothing, shelter, health care, and I’m adding education to that list as well.
People with power decided necessities for profit was appropriate a long time ago and the rest of us have not come together to change this.
Every person in the City of Rochester should have an affordable, accessible, safe place to live, period. We have the empty houses and apartments. We have “zombie properties” that landlords have given up on. The only reason our government allows people to exist in Rochester without a place to live is because. That’s it. Because.
With that, when elected to City Council, I will:
-insist on the use of Eminent Domain to take over abandoned and ignored property, use apprentices working with Union labor to fix such properties, and literally give them to families and individuals who then can focus on other necessities in life. This would be a modern version of homesteading.
-advocate and vote for funding in the budget to hire more code inspectors. These inspectors should not only be City of Rochester residents, but tenants as well.
-insist that the City government no longer use Monroe County for Area Median Income (AMI) when determining apartments that are “affordable”. This current formula makes a new $1400/month apartment “affordable” even though it truly is not for most who live in Rochester. AMI should be for the City only if the project is being built in the City.
-support zoning regulations that require all housing built in the City of Rochester to be done using "universal design" to allow everyone to have a place to live no matter what disability you may have or acquire.
-stop the Rochester Housing Authority from privatizing properties in their possession by converting housing in their stock to cooperative housing, then fund* public housing projects that may include new housing (which takes an extremely long time), but will initially focus on rehabilitating empty school buildings, warehouses, etc., into such public housing. Some of these properties are already in the City's possession, others can be bought, or again taken over by Eminent Domain. Some of these projects can be used for "person centered housing" in order to alleviate the devastating chronic homelessness we have in our city.
-support legislation that brings strict Good Clause Eviction protection [DONE] as well as complete rent control within the City of Rochester. (See opening paragraphs)
-propose using City funds and/or find grant money to assist in establishing a cooperatively-run non-profit that would use volunteer contractors (retired, et al.) to help low-income city residents in need of upkeep of their house. This has been done in other municipalities – Syracuse had one for years.
-work with City Hall to create a fund to help renters who are in arrears with their rent. There are already non-profits who do this, but they cannot handle the demand. The need for this fund will reduce dramatically once rent control is finalized in Rochester.
-work to create more emergency shelters, particularly for specific groups, i.e., women, LBGTQ+, people in recovery, etc. for the immediate future; particularly in specific areas of the City. These shelters should allow partners to be able to be housed together as well as pets. These shelters should also have user-friendly policies on allowing prescription medication and certain "drug paraphernalia". It is expected that these shelters will eventually not be necessary if my other ideas are enacted. But these shelters are needed right now.
-work to have senior citizens who own and live on a property in the City of Rochester and meet specific income requirements (i.e. not having enough income) be exempt from property taxes. [DONE. City of Rochester just implemented this in 2024 after I advocated for it in my 2019 run for City Council.]
*Later in the campaign, I will be releasing a platform plank that will explain how to pay for these and other ideas. Money will come from reallocation of current wasteful spending, lobbying for changing of Federal and State regulations, more focused grant searches, and an end to corporate welfare.
This is a living document. It will be adjusted and added to as I continue to talk with and learn from others. What do YOU think we should do about housing in Rochester?
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