LoGuidice Public Input re Affordable Housing
Kevin Firnstahl
From:Kevin Firnstahl
Sent:Monday, April 20, 2020 7:40 PM
To:City Council
Cc:Alexis Steger
Subject:Public Input = NAACP Sponsored Friends of Fair Housing comments on Housing
Budget
Council Members,
I’ve received the following input from Lynn Sutton and Tom LoGuidice.
Thank you.
Kevin S. Firnstahl, City Clerk
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50 W. 13 Street
Dubuque, IA 52001
kfirnsta@cityofdubuque.org
563-589-4100
From: Lynn Sutton <SuttonLynn@outlook.com>
Sent: Monday, April 20, 2020 6:53 PM
To: Kevin Firnstahl <Kfirnsta@cityofdubuque.org>; Tom Lo Guidice <loguidice@fastmail.fm>
Subject: Re: NAACP Sponsored Friends of Fair Housing comments on Housing Budget
I hay received the email. Lynn
From: Tom Lo Guidice <loguidice@fastmail.fm>
Sent: Monday, April 20, 2020 6:48:59 PM
To: kfirnsta@cityofdubuque.org <kfirnsta@cityofdubuque.org>; kfirnsta@cityofdubuque.org
<kfirnsta@cityofdubuque.org>; loguidice@fastmail.fm <loguidice@fastmail.fm>; Lynn Sutton
<suttonlynn@outlook.com>
Subject: NAACP Sponsored Friends of Fair Housing comments on Housing Budget
The City Manager has advised that we may use your office to convey our views to the Mayor
and City Council during the Public Hearings. We appreciate that this avenue is provided to us
during the pandemic. Please respond that you have received this email
Thank you. Be Well.
Tom Lo Guidice
786 Stone Ridge Place
Dubuque IA 52001
Ph 608-642-1269
loguidice@fastmail.fm
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Comments to the City Council on Budget Hearings
To: Mayor and Council Members
Re: Comments for Improvement for Five Year Consolidated Plan and Housing and
Community Development Department Budget
From: Dubuque Branch NAACP sponsored Friends of Fair Housing
Tom Lo Guidice and Lynn Sutton (authors of the comments that follow)
Date: April 20,2020
Preface
We are generally supportive of the 5-year consolidated plan and the coming fiscal year
plan of the Housing and Community Development Department. The presentation by the
Department to the Council shows improvements over a draft we read and commented on
in February.
The comments that follow regarding reservations and improvements could have been
enacted to date if the Assistant Director of Housing position was filled.
Our no. 1 recommendation is hire as assistant Director of Housing ASAP.
We understand that the Housing Department is taxed as are all services by the current
Pandemic. Without an assistant housing director, the office is further taxed.
Even in normal times the office is strained to accomplish promised tasks. For example, we
have been hearing about the current education effort for Landlords (housing managers)
and tenants (residents) for months. The education is described in this five-year plan and
yet we are unaware of any accomplishment. This does not seem to be a matter of attitude
or difference of opinions between Housing management and the Friends. Indeed, the
meeting we have on a monthly basis are congenial and we find ourselves often like-
minded. The outcomes are simply disappointing. Again, and again we come to testify to
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you about why we can’t wait and the burden for our follow citizens by waiting. Hiring an
assistant housing director is imperative.
Reservations and Recommendation.
We do have some serious reservations about some aspects of the plan and the slow
progress in some areas.
2.. We look for the yearly plans to follow to be much more specific in terms of the area of
impact.
The plan needs improvement in the area of data collection for decision making. The end
outcomes expressed as goals need to become impact statements. Clear data collection tools and
approaches need to be spelled out.
Also, the authors of the plan provide an analysis of impediments (AI) document as an appendix.
However, the clear link between goals 1,2,3, & 4 in the analysis and the needs assessment and
strategy(ies) could be much clearer. The reader is challenged to determine the links.
We recommend the City Council direct the Housing Department to develop clear measurable
impact statements with each yearly plan. Further, the impact statements be clearly linked to the
analysis of impediments. No additional costs should be involved in taking this action. An
Assistant Housing Director can lead the way.
3.The City of Dubuque has an historical problem in the area of discrimination. African-
American treatment has been highlighted in the news.
The Analysis of Impediments (AI) Goal 1 item 6 provides a clear suggestion for fair housing
testing. It seems imperative to include the testing suggestion in the plan strategies. Beyond the
HUD grant the Human Rights and Housing department should explore a “discrimination index”
for the target audiences identified and have a plan for data sharing and decision- making.
We recommend that the Housing and Human Rights office work jointly with a consultant to
develop a discrimination index process to be presented to the City Council for the next fiscal
year. A consultant fee of $2000 ($1000 from each budget should be included in the proposed
budget).
4. Strategies to change the concentration of voucher housing and low-income African-
American concentration is discussed in the plan. The Human Rights Commission and the
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Housing commission have recommended a source of income ordinance as one way to address
the problem.
The council has twice rejected a source of income ordinance, both the proposals earlier by the
Human Rights Commission and recently by the Housing Commission.
Citizen input is vital. Thus far, the commissions are not as involved as they could be, and they
could be in valuable in gathering citizen input.
Also, the lack of progress, tends to stipulate, that this is not significant enough and neither are
the people involved Whether it is intentional or not the message comes across the same way.
In place of the ordinance the Council voted for education, collection of data from
landlords and use of tax incentives. (There is some progress in apartment housing outside
the concentration area by 2022)
In the current budget $25,000 was set aside for “rebranding”.
Strategies by the City Council to provide Renter and Housing Provider Education is
briefly discussed but grasping how the education will be done (e.g. Brochures) is not
explained. How the changing view of the Voucher program will be viewed by the
landlords, the renters, and the community i.e. the impact is not explained.
We recommend that the council to set a deadline for Housing to detail the education plan
and measures for the impact of the education. Clear use of the $25,000 in the current
budget should be known by the Council and the public.
We hope the Council shares with us that once a landlord survey is completed and the legislature
has acted on a restriction of sources of income ordinance that the Council will consider
additional steps to address the concentration of housing vouchers problem.
Conclusion
Inequities are pronounced by the current health crisis. The impact of the pandemic will be
affecting us all for the foreseeable future. The modest changes we are requesting can help our
city address the current situation as well as the long-term needs. We request your careful
consideration.
"What you send out in the world comes back to you" (source unknown)
Tom Lo Guidice
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loguidice@fastmail.fm
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