Why even have election?
Austin TX – Five weeks after Austin voters rejected a $78.3 million bond proposal for low-income housing, City Council members are looking for other ways to spend money on affordable housing. The council is directing the City Manager to find between $8 million and $10 million in the city budget for low-income housing.
Council Members Laura Morrison and Kathie Tovo say that money could leverage at least $30 million in state and federal grants. Mayor Lee Leffingwell says, “Although I’m going to support this motion, I’m somewhat uncomfortable with the fact that here we are about to spend the money on a project, worthy though it may be, that has been rejected by the voters.”
The money would go to two “shovel ready” apartment complexes built by nonprofit or private organizations, plus possibly other projects, according to city staff members who worked with Morrison and Tovo as they crafted the proposal.
The resolution is the latest in a series of attempts by the city to work against market forces driving up the cost of living and stressing low-income residents as Austin becomes a larger and increasingly affluent city.
Related Posts
Email This Post
⋅
Print This Post
So where do our local political heroes propose to put these new potential ghettos? Probably not in Tarry town or anywhere else west of I-35. It will probably be a build out on the old Muller airport site to keep the less than elite in their place. Or even better, on some of the land that the Manor International Airport was supposed to be built on. A lot of well connected investors lost their ass when Bergstrom was donated to the city. Now they could get a little back, by building near Decker Power Plant. Then we could begin the whole “close the dangerous site” cycle of political appeasement (remember Holly).
I propose a new amendment to the city charter concerning council members. If they are elected to council, they must house a minimum of two homeless/low-income “citizens” in their home for the duration of their “service” on the council.
I truly wish some of these “people” in high places would go back to unicorn herding and skittle farming on their planet of origin.