Mayoral Candidates Have Different Stances on Homelessness

JUST DAYS AFTER Ann Arbor and MDOT officials bulldozed a homeless encampment, four mayoral candidates signed a pledge to end homelessness in the city by 2018. The pledge which they signed reads: “We pledge to commit financial and political capital to end homelessness in Ann Arbor by 2018.” Ward 1 Council member Sabra Briere, though she signed the pledge, pointed out that “…This is not something that ends in 2018. “Keep in mind, we will never meet this need, and so it’s an ongoing battle.”

Ward 2 Council member Sally Petersen used the forum as an opportunity to announce her endorsement by the Ann Arbor Board of Realtors. Moans from the audience and incredulous looks indicated Petersen perhaps chose the wrong moment to talk up that organization. She said:  “There is no more pro-housing organization than the Ann Arbor Area Board of Realtors. They recognize the value of developing an economic strategy to produce jobs.” Council member Petersen suggested that job creation is a solution to homelessness.

“The more services we provide in Ann Arbor, the higher the risk that other communities will send us their vulnerable individuals,” added Petersen. “Let them come….I’m offended when I hear other city leaders suggest we should turn away those individuals who are not of us,” she said.

Ward 3 Council member Stephen Kunselman approached the issue more pragmatically. He focused on money.

“Mayor John Hieftje has said to us on council and the public that it is his concern, based on conversations with the Delonis Center staff, that there’s a lot of people coming from outside the county because of the generosity of our services,” said Kunselman. “How can we keep funding more and more? So, that’s the question.”

When the subject of having a tent city for homeless individuals came up, Kunselman told those in attendance he doesn’t support having a tent city in Ann Arbor

“They shouldn’t be living in substandard conditions,” he argued. He went on to say that Ann Arbor residents expect elected officials to uphold the law and that officials simply can’t look the other way when there is illegal camping.

Ward 1 Council member Sabra Briere took a swipe at Kunselman by saying while it’s Council members need to uphold the law, there are times when rules need to be changed.

“Our job is to find solutions. It’s not just to point out flaws,” she said.

Briere offered no solutions on July 10 when she showed up as MDOT was bulldozing the homeless encampment near Broadway. Instead, she offered maps to the homeless showing them where they were forbidden to camp. She was quoted as telling the residents of the former Camp Misfit, “If they [the homeless] relocate within the parks, they’d be removed.”

Homelessness has come up at previous mayoral forums – including those at the Ann Arbor Democratic Party, Literati Bookstore and the League of Women Voters forum. The two topics have been brought up consistently at City Council candidate forums over the past several years. Based on the number of times the issue has come up at candidate forums, it would appear to be a social issue of great import to Ann Arbor residents.

However, the most recent citizen survey doesn’t support that conclusion.  In 2013, a total of 778 surveys were completed by Ann Arbor residents; of these, 567 respondents wrote in responses for the open-ended question.

The responses are presented in a 28 page document available on the city’s website. In that document, 57 percent of responses focus on the “worst,” “unsafe,” “abysmal” and “terrible” roads. The responses dealing with roads, transportation, traffic, traffic enforcement, bikes and pedestrians account for the largest number of responses.

A small number of responses, only about 7 percent of the total, has to do with homelessness and services for low income residents.

In September 2009, the Ann Arbor Democratic Party offered up a presentation on Ann Arbor’s homeless and their challenges. According to a media report: “By the time the group reached the presentation on homelessness…most of our elected City Council members had walked out of the meeting. Homelessness, evidently, isn’t a compelling enough political  issue to keep Third Ward Council member Chris Taylor engaged.”

While homelessness and affordable housing are often conflated, the issues are often addressed together. In fact, the recent mayoral forum held at Temple Beth Emeth and St. Claire’s Episcopal Church was advertised as a mayoral form on “affordable housing and homelessness.”

Over the past decade, fewer than 100 units of affordable housing have been built in Ann Arbor. During that time, Stephen Kunselman has served on City Council eight years, Sabra Briere has served on Council for seven years and Christopher Taylor has served six years. The need for affordable housing stock in the city is thought to exceed 5,000 units. In comparison Berkeley, California’s City Council passed a resolution that requires 20 percent of all new housing built in the city to be affordable. Between 2005 and 2014, Berkeley added 1,300 units of affordable housing stock.

Berkeley has more than four times (368) the number of beds available for its homeless population of approximately 690, according to a 2013 report prepared by that city’s manager for Council members. Washtenaw County’s homeless population is estimated at between 3,000-4,000 individuals, according to a census done by local human services agencies. According to the same 2013 census, between 2011 and 2013, Ann Arbor’s homeless population grew from 469 to 510.