Public meeting Jan 22 was enlightening!
It’s been fascinating watching the Housing Crisis Task Force move from baffled citizens asking themselves (just like all of us are) “what the heck’s going on with housing?” Slowly, as they interview area experts and talk to people all over town, what they’re revealing is a whole lot of different people in city government, the development community and a lot of related industries and agencies all doing their jobs to the very best of their ability, as they are safely tucked into their own narrow silo, with no effective way to know how their work is impacting those outside their own domain.
What a valuable set of insights!
During the first Task Force meeting after Mayor Rawn’s inauguration these points and many more came up. From the Mayor, and from several guest presenters. It was all very insightful. Love to hear what you think about these developments!
From the Housing Crisis Task Force Meeting — Jan 22 2025
The first guest to speak was Brian Ridley of Homegrown Housing. He makes the wise suggestion that to solve our housing dilemmas all the complexities need to be brought along simultaneously. (What a concept!) He suggests the TF should explore the idea of holding a housing summit of housing-adjacent groups to look for coordinated responses TF members note that they’ve thought of something like that too.
Implementation is the task they’ve been given, and to really see that cross-sector coordination happen it needs to be in broad discussion like a summit. Henry Ho, the chair, says that convening is an important super-power that gets things done. Implemen-tation needs to be the theme of 2025. The mayor is already onboard, they just need to get all the stakeholder groups in the room.
Next guest is Christina Williams, Director of Circles NWA. Circles works with the ALICE population (low-income employed people) She talks about the Cobblestone housing project. It’s a low-income housing project, started with excitement in October 2022, and supposed to take a year to complete. Rents were to run from about about $550 to $950 for one to three bed apartments.
Several Circles NWA members were among those approved to move in whenever it opened. The people took out leases and some had turned in their notice that they were moving out of their current home in a timely manner, or didn’t sign new leases in preparation.
Then there were repeated delays. There were three changes in move-in dates. At this point there’s still NO stable move-in date set. As a result, people have lost their current housing with no place to go, moved in with family members, and some are paying higher rents since they had no lease. In the interim the proposed rents for Cobblestone have increased 17%, and the signed leases have expired.
People are still waiting, and asking “what’s going on?” But nobody seems to be able to answer that question. The photos of the site look very good. Like the project is nearly done. However no one in the city is willing to take action at some point along the path to actual approval. Waiting renters need a stable move-in date. What will it take to get answers and solutions? There needs to be someone prepared to cross boundaries and silos to put light on the problem.
This goes back to the idea of a “housing summit.” Getting people with decision-making authority at the table together to talk. But it also needs to include renters at the table. If they aren’t part of the discussion, important parts will be left by the wayside.
Henry says that by the February Task Force meeting they’ll have a date and a venue for this summit worked out.
Meeting with Mayor Rawn
There was some trepidation that the new mayor would feel the Task Force was unnecessary, but at the Jan 21 meeting Henry, Keaton Smith and Jessica Lewallyn had with her they were relieved when they met with Mayor Rawn to talk about what she wants from the them. As she claimed in her campaign, she’s ready for things to happen on housing.
They report that she has a strong bias for action, is focused on housing, and is ready to move on some of the Task Force recommendations. She’s already started holding cross-department meetings to expedite solutions.
She sees this as a very broad housing crisis that no one can be left out of. Including seniors, students, university, renters, developers, realtors, the un-housed… all of us have a stake in fixing this problem.
Based on her bias to action, this is a priority of her first-100-day plan, and it includes the housing summit. They’ve already talked about that.
Groundworks perspective
The final presenter is Duke McCardy CEO of Groundworks, a workforce housing project of the NWA Council, whose focus is economic development. Speaking for the business community, Duke says they see serious challenges coming from the housing issue. If we don’t get ahead of this problem, long-term the quality of life for everyone in NWA changes – and not in a good way. Duke lives in Fayetteville but works regionally. He sees that we need to focus on Fayetteville, this is our place. But good resolution for Fayetteville will help housing options region-wide. We need to be intentional. All will suffer if the workforce no longer chooses to put up with the housing situation as it is. And they can’t do that. They’re already moving.
Workers are priced out of home ownership if the median price stays at the $400,000 range in Fayetteville . there are few housing options for anyone who makes less than $100,000. (and that’s only for those who can even consider home ownership)
There’s discussion of one of Duke’s slides that shows Fayetteville rates a very high score for Housing and Transportation in the nation (high is not good). Reasons for the high score are because housing is high, and public transit options are so poor. Question asked about why our score should be so much worse than Omaha, for instance… their public transportation is probably similar. Duke replies that he lived in Omaha for years, and the public transportation is much better there. Transportation is a serious consideration for resolving this.
31% of our households are housing burdened, and few transportation options means 99% of our population is car-dependent, including low-income people just barely on the edge.
Groundworks is developing the GROW policy agenda for cities. Elements of that include:
Guided zoning laws
Housing-friendly regulatory environment
Remove barriers
Welcome advocacy
Financial incentives
Land use changes
A few land use incentives they suggest – direct land contributions and tax abatements that other markets often have. Give developers reasons to do what you want them to do. The city can be a partner in affordability.
Land use – make more land available for housing
“up zone” – 57% of our land is now zoned for single family. Zone for the “missing middle” housing. Allow houses 2- and 4-plex as a matter of right, 6-plexes in some places.
Questions
What push-back have you had from city planning office? Reply: Planners are in alignment. The fear is political push-back. There’s lack of education on intentional planning.
The Rogers example: Political courage is needed. after the tornado they had to rebuild major parts of Rogers. Under their new codes, 90% of building projects do not need city council comment or approval. They zone 40 acres at a time, not lot-by-lot. That’s how Fayetteville zoned the Wilson Park neighborhood and it worked beautifully. When the Council has to be the deciders it inserts politics into every decision. The current system is fraught with sample bias – meaning the loudest person wins the argument. Also results in incredibly long Council meetings. There are ways to give developers reason to do something different. Consider density bonuses… by-right approval., other options
Financial incentives: not land give-aways. There can be a 99-year “ground lease” as an affordability point. UA does this for Greek Houses for instance. UA still owns the land.
Tax abatements – there may be state limits, but it should be explored. It’s possible to
“layer fee-wavers” – strip down the financial burden
Duke was on the National Housing Task Force. They released their latest report in November. It proposed HUD changes, changes in the way unused federal land is regarded – like old unused post offices in some towns. Land use reforms, allow 3rd party consultants to assess public lands, remove cities from the developer role. Most aren’t good at it.
Atlanta convened a Housing Strike Force that convened all the city departments, school districts, health departments, renters groups, etc. it opened communications, lubricated the systems . Be sure that the city is getting value for what they build.
Fayetteville can do this. Setting a BIG HAIRY AUDACIOUS GOAL is an important step.
This report may sound kinda wonky, but the whole housing problem was created in wonky ways so that’s the crux of understanding it. I hope there’s something here that helps Omni folks see what Fayetteville is up against in revising itself to be more tuned to the real needs of its people. And give us the background to advocate for what we need effectively.
The next Housing Task Force meeting will be Wednesday Feb 19 at 5:30 pm. If there’s any change we’ll hear about it. Try to join them if you can. Your presence gives them good encouragement to keep their promise to the people of our city, friends!