City Council Candidates to Address Housing Issues in Tuesday Night Forum

Candidates running for the Pasadena City Council’s March 7, 2017 primary election will gather for a forum Tuesday night to discuss housing issues in Pasadena.

“The forum is to help us assess where the City Council candidates stand on affordable housing and homelessness in our community,” said Forum Moderator Rabbi Joshua Levine Grater. Grater is Executive Director of Friends In Deed. “We want to hear the City Council candidates address to the community, where this falls in their list of priorities and what major steps they plan to take.”

All nine candidates that are in the races for Districts 3, 5 and 7 are expected to be present to engage with community members and share their personal views on this critical topic.

“I think with everything we are seeing right now in our country, the need for engagement at the local level is just as critical if not more critical than the larger national level,” Grater said.

“We want the candidates to address the people who are voting and ultimately we want to hold them accountable for what they say in these debates if they are elected,” said Grater.

Grater, will moderate the group of candidates, said he plans questions about funding affordable housing programs, maintaining neighborhoods, protecting tenants and ending homelessness.

“Housing is as important as it is complex. Affordable housing is a continuing issue. It’s not an issue that gets resolved because there’s always an ever increasing need for housing. We have to take a multi mobile approach to resolving the issues of housing. A combination of amending existing ordinances, continuing to find ways ways to construct, preserving existing affordable housing and be laser focused on ensuring that we are doing everything we can to help people get into housing that’s affordable either as renters or as homeowners,” said District 5 Councilmember Victor Gordo.

According to Grater, the forum will give both the candidates and the community the opportunity to hear two separate personal accounts of residents that have been personally affected by these issues: one from a woman who made it out of homelessness but is struggling to keep her low-rent apartment, and another from a woman who falls in a category where she cannot afford to live in Pasadena, but whose income is too high to qualify for low-rent housing.

“Diversity is is a key part of Pasadena’s appeal. If we don’t provide sufficient affordable housing, we are at risk of losing our economic diversity. Furthermore, I am concerned that one day in the future that my kids and their families may not have the means to enjoy our incredible City,” said District 7 Councilmember Andy Wilson.

The candidates scheduled to be present include District 3 candidate John Kennedy; District 5 candidates Victor Gordo, Krystal Lopez Padley, and Aida Morales; and District 7 candidates Andy Wilson, Phil Hosp, Bryan Witt, Alejandro Menchaca and Sheena Tahilramani.

“In tandem with development, affordable housing has been one of the issues that has dominated the District 7 race. I think there’s a lot that we have to do in terms of making sure we have the amount of housing that we need, but making sure that we utilize the affordable housing that we already have,” said District 7 candidate Sheena Tahilramani.

District 7 candidate Phil Hosp said his campaign “discovered and brought to light the fact that four very-low income condos had been left vacant for as long as three years.”

“I will advocate for an affordable housing preservation strategy for current housing that is vulnerable to pressure from speculative investors,” Hosp said Monday night.

Community engagement is the other defining feature of the forum that candidates like Gordo hope attendees take advantage of by asking questions and being involved in any way possible.

“It’s important for residents to come out and hear the candidate’s view on the issues, understand the differences between candidates as it relates to issues as important as housing, but also I think it’s important to come out and contribute to the discussion by asking questions and hopefully we all walk away better informed as residents and candidates,” said Gordo.

“Candidates Forum: Is It Getting Too Expensive To Live in Pasadena?” will take place Tuesday at 7 p.m. at All Saints Church located at 132 N Euclid Ave and is open to the public.

To help move the conversation along, Sustainable World, The Economic Justice and Non-Violence Working Group and ACT Pasadena, are sponsoring the City Council Candidates Forum on Affordable Housing.

For more information, visit www.allsaints-pas.org/ or call (626) 796-1172.