This story has been updated with additional information.
Akron City Council and Mayor Shammas Malik’s administration are about to have their hands full deciding what to do with suggestions on how to improve Akron’s housing landscape.
A 65-person cohort, Akron’s Civic Assembly, voted to advance nine community proposals for consideration by the city government.
It’s a blueprint they’re calling their Plan of the People.
The proposals range in scope from creating a public, searchable database where residents could look up housing code violations tied to specific properties in Akron to offering low-cost loans to homeowners who live in their homes so they can fix safety issues and make other necessary repairs or upgrades.
The Civic Assembly came together as a joint effort between the city and Unify Akron, a division of Unify America.
Some of the proposals have been suggested by other entities. Malik announced a down payment assistance program for homebuyers at his State of the City address, for example.
Freedom BLOC is already pushing a ballot measure that would, in part, codify criminal history as a protected class so that landlords couldn’t automatically reject rental applicants based on someone’s criminal record.
Delegates share their Civic Assembly experiences
On May 21, the Civic Assembly held its closing ceremony at The Well CDC. The evening light beamed through stained glass windows as the 65 delegates were greeted with cheers, applause and Bill Withers’ “Lovely Day.”
Justine Moen, a delegate who lives and works in the Ellet neighborhood, said she appreciated meeting and deliberating “with so many fellow Akronites from different neighborhoods and backgrounds.”
“This was a meaningful reminder that people can hold different opinions and engage in constructive conversation without dissention and come together with a mutual respect and a shared commitment to our community,” Moen said.
Delegate Nicholas Starvaggi said before the closing ceremony that he “was really proud to be part of” the Civic Assembly.
“And I hope that the city receives the recommendations well and implements them,” he added.
The Beacon Journal has been speaking with Starvaggi, a resident who lives near the border of Highland Square and West Hill, throughout the Civic Assembly process. He said among the group’s proposals that really stuck with him was to treat criminal history as a protected class in housing.
He said he finds it unfair that someone with a criminal history can be denied housing even if they have “served their time, is back out in society and trying to reintegrate.”
The Beacon Journal has also been speaking with delegates Kevin Smith, a Kenmore resident, and Jasina Chapman, who lives in Highland Square, about their Civic Assembly experiences.
Sitting with Smith before the closing ceremony, Chapman called the process “worthwhile, well-orchestrated, well thought-out.”
“It was great to start, and then it progressively got better as we went on, based on the interactions and the things that we discussed – the process itself – how they facilitate, the delegates themselves, the exchanges,” Smith said. “It’s been fantastic.”
Smith, who works in financial services, said after the event that the down payment assistance proposal resonated with him because potential homeowners often have difficulty coming up with the thousands of dollars that are required for a down payment.
“In fact, I was adamant about that, and I could see some of my recommendations and comments in some of the research that we were doing as we were deliberating,” Smith said.
Chapman said she likes a proposal around the issuance of housing bonds.
“What I appreciated most about it was that it was not just, ‘How do we bring money into the city?’ but ‘How do we strategically and methodically create a plan that allows and makes room for our future and then get the money?’
“So, the important part is not only how it’s actuated afterwards, but the actuation comes to fulfilling the will and the processes that were made before the money ever came. So, we’re looking at genuine, long-term investment. So, that was really important to me.”
Mayor: ‘We can all take part in’ public process
Malik called the Civic Assembly a “beautiful way” of bringing voices into the public process.
“Government is not just something that happens to us, or at least it should not be,” Malik said. “It should be something we can all take part in. The best change, really the only effective change, is real when it happens from the bottom up.”
Contact reporter Derek Kreider at DKreider@Gannett.com or 330-541-9413.
Patrick Williams covers growth and development for the Akron Beacon Journal. He can be reached by email at pwilliams@usatodayco.com or on X @pwilliamsOH. Sign up for the Beacon Journal’s business and consumer newsletter, “What’s The Deal?”
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: ‘Plan of the People’ for housing in Akron includes repair loans, more
Reporting by Derek Kreider and Patrick Williams, Akron Beacon Journal / Akron Beacon Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
