FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Two items related to housing were tabled at the Fayetteville City Council meeting on Tuesday, March 19. One resolution was to declare a housing crisis in the city. The council voted 7-1 and 8-0 to table both resolution for two weeks to allow the city attorney to draft a new resolution that would combine them.
D'Andre Jones, Ward 1 Position 2 city council member hosted a rally outside Fayetteville City Hall on Monday night to explain what the resolution he sponsored would entail and what declaring a housing crisis means.
"This crisis is impacting the quality of life of for our residents in so many different ways. And so we are here to intervene and alleviate and do what we can as a community," Jones said. "We will be unified because we're all working to create a best outcome as it relates to affordable housing, as it relates to the housing crisis period, to make things better for everyone in Fayetteville."
The resolution would declare an official housing crisis in Fayetteville, create a special task force that would bring solutions to the city council when it comes to housing, and hire someone as a housing coordinator for the city.
Numerous non-profits came to back the resolution including New Beginnings, an organization that provides a transitional self-run housing community for those experiencing chronic homelessness. Soloman Burchfield, executive director for New Beginnings, says the lack of affordable housing is something he sees too often. It affected 16,000 families in Fayetteville.
"Affordable housing is when you pay about 30% of your monthly income on your rent," Buchfield said. "16,000 families struggling to pay rent and therefore struggling to put food on the table and pay for education and health care for the kids."
The other resolution on the agenda is a resolution "summarizing the actions taken and anticipated to support housing production in the City of Fayetteville." This means it would state the things done so far to address housing concerns and establish a need for action moving forward. Also, the council would agree to continue to work with stakeholders to make housing more affordable.
Jones said he'd like to see these two resolutions merged as it would unify the council for the same goal.
"There's no perfect solution, but our citizens demand to be heard. They have the right to be heard. We're hearing them. And we're going to do everything that we can to alleviate this housing crisis and as much as we possibly can," Jones said.
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