FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Fayetteville City Council members failed to pass a proposal from council member Sarah Moore that would have earmarked $1 million of funds from the American Rescue Plan Act to help with housing.
"When the task force gets together and they make those recommendations, we don't want them to have to stop, to have to say, ‘Where do I find the funds?’ And, ‘Oh, the funds are not available,'" Moore said during the meeting on June 4. "We want those solutions to be able to hit the ground running."
In April, the city council declared a housing crisis in Fayetteville.
"Over the past several years, telling us their stories of not being able to find housing, housing is too expensive," council member D’Andre Jones said. "Whether it's university students, families, educators, senior citizens, it has been a problem for so many reasons."
The city plans to tackle the housing issue with a task force.
"We're putting together a task force to help us come up with some recommendations on how to deal with that crisis," council member Bob Stafford said.
The proposal was voted down 5-3.
During the June 4 meeting, some city council members suggested the reallocation of funds would be taken away from other departments.
"I think it's unfair for us to potentially take dollars away from the parks department unless we get a full clarification of what these funds are earmarked for," council member Scott Berna said during the meeting.
Other council members said the priorities of the city and its citizens lie in housing affordability and not other departments.
"I love our parks, and we have great parks," Stafford said. "But when I was running last fall, not one person said to me, "Bob, we need bocce ball.' What they say to me is, ‘Bob, my kids can't afford to live in the city.'"
Despite the proposal not passing, Stafford said he is still hopeful the council will be able to address the housing issue in other ways.
"We need to be looking at rezoning in a major way," Stafford said. "We need to be looking at our codes that haven't been updated since the 70s, and some go back to the 50s, and they're not working for where we're at now."
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