Will a new department of housing help solve Lexington’s gentrification problem?
The city of Lexington is inching toward the creation of a new city department that will oversee all aspects of housing — including homelessness, affordable housing and gentrification.
The creation of the Department of Housing Advocacy and Community Development was a key recommendation of Mayor Linda Gorton’s Commission on Racial Justice and Equality, which released a report last year with more than 54 recommendations to address racial inequality in government, economic development, health care. education and housing.
A subcommittee on housing and gentrification recommended the city create a housing advocate so residents have a voice and say in housing issues. The subcommittee also recommended the city revamp its building code enforcement, up its investment in rapidly gentrifying areas — including the city’s East Side — and spend more on affordable housing.
The new department would bring several divisions that are currently in various city departments under one umbrella, said Jenifer Wuorenmaa, a senior administrator, during a Tuesday Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council committee meeting.
Those divisions include:
- The Office of Homelessness Prevention and Intervention
- The Office of Affordable Housing
- The Division of Code Enforcement
- The Division of Historic Preservation
- The Division of Grants and Special Programs
- The Division of Community and Resident Services
The mission of the new department is to create equitable and fair neighborhoods and to make sure the city’s policies and various city, state and federal funding streams are being used to further that goal, Wuorenmaa told the council’s General Government and Social Service Committee.
Lexington has long struggled with how to keep low-income homeowners from being priced out of rapidly gentrifying areas such as on the city’s East End and along the Georgetown Road corridor. Residents in those areas have long complained that unscrupulous home flippers are abusing the city’s code enforcement ordinances to make complaints against poor homeowners who don’t have the money to fix code violations, forcing those homeowners to sell.
“The development of this department is just the first step,” Wuorenmaa said. Gorton’s administration is also looking at a new program that will help low-income homeowners fix code enforcement violations rather than face steep fines that can sometimes lead to foreclosure. More details about the program will be outlined at a later date, she said.
To hire a commissioner and a senior administrator to oversee the new department will likely cost upwards of $299,566.84. That figure includes salary and benefits for two senior-level administrators.
Because it will take time to hire those two staffers, the estimated cost in the first year will likely be $224,675.13.
Gorton will include the two new positions in her budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1. It will likely take three months to hire for the new positions, Wuorenmaa said. Gorton’s budget proposal will be unveiled in the next few months. The council will then have an opportunity to make changes to that budget.
During Tuesday’s General Government and Social Services Committee meeting, several council members said they supported the new department. Some had questions about which city divisions will be moved under the umbrella of the Department of Housing Advocacy and Community Development.
The city had a planning commissioner during former Mayor Jim Gray’s administration. The planning commissioner oversaw all aspects of the city’s planning department. Gorton, for a variety of reasons, moved that department under Chief Development Officer Kevin Atkins.
Vice Mayor Steve Kay said planning, which includes zoning, should also be included in the new Department of Housing Advocacy and Community Development.
“It’s crucial in all of our decisions about housing,” Kay said.
Councilman Richard Moloney, a former chief administrative officer for the city, cautioned against moving planning and all housing-related divisions under one commissioner.
“It’s just too much for one person,” Moloney said. “That’s how you burn people out.”
The Racial Justice and Equality Commission recommended the city create an office of housing advocate. Yet the proposed reorganization did not include that specific position, some council members said Tuesday.
Wuorenmaa said there were multiple staff members in those current divisions who may be able to step into the role of advocate.
Councilman Fred Brown said he needed to know more before he could support the new department.
“I’ve got a lot of detailed questions that I don’t want to go into now,” Brown said.
Kay said during Tuesday’s meeting the council may revisit the issue in coming months to get some of those questions answered, prior to when the council must approve the budget in June.
