Jefferson City Council sends housing strategy back to administrative committee
Nia Hinson
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)
Jefferson City will not move forward with a housing strategy in the city for the time being.
City leaders voted on Monday night to send the strategy– aimed at helping the city with its long-term housing options– back to the administrative committee for review of the contract. The vote was 5-5, with Mayor Ron Fitzwater casting the tie-breaking vote.
The city has plans to send it back to the city council for a vote at a later date.
The city is considering the contract with Housing Innovations Group. The contract would cost the city $90,185. Funding for the contract will come from the community development block grant-disaster recovery account, if approved.
A housing needs assessment conducted in 2022 suggested that the city is in housing crisis, due to a current and projected lack of affordable housing. The need for the strategy was identified during a work session of the Capital City Housing Task Force.
Capital City Housing Taskforce Chair Susan Cook addressed council members Monday night with a presentation aimed at getting council members to sign-off on the idea. Several council members pushed back, saying they felt they needed to know more about the strategy before voting and inquired about what the strategy would actually achieve.
Following the meeting, Cook said she was disappointed with the council’s decision.
“I think a lot of them were concerned about the $90,000 and felt like that was a lot of money to be spending on a strategy,” Cook said. “I don’t think they fully understood that it’s not just building more housing. There’s preserving housing stock, there’s dealing with tenant protections. There’s a whole gauntlet when you’re talking about housing and it seems like this council was focusing more on just building new construction.”
Ward 3 Councilwoman Treaka Young was among those who voted to send the strategy back to the administrative committee. Prior to the vote, Young told ABC News she is an advocate for affordable housing in the city, but had her concerns.
“Housing is necessary around here, we need it. There’s a serious shortage here in the city with the housing and it’s preventing the city from moving forward and expanding,” Young said. “I want to make sure that approving this will not take away from the roads being able to be repaired in a fashion that would help us as well.”
The city said during Monday night’s meeting that the strategy would not take away from funds allocated for roads.
Cook said it it’s too early to know when the city council will vote on the strategy again. She said it will depend on when the item will get put back on the administrative committee’s calendar. It also isn’t clear what the $90,000 would go toward if it ultimately is not approved, though Cook said she hopes it would be put toward another project.
Cook said she’s worried about the funds having a deadline and being crunched for time trying to spedn the money on the strategy before the deadline arrives.
“This could definitely be a process,” Cook said. “It’s taken me two years for the task force to get to this point so if we spend another length of time, it’s not going to leave a lot of time to spend those funds on the actual strategy.”
City leaders also unanimously voted to approve the first phase of a 140-unit gated community on Wildwood Drive. Developers have now been given the green light to start the process of building the first phase of duplexes.