The Housing and Community Development Committee reviewed community feedback of the city’s draft Strategic Housing Plan on Tuesday night in preparation for its recommendation on the housing plan at its Nov. 18 meeting.
Prior to that meeting, the committee will hold a special meeting to further discuss their feedback on the plan, nicknamed “Housing4All.” City Council is slated to review and accept the plan in December.
The 10-year plan is designed to address Evanston’s housing-related challenges. The plan calls for “preserving and creating” 3,000 to 5,000 housing units by 2035.
The first draft was made available for public review on Sept. 12, and over a month later, city staff gathered community feedback through an online poll.
Senior Housing Planner Uri Pachter presented the findings, pulled from the form’s over 670 responses. Residents’ concerns surrounded property taxes, density upzoning, housing costs, rental assistance, sustainability and public transit.
Nearly 70% of respondents “strongly agree” or “somewhat agree” the city should prioritize protecting residents from displacement. Other issues, like whether the city should prioritize updating the zoning code to facilitate housing development, divided respondents with about 50% agreeing and about 45% disagreeing.
Several community members showed up for public comment with a mixed bag of praise and criticism.
Sixth Ward resident and homeowner Sarah Petersen, executive director of housing justice nonprofit Open Communities, applauded the city for thinking “holistically” about housing solutions. She listed preservation of existing housing, development of new affordable housing and protection of tenants from displacement as examples.
“Many of our neighbors are at real risk of losing their homes,” Peterson said. “I urge us to be thoughtful in our approach, but also be efficient, so we can start addressing this crisis as soon as possible.”
Seventh Ward resident Frank Hill, vice president of Rezoning for a Better Evanston, said he is “overall impressed” by the draft so far, but urged city staff to include more specifics about the city’s approach to implementing the plan.
President of Rezoning for a Better Evanston Roger Williams followed Hill, pointing out the plan’s vague goal to “eradicate segregation by narrowing the variation of household income, race and net worth by census tract.”
“That’s an honorable, and yet unachievable goal, unless it is accompanied by a realistic plan,” Williams said.
Pachter said the team’s research has drawn a strong correlation between race and income in Evanston, and he cites this housing inequity as a key focus of what the plan hopes to address.
Ald. Juan Geracaris (9th) added that the next draft should emphasize housing inequity because “it’ll be important for residents to see that there.”
“We are losing our racial and socioeconomic diversity,” Geracaris said.
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