City Hall
Council Members Skeptical About Mayor's Housing Office Merger Proposal
City council members contacted today were skeptical about Mayor Mike McGinn's proposal to merge the city's Office of Housing, which oversees the city's housing levy and other city housing funds, and its Office of Economic Development, a move McGinn said
yesterday would save $338,000 and "allow for greater collaboration among housing and economic development policy and programs to build strong communities and to support citizens towards self-sufficiency, with services ranging from housing to employment assistance."
Additionally, about 15 local housing leaders met with the mayor yesterday to learn about the plan. Henry Hoffman, head of the Housing Development Consortium, said the groups were "certainly willing to listen" to McGinn's idea, but that "it's hard to picture" a consolidated housing/economic development department being as devoted to housing as a stand-alone housing office.
PubliCola hears the change McGinn is proposing would effectively consolidate the housing office into OED, canning current housing director Rick Hooper job and creating a new, lower-level job for an division director who would report to current OED director Steve Johnson, who would head the new department.
Members of the council's housing committee who had seen details of the proposal seemed skeptical.
"My initial reaction is to want to protect [the] housing [office] from anything that would affect its ability to deliver services such as oversight of the housing levy," says housing committee chair Nick Licata. "I'm sympathetic to the mayor wanting to cut, wherever possible, duplication of management, but there's a lot of coordination that needs to happen" for a consolidated department to work.
Committee vice-chair Sally Clark adds, "I'm kind of predisposed to not like the consolidation, honestly, because I do feel like Seattle has done an outstanding job making housing a top priority. ... I haven't been won over yet. I'd like to talk with housing advocates and with the mayor's staff in terms of what do you get from this that's better? Housing's a pretty high priority for me, and I'm not wild about the symbolism of potentially downgrading it."
And committee member Tom Rasmussen says that although $338,000 is not a small amount of money ("every penny counts"), "I'm concerned that [the two offices] have such different missions. It'll be very interesting to see how they're going to resolve that."
Harry Hoffman, executive director of the HDC, seemed more firmly opposed to the merger. Hoffman said that while his group was "willing to meet with the mayor," McGinn's proposal is "not the idea we'd like to see." Compared to years in which housing has been part of other departments, he says, "as a stand-alone department it's been the most responsive to stakeholders an had the clearest focus on what they need to get done."
Earlier this year, HDC and other housing groups joined council members in opposing the idea of eliminating the independent housing office.
McGinn will release his proposed budget for next year on Monday at 2:00 in city council chambers. His spokesman Aaron Pickus tells PubliCola that "any staff impacts will be detailed in the budget proposal on Monday."
Additionally, about 15 local housing leaders met with the mayor yesterday to learn about the plan. Henry Hoffman, head of the Housing Development Consortium, said the groups were "certainly willing to listen" to McGinn's idea, but that "it's hard to picture" a consolidated housing/economic development department being as devoted to housing as a stand-alone housing office.
PubliCola hears the change McGinn is proposing would effectively consolidate the housing office into OED, canning current housing director Rick Hooper job and creating a new, lower-level job for an division director who would report to current OED director Steve Johnson, who would head the new department.
Members of the council's housing committee who had seen details of the proposal seemed skeptical.
"My initial reaction is to want to protect [the] housing [office] from anything that would affect its ability to deliver services such as oversight of the housing levy," says housing committee chair Nick Licata. "I'm sympathetic to the mayor wanting to cut, wherever possible, duplication of management, but there's a lot of coordination that needs to happen" for a consolidated department to work.
Committee vice-chair Sally Clark adds, "I'm kind of predisposed to not like the consolidation, honestly, because I do feel like Seattle has done an outstanding job making housing a top priority. ... I haven't been won over yet. I'd like to talk with housing advocates and with the mayor's staff in terms of what do you get from this that's better? Housing's a pretty high priority for me, and I'm not wild about the symbolism of potentially downgrading it."
And committee member Tom Rasmussen says that although $338,000 is not a small amount of money ("every penny counts"), "I'm concerned that [the two offices] have such different missions. It'll be very interesting to see how they're going to resolve that."
Harry Hoffman, executive director of the HDC, seemed more firmly opposed to the merger. Hoffman said that while his group was "willing to meet with the mayor," McGinn's proposal is "not the idea we'd like to see." Compared to years in which housing has been part of other departments, he says, "as a stand-alone department it's been the most responsive to stakeholders an had the clearest focus on what they need to get done."
Earlier this year, HDC and other housing groups joined council members in opposing the idea of eliminating the independent housing office.
McGinn will release his proposed budget for next year on Monday at 2:00 in city council chambers. His spokesman Aaron Pickus tells PubliCola that "any staff impacts will be detailed in the budget proposal on Monday."
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