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Q&A
Perris Straughter on enforcing fair housing targets and council accountability
1:20:00
·
4 min
Commissioner Sharon Greenberger questions Perris Straughter on enforcing the Fair Housing Framework and ensuring accountability for meeting housing targets.
Straughter suggests a two-pronged approach: providing resources for land use actions in underperforming neighborhoods (emphasizing neighborhood-level planning and rezonings) and legally empowering structures within the ULURP process, such as giving the City Council Speaker more authority relative to individual members regarding applications that come for a vote. He stresses that institutional success requires leadership, integrity, and checks and balances, and that influencing council members involves ongoing work from various stakeholders including the Speaker's office and other council members.
Sharon Greenberger
1:20:00
Thank you so much.
1:20:02
I might start with just a general statement, I think, on behalf of my fellow commissioners.
1:20:06
I think one of the things that we've been struggling with, which we've heard so much about, is how to really enforce something like the fair housing framework.
1:20:14
How do we keep people accountable to meeting those targets?
1:20:18
You talked a little bit about how you might how you propose to do that.
1:20:22
One was giving the speaker more authority to hold those council members accountable.
1:20:27
Can you talk a little bit more about how to truly enforce then accountability of either the framework or the targets or any other comprehensive measure that we might wanna take into account?
Perris Straughter
1:20:38
Yeah.
1:20:38
Well, I I think there's two components about of that.
1:20:41
There's, on one hand, providing, well, intention and resources around actually enabling land use actions that occur in those areas.
1:20:52
So these neighborhoods that are not meeting housing fair housing targets.
1:20:56
And then there's kind of legally, how do we actually help hold the structures in the EULAR process accountable?
1:21:02
So that, you know, the so addressing number one first, you know, our housing crisis is not gonna be solved through just private applications.
1:21:11
If we wanna see the needle move in these neighborhoods, particularly neighborhoods that are not addressing the the housing need and not contributing their fair share, we need to actually plan in these neighborhoods.
1:21:22
And that's rezoning, but it's also about infrastructure, etcetera.
1:21:27
So that requires resources.
1:21:29
That requires intentionality.
1:21:31
And I think there really needs to be a there really needs to be something that directs the administration as well as city council to do that.
1:21:44
And I think that could start with community boards by actually giving them the tools and giving them increased power with, again, the the directive that they have to actually meet those housing targets and that they they're not gonna be able to avoid that.
1:21:58
So that's one.
1:22:00
On on number two, there's ways that you know, I mentioned the giving the speaker more power as opposed to the council as it relates to applications that the council takes up for a vote.
1:22:14
That's something that could be change that would give the speaker more power relative to individual members and the council as a whole.
1:22:25
And that could help in theory with this this problem.
1:22:28
You know, at the end of the day, you know, if if our institutions are functioning properly, they require a certain amount of leadership.
1:22:37
They require a certain amount of integrity, etcetera.
1:22:40
They require checks and balances.
1:22:42
That's a large part of what I've been saying today.
1:22:45
You, you know, you you're not gonna get out of the the the requirement that there there's some checks and balances.
1:22:52
But by giving the speaker more power relative to an individual member, it changes the power dynamics and, I think, ways that could really influence land use outcomes where there are problems.
1:23:05
And I happen to think the problems are more limited Mhmm.
1:23:07
Than that's been talked about, but, certainly, there there are there are problems.
Sharon Greenberger
1:23:11
And just one more question.
1:23:12
How would you move the council members on an individually to reach that same consensus point that you're at?
Perris Straughter
1:23:20
How do we move the council members individually?
Sharon Greenberger
1:23:23
Yeah.
1:23:23
To to enable speaker authority, let's say.
Perris Straughter
1:23:28
Oh, well, I guess what I'm saying is that there's probably a legal way where you can just empower the speaker.
1:23:34
So I think that's the thing to explore more.
1:23:36
But in terms of, you know, influencing council members and moving them to do what's needed.
1:23:43
I mean, that's what I do every day.
1:23:45
Yes.
1:23:46
Do.
1:23:46
Every single day.
1:23:47
And, of course, speaker's office has a huge role in that as well.
1:23:50
True.
1:23:51
And and I should say other council members.
1:23:53
You know, people look at the council as, like, individual members when it comes to land use, but that's not actually how it works.
1:24:01
The individual member might be
Carl Unegbu
1:24:02
taking the lead on
Perris Straughter
1:24:03
negotiations, but the subcommittee members are involved.
1:24:07
The land use committee members are involved.
1:24:10
Speaker's office is involved.
1:24:12
The leadership of the council, which is the speaker and certain key folks, council members, they're involved.
1:24:18
There's a lot of kind of players in the mix to get to an eventual negotiated solution on a project.