Priorities were a big topic of conversation at Springfield City Council’s meeting last night.
"We all want every person in Springfield to have housing that is safe and accessible," Alice Barber with Springfield Tenants Unite told City Council on Monday, May 20. "We want more affordable housing. We all want our city to be a place where people choose to live, not a place where people live because they have no other choice.”
Springfield Tenants Unite, or STUN, is a renters union formed during the pandemic that’s been increasingly vocal about Springfield housing and poverty issues in recent months.
Springfield has a city webpage with a lengthy explanation of the city’s key policy priorities — in other words, the most important things the city’s elected leaders believe the city must do. Some of the priorities affect local affairs, and some cover Springfield’s relationship with state lawmakers in Jefferson City.
Local priorities include five broad topics: “quality of place,” working with state lawmakers, “fiscal sustainability and accountability,” “economic vitality” and “public safety.”
Last fall, city officials started a discussion as to whether housing should be added to the list. Officials cited longstanding Springfield problems as documented in a housing study last year: Median household income is only about $38,000, about half the U.S. average. Springfield’s poverty rate is 22%, roughly double the U.S. average. And the homeownership rate within city limits is just 42% — meaning most Springfield residents rent the place where they live.
Ultimately, City Council voted 8-to-zero to add “quality housing options” to the city’s priority list.
“Our neighborhoods need better," said northwest Springfield Councilmember Monica Horton. "And including quality housing options is a significant step in the right direction. Housing quality, accessibility and options is everybody’s business.”
Horton also noted that many of Springfield’s nuisance properties are concentrated in north Springfield's Zone 1, which she represents.
The housing priority resolution takes effect immediately and calls on Springfield to promote homeownership and improve rental conditions through enforcing city code. It also says Springfield needs to support emergency housing needs and expand property reinvestment incentives.
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