Housing is a human right, plain and simple. To survive, we need a roof over our head, but just because we need it does not mean that we should be forced to accept lower quality housing than our suburban counterparts who surround our city on all sides. To make matters worse, the cost of rent in our city and county is rising faster than our wages are. This means that rent is eating up more and more of our paycheck with every year that passes, some residents paying up to half of their income in rent, if not more! This doesn’t even take into account the rising cost of food, utility bills, and car insurance that we need to be able to afford. Not to mention, when we pay rent, we expect a quality living space free of pests, safety hazards and health risks, however this is not always what we receive. Everyone deserves to live with affordable, high quality housing no matter where we live. 

As your Pontiac City Councilperson, I will fight to:

• Bring affordable, modern, high quality housing to the residents of Pontiac.
• Ensure housing affordability and security for all, including investing resources to provide permanent housing for homeless Pontiac residents.
• Hold landlords accountable for the decreasing quality of living on their properties, despite increasing costs.
• Hold city slumlords accountable for taking advantage of vulnerable residents, and profiting off of our forced desperation.
• Establish a “Tenants’ Rights” ordinance that applies to tenants regardless of whether they are on in an unlicensed rental, not on the lease, in a legal or illegal sublet, etc.
• Establish the right to housing counsel for all tenants within the city.
• Establish a city definition of “Just Cause Eviction” which prevents an owner or landlord from issuing a lease termination or non-renewal notice without first showing a “Good Cause” reason why the lease should be terminated.
• Re-evaluate and change the city’s single-family exclusionary zoning to allow more affordable housing within the city.
• Require housing developments that receive tax breaks from the city to set aside a percentage of the units as affordable, income based housing.