Mayor touts city's achievements in housing; tenant union responds
Robert BellOn Wednesday, Mayor Malik Evans updated the city on the progress of the Housing Quality Task Force, established a year prior to combat Rochester's housing crisis.
During a press conference at City Hall, Evans touted the city's achievements in promoting responsible ownership, repair, and improvement programs, and increasing the supply of quality housing through its "Buy The Block Program."
"This has never happened in the city of Rochester," Evans said at the City Hall press conference. "We have switched the conversation from a poverty mindset to a prosperity mindset."
According to the United States Census Bureau, 40% of Rochester's renters earn at most $20,000 per year and 83% of those households are rent-burdened, meaning they spend over 30% of their income on rent.
Ritti Singh, a communications organizer at Housing Justice For All, said that many residents are faced with the difficult choice between an affordable but substandard home or an expensive but well-maintained one.
"A lot of people are having to choose between a really bad home they can afford or an expensive home not in their budget but in better condition," Singh said.
The first six homes under the "Buy The Block Program" are under construction and expected to be completed by the end of March. Applications for these homes have been submitted to the city, and a lottery will determine the occupants.
An additional 18 homes will be completed by the end of the year, with applications reopening in the spring in partnership with the Rochester Financial Empowerment Center.
The Task Force has taken steps to address the issue of neglected properties and absentee landlords, hiring a housing attorney and taking more properties to court in the last four months than in recent years.
Mayor Evans also expressed his determination to target absentee landlords, saying, "I'll take your property."
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However, Liz McGriff from the Rochester City-Wide Tenant Union (CWTU) expressed skepticism, noting that tenants have yet to experience the progress the city claims to have made.
"When code enforcement comes, they're usually much harder on the tenants than the residents," she said.
The Tenant Union left the coalition in June 2022 due to concerns that it did not adequately represent the needs of Rochester's citizens and believes that initiatives to help tenants purchase their homes would be a more effective solution.
"Tenants have been living in buildings for 30 years, then a new owner comes, and they have to move out because the landlord wants to raise the rent," McGriff said. "This has been going on for decades and decades… the neglect. Is the task force going to change any of that? I'm not exactly sure, but I'm waiting to see."
Despite these challenges, Mayor Evans tried to end the press conference on a positive note, saying, "We're going to have challenges, but we're going to keep planting the seeds."
Contact Robert Bell at: rlbell@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter: @byrobbell & Instagram: @byrobbell. This coverage is only possible with support from our readers.