Page 2 - Florida Sentinel 2-12-19

Feature
Hillsborough County Officials Host Housing Town Hall Meeting
LES MILLER ...Chair, Hillsborough County Board Of Commissioners
ERNEST CONEY, JR. ...President, CDC Of Tampa, Inc.
BY KENYA WOODARD Sentinel Feature Writer
So how much of a con- cern is affordable housing in Hillsborough County?
Enough to draw hun- dreds of residents last Tues- day evening to Robert Saunders Library where they offered up their collec- tive input on how the county should spend the $5.1 mil- lion it has budgeted to ad- dress the issue, which has been characterized as a cri- sis.
Commissioners Les Miller, Pat Kemp, Kim- berly Overman, and Mariella Smith attended the meeting, but did not conduct it.
Instead, residents were asked to split into small groups and answer 15 af- fordable housing-related questions using an online app or handheld device.
Participants were asked a range of questions, includ- ing if the money should be split between rental and homeownership, the loca-
CHERYL HOWELL ...Director, Hillsborough County Affordable Housing
tion in the county that has the greatest need for afford- able housing, and should more emphasis be placed on homeownership or develop- ing multi-family affordable rental housing.
The information col- lected at the meeting will be discussed “in-depth” by commissioners at their Feb. 20 meeting, Commission chair, Miller said.
Cheryl Howell, the county’s affordable housing director, assured partici- pants that their input at the meeting would count.
“This is not an exercise in futility,” she said.
But public comments after the interactive session revealed that the meeting didn’t measure up to resi- dents’ expectation.
One commented that the questions were difficult to understand, while another pointed out that the people most in need of affordable housing weren’t in the room.
According to Al Sheriff, perhaps the biggest problem
was the most obvious.
“We saw a poll of ques- tions that have nothing to do with affordable housing,” he
said.
Others, like CDC of
Tampa President, Ernest Coney, lauded the meeting as a start.
Coney, whose organiza- tion offers homebuyer edu- cation, said he would like to see the county’s priority be the development of single- family affordable housing.
“It’s one of the great eco- nomic mechanisms for fam- ilies,” he said. “It helps stabilize the families and the communities.”
However county officials move, they need to do more action than talk, said James Faison.
“Put a real formula down that will address the needs of the community,” he said.
Save the Date: Information col- lected at the public meeting will be dis- cussed at the Hillsbor- ough County Commission meeting at 9 a. m., on Thursday, Feb. 20, at the County Center, 601 E. Kennedy
Blvd., in Tampa.
Hillsborough County State Attorney To Seek Re-Election
Recently, Attorney An- drew Warren, Hillsborough County State Attorney said he will seek re-election.
“It’s an honor to serve as your State Attorney, and I’m humbled by the outpouring of support we have received from all parts of the commu- nity.
“I make this announce- ment today so we can con- tinue the hard work of building the effective, smart, and fair criminal justice sys- tem our community de- serves,” he said last week.
In his 2016 campaign, Warren laid out his vision for justice in Hillsborough County: sensible reforms that increase public safety, reduce recidivism, and protect vic- tims while promoting justice and fairness. Since entering office, Warren has quickly fulfilled many campaign promises.
He has prioritized prose- cution of violent crime, seri- ous fraud, and serial recidivism to keep dangerous individuals out of our neigh- borhoods, and he has enacted effective reforms that hold low-level offenders account- able while steering them away from the downward spiral of the criminal justice system.
Warren started an initia- tive to disarm domestic abusers. He created and ex- panded adult and juvenile civil citation programs for first-time offenders. He re- formed juvenile prosecutions to focus on violent and repeat offenders while increasing di- version for non-violent and first-time offenders.
“We need to keep more non-violent kids out of the criminal justice system. That’s how we protect taxpayers, im- prove public safety, and create
stability for our entire com- munity,” Warren said.
He has also enacted re- forms to minimize the prose- cution of poverty—citizens who end up in the criminal justice system because of an inability to pay civil fines or other debt. “Criminalizing poverty does not make our community safer.
“We want to help people avoid poverty traps by work- ing with them to regain driv- ing privileges or expunge an eligible criminal record. That leads to gainful employment, which makes our community stronger and reduces the bur- den on taxpayers.”
Warren recently created a Conviction Review Unit to identify, fix, and mitigate against the rare but unaccept- able wrongful conviction of innocent defendants. Addi- tionally, he has proactively engaged with the community and embraced transparency within the State Attorney’s Office, including launching a Community Council, publish- ing Annual Reports, and fre- quently meeting with various civic organizations to build trust with the residents of Hillsborough County.
Prior to serving as State Attorney, Warren was a fed- eral prosecutor with the United States Department of Justice in Tampa and Wash- ington, D. C., where he earned the prestigious Attorney’s General Award for Trial Liti- gation and served as an in- structor at the Justice Department’s national train- ing center.
ANDREW WARREN Hillsborough County State Attorney
PAGE 2 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2019