…since my last post.  I’ve been very busy getting ramped up to the duties of being on Council, but as they say, “excuses are for other people.”  So let’s just take it from there and move on.

As I said in the campaign, affordable housing is my #1 priority, therefore on June 2nd, I moved to create an Affordable Housing Task Force with the expressed purpose of distilling all that we know and can learn about this very important issue into a set of recommendations for Council to vote on in September.  The Task Force is operating in an advisory capacity and will not be implementing policy on its own.  This gives the group the broadest authority to consider many aspects of affordable housing, namely:

–To the extent that Fredericksburg has experienced market failure in providing afordable housing for lower and middle income earners, what housing is most needed and where can we start?

–What improvements can be made to update our existing zoning ordinance to accomodate, encourage and support non-profit organizations like the Habitat for Humanity in their efforts to build and provide homes for those in need?

–What programs can we implement to educate first time home buyers to help them prepare their credit and finances when securing financing?

–What tax credit programs (local and federal) can we promote to encourage development of affordable housing in our area?

–What organizational changes must our City and County consider to staff an entity with the purpose of overseeing the programs we decide to implement?

These are just a few of the questions before the Task Force.  Please provide any thoughts and ideas you might have that could assist us in this very important endeavor.

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