Reynolds Virtual Town Hall April 7
Candidate for re-election to Council Crampsie Smith:
- affordable housing is my passion
- over the past 5 years has seen significant increase in her students homeless and transient
- we have an affordable housing crisis
- that is, housing for the work force population, the lower-middle and middle class
- in Lehigh Valley 3 of 5 homeowners are “cost-burdened”
- Bethlehem: in 2010, 20,000 units over a $1,000 to rent, in 2019 that jumped to 45,000
- worse for renters
- people born and raised here can’t afford to live here
- majority of our development lately has been high-end
- we need more diverse housing
- that’s why I started the Affordable Housing Task Force
Candidate for mayor Councilman Reynolds:
- crisis at a level we’ve never seen
- after pandemic the cost of housing is likely to get even higher
- it’s a bigger issue than we think it is because many people don’t want to admit it’s an issue
- post-pandemic goal is to tie economic incentives to affordable housing mission
- also have to look at other issues burdening people, for instance food
- what are the cost-drivers?
- must look at our systems, a lot of them shown by the pandemic as not working
- must expand the different issues associated with housing costs