Lesson learned, housing champions must emerge

Members of the Cedar Rapids City Council refused to rezone city land along Edgewood Road for a 45-unit, mixed-income housing complex that would have removed five homeless households from the street.

The decision casts aside $280,000 for sale of the land and an $8 million grant that would have funded 90 percent of the planned affordable housing development.

By any measure the decision is disappointing. That the project was derailed by citizens who readily confess the community's need while demanding it can't be addressed near them is offensive.

A city housing survey shows the need. Nearly 3,300 general occupancy units are required by 2020, about 20 percent of which need to be affordable.

So, it is perplexing, given the benefits and cost efficiencies of the proposed Crestwood Ridge complex, that some city leaders - Ron Corbett, Justin Shields and Scott Olson - would choose to ignore the larger housing shortage while bending to an onslaught of unfounded concerns and widespread misinformation.

Citizens have learned a lesson: Noise trumps need and reason.

Corbett and Shields, especially, parroted already debunked reasons for killing the project. And, in doing so, they whitewashed existing infrastructure deficiencies as outlined by neighborhood residents - deficiencies the developer pledged to address in a manner above city standards, which now are poised to exist in perpetuity.

The five previously homeless households slated to live in this complex would have been housed alongside on-site support services provided by Willis Dady. All other residents would be wage earners - military veterans, hospitality workers, teachers, construction workers, city crew members and others - who bring home wages less than the area median.

Corbett's assertion that these working families would regularly require community assistance available only in other sections of the city is a departure from reality. It's tough to swallow that our Mayor stood in favor of economic segregation, a multifaceted problem city leaders typically work to mitigate.

Corbett and Shields chose to perpetuate the myth that the Cedar Rapids Community School District is unprepared or unable to meet its obligation to all students. Superintendent Brad Buck stood at the public hearing and soundly rejected such nonsense. We stand with him.

The opportunity provided by this project has been squandered. Clearly, changes must be forth coming.

We call again for the city to reactivate the decade-dormant Affordable Housing Commission, which is mandated by municipal code, and to expand the policy toolbox to combat housing insecurity. To prevent housing discrimination as a matter of course, Cedar Rapids should follow the lead of its neighbors by including 'lawful source of income” in its civil rights code. Alternative zoning, such as inclusivity, needs further exploration.

Worsening housing shortages and cost burdens require fearless and thoughtful champions. As we learned Tuesday night, not all council members possess those attributes.

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