By Emily Ford
eford@salisburypost.com
SALISBURY — Even though it lacks the teeth neighborhood advocates originally wanted, Salisbury’s new Housing Advocacy Commission has earned wide support and the unanimous endorsement of City Council.
Establishing the long-awaited housing group will improve living conditions in the city, Mayor Pro Tem Maggie Blackwell said Tuesday when City Council voted to create the commission.
While many people have worked for years toward this goal, “heartbreaking photos” shown at a council meeting last year of poor living conditions in two rental homes jump-started the process, Blackwell said.
A task force appointed by City Council and made up of landlords and neighborhood advocates held several at-times contentious meetings and eventually made numerous recommendations, including establishment of a housing commission.
On a split vote, the task force did not recommend a rental property registration and inspection program that would have charged a fee to landlords.
Blackwell and Councilman Brian Miller honed the task force recommendations to come up with the housing commission structure approved Tuesday. Commission members, who will be appointed by City Council, will help settle disputes between tenants and landlords, recommend new minimum housing standards, listen to fair housing complaints and more.
The initial concept would have “pitted one citizen against another,” Miller said.
“This approach gives us the opportunity to put appropriate focus on the issues of better housing … but at the same time, do it in a manner that is proactive rather than punitive,” he said.
Many neighborhood leaders attended Tuesday’s meeting but only two — Lou Manning, advocate for Park Avenue, and William Peoples, advocate for the West End — spoke during the public hearing. Both favored the housing commission.
“It’s a good first step, but way short of what most residents wanted,” said Garth Birdsey, advocate for Park Avenue who attended the hearing but didn’t speak.
At a housing forum last spring, more than 100 people attended. One of the top priorities was a rental inspection program, but landlords said it would be costly, inconvenient and punitive.
Despite disappointment the new commission won’t regulate rental housing, neighborhood advocates at the City Council meeting Tuesday support the compromise, Birdsey said.
“Hopefully it will do some good and become more involved later,” he said. “Ultimately, there was no opposition to the plan, they just wished it had been a little bit stronger.”
No one else spoke during the public hearing because it was obvious council members had made up their minds, he said.
While some hope the city eventually will give the commission more power, others don’t want to take that route.
“It will be very important for councils in the future to maintain the common-sense approach that this particular ordinance draft recommends,” Miller said, “where we’re working together to pull everybody up, as opposed to trying to find one segment of our community to go after.”
The new housing commission will improve living standards, as well as property values, Blackwell said. As the value of rental property increases, so will the neighbors’ homes, she said.
Councilman Paul Woodson said the housing commission “has been a long time coming” and praised volunteers for many hours of work.
Housing conditions in several areas were bad when he took office 18 years ago, Councilman William “Pete” Kennedy said.
“Housing has greatly improved, but since the economy (faltered) we are now sliding back again,” Kennedy said.
The new commission should help stop that trend and improve the condition of housing stock, he said.
Mayor Susan Kluttz encouraged anyone who wants to serve on the nine-member commission to contact City Hall or apply online at www.salisburync.gov .