Editor’s note: This commentary is by Charles Winkleman, who is a young professional and the chair of the Burlington Progressive Party. The views expressed here are his own.
[L]et’s be honest, there are some very good parts of the Burlington Town Center (BTC) redevelopment proposal, including increased property and sales taxes, expanded walkable downtown core, and increased housing and entertainment options, most of which will benefit our wealthier residents and tourists. While an argument can be made that BTC will help stabilize already high citywide rents, for us average residents it won’t address any other pressing economic issues, such as raising our stagnant wages, lowering our health insurance costs or student loan debt, or offering us new high-paying job opportunities. In fact there have been very few policies on the local level that take a holistic approach to helping lower income residents, and the benefits of the mall project, along with the city’s singular focus on market-rate housing, will unfortunately not better most of our lives.
The mall is being redeveloped within a changing political backdrop in Burlington, where a huge paradigm shift is taking place. Under Mayors Sanders and Clavelle, wealthy developers and business owners were expected to pay their fair share to build in our city. Yet under current city policy we have fallen for the same trappings that many larger cities face, prioritizing the needs of developers, powerful business interests, and wealthy citizens at the expense of long-term, sustained progress. This paradigm shift threatens to reverse 30 years of Progressive values, values that foster our local, sustainable downtown economy.
This shift plays out most clearly in our city’s new trickle-down, market-based housing policies. Excluding the BTC project, developers in the city are building over 900 new market rate units (affordable to those making 100 percent of area median income and paying no more than 30 percent of pre-taxed income to household rent and utilities), where two-bedroom apartments will range from $1,600-$2,000 a month, and they are building roughly 200 inclusionary zoning units (affordable to those making 65 percent of area median income), where a one-bedroom apartment will average $1,000 a month. To put this in perspective, our school paraeducators and Howard Center workers, among many others — working professionals with college degrees — make so little that some don’t even qualify for inclusionary zoning units. How many people reading this, downtown workers or otherwise, can afford these steep rents?
Under current city policy we have fallen for the same trappings that many larger cities face, prioritizing the needs of developers, powerful business interests, and wealthy citizens at the expense of long-term, sustained progress.
More concerning is the lack of affordable housing being built for those making less than 65 percent of area median income under our affordable housing mayor. Bernie Sanders raised vacancy rates to 5 percent by the time he left office in 1990 by focusing on housing for low-income residents. This policy benefited every resident, as housing supply grew to offer diverse housing choices to all. While vacancy rental rates in the city currently hover between 3 and 5 percent, vacancy rates for those making less than 65 percent area median income are negative. The waiting list for low-income senior housing in Burlington has grown to over 600 names, while the list for Section 8 housing is currently 1,700 names long and requires waits of eight to 10 years to receive housing. The housing crisis is far from solved.
While it is true that there are less federal subsidies today than in the ’80s or ’90s to develop low-income housing, the commitment in City Hall to help those folks is also lacking. CEDO retired the assistant director of (affordable) housing position in 2012 and since then city officials have worked to severely weaken inclusionary zoning requirements. The mayor’s market-rate housing policies will soon solve the housing crisis for upper-middle class residents, but the deeper and longer lasting lower-income housing crisis is being ignored and exasperated.
In a Burlington Free Press article (Knodell seeks diversity, not adversity, March 8, 2015), Jane Knodell, Progressive City Council president, stated, “Progressives are open to increasing supply, but they’re skeptical that it would reduce rents across the board. … You have to build housing that is affordable to medium-income people and below.” It is clear that recent city policy, along with the redeveloped BTC proposal, have failed to meet these Progressive standards.
The controversy around the Burlington Town Center isn’t just about the Burlington Town Center; it’s about what community values we deem important. I believe that no family in Burlington should go hungry, that no family should live in substandard or overpriced housing, and that by ensuring that residents on the lower end of the economic spectrum thrive, we help everyone thrive. I believe that it’s the city’s job to prioritize the needs of low-income residents first, rather than having them fight over leftover housing due to trickle-down, market-driven policies.
It’s time for us to reassert our community values, namely helping all Burlingtonians thrive regardless of socioeconomic status. This value, strengthened over the past 30 years of Progressive administrations, is what created our beautiful, vibrant, equitable, award-winning city. Join me Nov. 8 in voting “yes” to equitable development and holistic city planning that meets the needs of all residents, by voting NO on ballot items 3 and 4.