When: Lancaster City Council meeting, Nov. 8.
What happened: Council gave a first reading to a bill that would direct some of the city’s American Rescue Plan Act funds to several affordable housing projects. Council member Janet Diaz proposed an amendment that would have tacked $500,000 onto that bill for a project proposed by South Ann Concerned Neighbors. That project was previously reviewed by the committee tasked with making affordable housing-related ARPA recommendations. The committee opted not to include it.
Vote: Diaz’s proposed amendment failed in a tied vote of 3-3, meaning the bill advances as it originally came out of committee to council’s Nov. 22 meeting for a vote. Katie Walsh abstained because she works for the Lancaster Area Housing Authority, which would get funding per the bill. Voting in favor of adding the South Ann project were Lochard Calixte, Diaz and then-President Ismail Smith-Wade-El, who seconded Diaz’s motion. Smith-Wade-El and Diaz ran a heated campaign against each other during the Democratic primary for Pennsylvania’s 49th House District. Smith Wade-El was elected to that seat on Nov. 8 after resigning from City Council at the end of the Nov. 7 meeting. Voting against the motion were Amanda Bakay, Faith Craig and Jaime Arroyo.
Background: Mayor Danene Sorace and members of council were criticized earlier this year by some including former Mayor Art Morris over a land-related transaction that he called “a backroom deal.” He questioned the city’s allocation of nearly $1 million in ARPA funds for Lancaster-based HDC MidAtlantic to buy Marrietta Avenue lot. Sorace said at the time that the Morris’s point about not having a request for proposal process in place for ARPA funds was noted and that council “is correcting that moving forward.”
More: Since then, a committee of three elected officials and two city employees scored proposals and selected those that made it to the proposed bill before full council. Arroyo said that process was developed with the support of all council members and said Diaz’s motion to amend that committee’s decision “frankly, is a little insulting to the public transparency process.” If passed, this bill will direct ARPA funds to SDL Devco, Chestnut Housing Corp., YWCA Lancaster, Community Basics Inc., Lancaster/Lebanon Habitat for Humanity, Partners with Purpose, Tenfold, SACA Development Corp. and the Lancaster Area Housing Authority.
South Ann project: Sorace said the committee prioritized cost per unit of proposed housing and had determined that what the South Ann group proposed was more in line with a community facility project. She said the group could respond to a forthcoming request for proposals to use ARPA money that council may decide to spend on community centers. Sorace said request for proposals will be prepared in the next week or so. She did not share how much money might be involved but said it will be more than $5 million. Sorace said she believes there is support on council for the South Ann project – specific details of which have not been disclosed beyond committee. “I understand that this means coming back again. It also means the opportunity is that the (South Ann) proposal will score much higher in the next round because it is, in fact, a community facility,” Sorace said. “It is a square peg in a square hole, which is what we want to be funding and supporting.”
Feedback: Rev. Edward Bailey, senior pastor of Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, asked council to include the South Ann project in the bill currently on the table and to consider what the city has done in the south side of Lancaster over the past four or five years. “I don’t see anything. I see things going on downtown. Great things. It would be nice to put something on South Ann to support what they’re trying to do so the rest of the community can have faith that you folks still believe in the Southeast,” he said. “Because we keep getting promises. People keep saying wait. As an African American who’s 73 years old, I’ve been told wait long enough. I don’t believe in wait anymore.”
Continued discussion: Sorace invited Bailey to look at the city’s website to see “the millions of dollars” she said the city has spent south of King Street on things like Milburn Park and lead prevention programs. Bailey returned to the podium. “South Ann is owned by community folk. We can see what you’re doing for our community. You can’t see anything with lead abatement. That’s nice that you’re doing that. Thank you for doing that …,” he said. “But we need to see more than these programs …. We need to see the same thing you do when you’re asked to put the hotel up downtown, the baseball stadium, the library, all these brand new buildings.”
