City asking public to weigh in on housing issues

Consultants will be soliciting public input on expanding access to fair housing in Hot Springs with a community workshop at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Transportation Depot, 100 Broadway Terrace.

Comments received by Mosaic Community Planning will help inform the Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice study required of the city as part of its participation in the U.S. Housing and Urban Development’s Community Development Block Grant program.

Michelle Sestili, the city’s CDBG administrator, said Atlanta-based Mosaic was selected from four consulting groups who responded to a request for qualifications. Hot Springs Planning and Development Director Kathy Sellman said Mosaic was contracted for $32,410, of which $22,410 came from the city’s fiscal year 2017 and

2018 CDBG allocations and

$10,000 from the Hot Springs Housing Authority. The city’s

2017 and 2018 allocations were

$389,355 and $456,368, respectively.

Sellman said the city and housing authority commissioned the study jointly, a draft of which will be presented to the city later this year.

“They’re required to do a similar study,” she said. “It allows us to do a little bit deeper dive into what’s going on, because we’re splitting the cost.”

The study will be included in the 2019-2023 consolidated plan the city is required to submit as a condition for CDBG participation. Sellman said she hopes Thursday’s public input workshop and Mosaic’s meeting Friday with neighborhood groups and other housing market stakeholders — including lenders, landlords, real estate brokers, nonprofits, charities, builders, state agencies and advocacy groups — will yield an up-close perspective on Hot Springs’ housing landscape.

Surveys are also available at the planning and development office in City Hall, 133 Convention Blvd., and online at http:// www.surveymonkey.com/r/HotSpringHousing.com.

“This will involve reaching out to people who rent and who provide housing,” Sellman said. “They’ll be providing comments on what housing availability is like in Hot Springs.

“Do we have safe, affordable, sanitary housing? We’re hoping to get a candid appraisal from the meetings. Mosaic said they don’t want the city of Hot Springs lurking in the background while they conduct these meetings. We’re happy to go along with that, because we want the candid truth. We’re not getting a group together to give us information we want. We need to know what’s important to people outside of our circle.”

The city’s last fair housing analysis published in 2009 identified a disproportionate rate of loan denials for minorities relative to white applicants. Citing Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data from

1997 to 2006, the study said whites constituted 78.9 percent of the city’s population and 84.8 percent of the more than 11,000 loan originations over that time.

Conversely, blacks made up

16.9 percent of the population and 3.2 percent of loan originations.

“Some characteristics of redlining may be occurring in some low income tracts,” the study said.

The study recommended the city encourage lenders to expand home-buyer support services to more people, and that Hot Springs School District make credit counseling classes part of its high school curriculum.

The study also said poverty and low income among minorities limit housing access. It recommended the city and Greater Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce recruit jobs that don’t require high levels of education or advanced skills.

“This means jobs that support persons with high school education, GEDs, community college and technical training,” the study said. “This will help in the recruitment of industries such as call centers, clerical and manufacturing jobs.

“Call centers and customer service centers where employees are recruited to process sales or provide customer service support for various industries have become more attractive to areas with similar demographics.”

Sellman said the 2009 study was developed during the sub-prime mortgage and foreclosure crisis, which colored much of its findings and recommendations, and that it didn’t focus on issues specific to the city’s housing market.

“It’s not very complete,” she said. “It’s a lot of boilerplate and not enough specifics.”