Anti-Displacement Task Force: Money, or Nothing

Paul Saldaña (Photo by John Anderson)

At the Anti-Displacement Task Force's first meeting in December, the group of stakeholders appointed by City Council to address issues surrounding city displacement was taken aback by the lack of resources afforded to its mission. An unfulfilled request during the last budget cycle made it initially such that the group would have no money or manpower, and would have to rely on themselves to complete research and a final report, no small task for a volunteer body that meets once a month.

Council created the 17-member task force last August, directing them to meet for 10 months to take a broad look at city displacement, organize the battery of recommendations and initiatives already on the books, and report back with a comprehensive list of suggestions. But when the group met on Dec. 1, members weren't sure if they had what they needed to do their job. Co-chair Raul Alvarez said he had understood staff traditionally took part in creating these types of reports. A staffer replied that the Neighbor­hood Housing and Community Development Depart­­ment lacked the funds to bring in an outside consultant. And since no other department had the funding, they would be using staff who were already busy working on other projects. John Henneberger proposed that the group identify future resource needs and send the request to Council. "I think that that's very important," said his colleague Ruby Roa. "How can we try to develop a policy if the City Council hasn't given us the resources and money to do that?"

Staff sought to smooth over some of the concerns at the group's second meeting on Jan. 5, by laying out in detail what assistance members can expect to receive from various city departments. NHCD will provide the scribes, and former AISD Trustee Paul Saldaña (who's working on several projects for the Mayor's Office) will serve as a liaison.

That might have quelled concern about the staffing issues, but the money talk didn't end. After a presentation by a team of UT academics, who are working on a parallel gentrification study Council commissioned in October, members questioned whether they could ask Council for the funds to expand and expedite the study so that it could inform the task force's final report. "We haven't formally requested additional funds," Al­var­ez confided later. "We want to first estimate what is needed before we submit a request to Council." The task force reconvenes on Feb. 2.