A Just Cincinnati

By Greg P. Harris

The fight for social equity necessitates implementing 21st century strategies for renewing our war against poverty and creating an ownership society that builds capital among impoverished populations.

As a member of Cincinnati City Council, I will advocate for comprehensive strategies geared towards building capital among minority populations that have endured a multi-generational disadvantage in wealth creation.

1. Minority Business Incubation and Consumer Education

Such an agenda must include working to implement innovative ways to accelerate minority small business development, put an end to discriminatory lending practices, and enhance consumer education by working with effective non-profits like Smart Money in order to improve the generational transfer of wealth among minority families.

2. Home Ownership

A primary vehicle to stabilize neighborhoods, increase property wealth, and engender an ownership society among Cincinnati's majority renter population is home ownership. But growing home ownership rates among the city's lower income communities is especially tough in light of the fact that our nation's major housing subsidies (public housing, Section 8 housing vouchers, etc.) are almost entirely for renting. As long as housing subsidies cannot be converted into ownership, they will have the effect of actually discouraging ownership. While Congress has authorized a homeownership option under the Housing Choice Voucher Program, few housing authorities have adopted the homeownership option because the regu- lations impose administrative burdens on housing authorities without a commensurate increase in ad- ministrative budget.

As a member of Council, I pledge to work with Hamilton County to bolster capacity in this area so that the CMHA can become a conduit for transforming renters into owners, including resources for authorities to provide more home buying counseling to recipients. Moreover, I will work with regional partner and non-profits on more effectively targeting our vastly under-utilized community development block grant funds to subsidize home ownership for low- and moderate-income households.

3. Educational Opportunity

Educational opportunity is the primary indicator of economic success. I look forward to working in my capacity as a Councilman to broker innovative partnerships between education providers such as Great Oaks, the largest and one of the more successful career and technical centers in the country, and community and economic justice organizations that can serve as conduits to at-risk students and the working poor.

Investment in vocational training and adult learning programs can equip Cincinnatians with the skills needed to remain gainfully employed in the modern economy. I also pledge to work with local building trade unions as they seek to expand minority participation in their apprenticeship programs, and to expand targeted scholarship funds that provide incentives for young adults to pursue careers in areas where our region faces major skills gaps.

As a member of Council, I will also work to help mobilize the political sector in support of STRIVE, an unprecedented coalition of leaders from higher education, secondary education, business, nonprofit, civic, and philanthropic organizations that have come together to comprehensively address the education and employment needs of the Greater Cincinnati region. Among STRIVE's goals is a college scholarship to attend a regional postsecondary institution for every graduate of Cincinnati public schools. This measure in and of itself, if implemented, will vastly improve educational attainment and economic success for a vast majority of Cincinnati's future generations.