Thursday, November 05, 2009
Editorial: Roanoke must honor its commitment
The city and redevelopment authority promised to build low-income housing.
From the RoundTable blog
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Call us old-fashioned, but we think that when people sign agreements, they ought to abide by the terms. That goes for an 18-year-old taking out a loan to buy a car, and it should go for Roanoke and the Roanoke Redevelopment and Housing Authority.
The city and the authority so far have not lived up to a bargain they struck with Dana Walker.
He sold several homes on Day Avenue for redevelopment at a discount because the authority and the city promised to build 50 low-income rental units around Roanoke over seven years. Four years have elapsed, but none has gone up.
Now Walker is making a justified stink. Not only have the city and authority made no progress, they also have neither identified funding nor developed concrete plans to deliver on time.
The idea is that spreading low-income housing to different neighborhoods prevents slums from developing.
The deal called for none of the 50 to be located closer than 1,000 feet from public housing and for there to be no more than two units per block.
The challenge, of course, is that established neighborhoods are rarely fans of having low-income housing introduced.
City Manager Darlene Burcham told The Roanoke Times that there is no reason to worry. Just because the city has not done anything does not mean it will not get busy in the remaining three years.
Right. And the money will come from where in a cash-strapped city? We cannot help but suspect that if Walker had not raised the issue, it would have continued to coast under the radar until the city and authority were out of time.
At least there is still time to act. The city and the authority committed to this deal in writing. They have a ethical -- and probably legal -- obligation to fulfill their end of the bargain starting now. Citizens should not doubt that when their government agrees to do something, it will follow through.
