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PLATFORM

1. Housing
- Preserve and produce affordable housing through recurring funding for the Barnes Housing
Trust Fund, inclusionary housing policies, and creative uses of federal, state and local funds.
- Prevent displacement through home repair assistance, property tax relief for longtime
residents, homeowner education, and other efforts.
0 Create a structure of accountability for affordable housing needs, such as an adequately
staffed Mayor?s Office of Affordable Housing.

2. Criminal Justice
- Reduce the Metro Jail population and General Sessions docket by 50% through alternatives
to arrest using evidence-based, problem-solving mechanisms and restorative-justice options.
- Eliminate racial disparities in police stops, schools suspensions and Juvenile Court referrals.

3. Economic Equity and Jobs

- Promote transparency in public projects and incentives given to companies, including audits
of all incentives that show the amount received and jobs created.

- Institute local-hiring and training requirements that fill jobs with formerly underemployed
and unemployed Davidson County residents through high-quality training programs,
apprenticeships and existing educational programs.

- Attach tangible and measurable community benefits to projects in high?poverty areas that
will aid Iow- and middle-income residents through equitable neighborhood economic
development. Community BenefitAgreements, community wealth?building initiatives)

GUIDELINES FOR THE MEETING

This is a public meeting of NOAH between public officials and coalition members, the latter of
whom have spent hundreds of hours discussing and forming positions on our issues. All candidates
were briefed on platform and provided position papers in advance of today?s meeting.

Candidates will be allowed to speak for two minutes if they agree to endorse platform and
work with us to achieve solutions to our concerns. No questions or remarks will be taken from the
floor, and all speakers will be shown respect. Candidates have agreed not to distribute campaign
materials until the meeting ends at 4:30 pm. Thank you for respecting these rules.

REQUESTS OF THE CANDIDATES

1. Will you commit to working directly with NOAH on the goals in our platform through quarter/y
meetings that begin within 60 days after your election?

2. Within your first two years as mayor, will you support legislation or use the power of your office to
address the three issue areas in the NOAH platform presented today?

NOAH mhodge@noahtn.org 615-905-6624l  /NOAH~Action  /nashville.justice

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Nashville Organized for Action and Hope PO Box 331144 Nashville, TN 37203

AFFORDABLE HOUSING AND GENTRIFICATION 

What?s the Problem?

52 percent of renters in Davidson County are cost-burdened, meaning more than 30 percent of
their income goes toward housing. One-third of Nashville homeowners are cost-burdened.
92,000 households in Nashville were cost-burdened in 2012.

Public housing has a 3,000-person, closed waiting list, and Section 8 housing has a 10,000-
person, closed waiting list.

Housing is increasingly unaffordable in some Nashville neighborhoods. Between 2000 and 2012
for example, the lZSouth area saw a 269 percent increase in average housing costs.

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Why Should We Care?

Nashville is a city that prides itself on hospitality and welcoming millions of tourists a year, yet
many of our public servants police officers, teachers and firefighters can?t afford to live here
and must commute to work from other counties.

Taxpaying citizens are being driven out of their neighborhoods as their communities? character
and vibrancy are destroyed.

All voices should be heard in planning Nashville?s future housing solutions.

Nashville might be the ?It City? of the moment, but only when we make it our city will we really
have something to brag about.

What Should Be Done?

Identify a source of recurring funding for the Barnes Housing Trust Fund to generate at least
$20 million per year.

Adopt an inclusionary housing ordinance that requires developers to include a certain
percentage of affordable housing in every development or pay fees to the Barnes Fund.
Repurpose tax-increment and other public funding for affordable housing development.
Prevent displacement through home repair assistance, property tax relief for longtime
residents, homeowner education and other efforts.

Create a well?staffed Mayor?s Office of Affordable Housing with voting representatives of NOAH

and other community groups on its governing board, to insure accountability for affordable
housing needs.

NOAH mhodge@noahtn.org 615-905-6624l

 

/NOAH_Action ?/nasiwilleiustice

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Nashville Organized for Action and Hope PO Box 331144 Nashville, TN 37203

CRIMINAL JUSTICE
What's the Problem?

The Davidson County Sheriff?s Office houses approximately 1,800 inmates in the Metro Jail at
any one time. These inmates overwhelmingly are male, and a majority are African?American.

25 percent of inmates are mentally ill; 90 percent need drug and alcohol treatment.

These incarcerations 46,000 in all cost our community about $64 million annually.

65 percent of misdemeanor citation cases in 2013 were related to driver?s license issues.

0 In 2013, 39 percent of vehicle stops by Metro Police involved African-Americans, though only
28 percent of Nashville residents are African-American.

0 More than half of all adult drug arrests in Nashville involve African?Americans (28 percent of
residents), despite national studies showing blacks and whites use drugs at similar rates.

In 2013, 44 percent of MNPS students were African-American, but 72 percent of out?of?school
suspensions and 77 percent of expulsions were of African-American students.

These suspensions and expulsions, including 458 out-of-school suspensions of kindergarteners,
overwhelmingly are for nonviolent violations of school rules.

Why Should We Care?
Massive numbers of drivers license offenses burden the public defender?s office, the district
attorney?s office and General Sessions staff and create a spiral of poverty due to excessive fines.
Ex-offenders leaving jail face restrictions on obtaining an ID and finding employment, creating
additional hurdles that ultimately land them back in custody.
School suspension patterns replicate themselves as children grow older. A black male born in

2001 now has a one?in-three chance of going to prison at some point in his life, while a Latino
male faces a one?in?six risk of the same fate.

What Should Be Done?
Economic Justice
Develop alternatives to incarceration that incorporate services and training in mental health,
addiction, domestic violence, children and youth, and homelessness.
Use civil enforcement, like tickets, instead of a criminal citation or arrest, when appropriate.
0 Strengthen re-entry services to aid persons in getting jobs and housing.
Social Justice
Address racial disparities and improve transparency regarding police stops and drug arrests.
Create a citizen review board to monitor public concerns with the criminal justice system.
0 Adopt officer training for de-escalation, cultural awareness and extreme situational awareness.
Juvenile Justice
Address racial disparities in school suspensions and referrals to Juvenile Court.
0 Establish a problem-solving center for youth issues to provide immediate intervention,
assessment and services to keep kids out of the juvenile justice system.
- Establish standardized, appropriate guidelines for school suspensions, and train school resource
officers and principals about their roles in making referrals to Juvenile Court.
Create an automatic trigger for assessment of needs of students who are at-risk of suspension.

NOAH mhodge@noahtn.org 615-905-6624 /NOAH_Action /nashville.justice

 

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Nashville Organized for Action and Hope PO Box 331144 Nashville, TN 37203

ECONOMIC EQUITY AND JOBS
What?s the Problem?

0 According to the 2013 Community Needs Evaluation (Metro Social Services), Nashville?s
economic development has grown by 58 percent since 2002. During the same period, poverty
has risen by 42 percent, including major poverty growth in 16 of 35 Council districts near our
urban core.

20 percent of Nashville residents currently live at or below the poverty level.

Metro offers millions in tax incentives to companies to expand or relocate in Nashville,- but
often the details of such deals, including jobs created and training provided for local residents,
are not clear.

By the year 2019, Nashville has a projected growth in new job creation of 115,000 jobs. Yet the
Nashville Chamber of Commerce reports there are not enough skilled workers to fill these jobs.

Why Should We Care?

Growth and prosperity are not being shared in an equitable fashion and have been causing the
formation of two Nashvilles within one city. The rise in poverty has consolidated deeper within
pockets of our geographical boundaries.

0 Low workforce participation in distressed neighborhoods often removes residents from
informal networks that lead to career jobs with living wage pay. Nashville?s economic growth
has not alleviated these problems.

As public investors in the city of Nashville, residents have a vested interest in knowing the
return on investments for publicly funded projects.

What Should Be Done?

Publish yearly audits of all tax and financial incentives for public development that show money
received, jobs created, pay and?benefits of said jobs, and the distribution ofjobs.

0 Institute practices that require publicly assisted construction projects to use Davidson County
residents for a majority of the work hours, provide high-quality training programs, and support
employers who pay a living wage and treat workers fairly.

Prioritize neighborhood accessible job training programs for current residents to fill immediate
job needs in the city, with training that corresponds with local living wage jobs in demand 
healthcare, information technology, financial services, hospitality, etc).

0 Attach specific, tangible and measurable community benefits packages to deveIOpment
projects in high poverty areas that will aid low and middle income residents through equitable
neighborhood economic development (ex. Implementing a community benefit agreements
within the bidding process).

Expand the Mayor?s Office of Economic and Community DeveIOpment to include a task force to
lead a community-wealth building initiative for low- and middle?income residents by reviewing
equitable development models and building on employee?owned, co?operative businesses.

/NOAH_Action ?/nashvillejustice

 

NOAH mhodge@noahtn.org 615?905?6624]