Before a large and partisan crowd, Mayor Meghan Sahli-Wells, leading champion of the needy on the City Council, squeezed out a slender, emotional, crucial victory last evening.
By a 3 to 2 vote, the City Council agreed to indefinitely extend funding of City Hall’s Rental Assistance Program even after the normal revenue source has dried up June 30.
Councilman Andy Weissman, who dissented along with Jim Clarke, declared an emphatic point following the vote, to clarify his and Mr. Clarke’s positions:
“The Council is unanimous in its sentiment for not wanting to end the Rental Assistance Program.
“The final vote also would have been unanimous if the term ‘indefinite’ had not been used.
“The dictionary says ‘indefinite’ means ‘uncertain.’”
So everyone in the crowded Rotunda Room at the Vets Auditorium favored continuing to fund rental assistance.
Every person who addressed the Council vigorously endorsed the view.
But since the Housing fund goes broke in 90 days, and thereafter will be subsidized by monies from the General Fund, Messrs. Weissman and Clarke wanted a cap placed on the time allowed to find fresh funding streams.
Both dissenters said one, two or three years would be an acceptable period.
Mr. Weissman was concerned that recipients of rental assistance would interpret “indefinitely” as forever.
“It not only does not mean forever, it means much less,” he said.
Speaking sparingly, Jeff Cooper cast the deciding affirmative vote to Mayor Sahli-Wells’s motion.
