SAFE & AFFORDABLE HOUSING
As a member of the Pontiac Housing commission, Melanie is uniquely aware of the challenges facing our community and will fight for new, better and more affordable housing for everyone!
Government at all levels hasn’t done enough to tackle our housing problems over the past few decades. The federal state and Pontiac government has reduced investments in housing for middle-class and lower-income families even as rents continue to rise. Many state and local governments have layered on needless rules that drive up construction costs and lock families out of neighborhoods with better schools and job opportunities.
Meanwhile, homeownership is out of reach for too many families — especially Black families. Decades of outright discrimination by the federal government denied Black families the same kinds of homeownership subsidies available to white families. Then government regulators ignored warning signs as predatory financial institutions targeted minority communities with subprime mortgages that sucked billions of dollars in wealth out of those communities. The black homeownership rate today is nearly the same as it was when housing discrimination was legal.
SENIOR SERVICES
There are few candidates running for office that have fought harder for the Seniors in Pontiac. When there was a massive fire that threatened to displace countless seniors Melanie and many city leaders jumped into action and helped raise $50,000 to keep the Seniors in their homes.
That was amazing news but it was still reactionary. Our community spends too much time responding to issues challenging our seniors and not enough time planning successful programs, that not only better their lives but make sure they can live long productive lives.
Let’s focus on a SENIOR CENTER TEN YEAR PLAN – Stabilize the community centers, expand programming and make a plan for new senior centers that our community can be proud of. Melanie has spent her career focused on action and not just talk – She will put our Seniors first on day one.
THE YOUTH CENTER
Pontiac voters told the Mayor and City Council to create youth programming and for them to build a youth center two years ago – Pontiac voters and our youth have been ignored and that’s unacceptable.
The plan must be two-fold so we don’t leave any part of our community without services for the youth.
1.) Programming: Planning that provides a variety of athletic options along with music, gaming, and lots of fun and inspirational programming – This isn’t school and it must be FUN!
2.) Transportation: We don’t have the funds to create 3-4 different community centers for the youth so we must have a robust transportation network that picks up and drops off our youth in front of their homes and returns them on a strict schedule that parents can plan around.
We can do this and create a State of the Art facility that our youth can use for a generation!
CONNECT DOWNTOWN
Pontiac has an awesome downtown! Sadly, after decades of neglect it’s been forgotten by not only our neighboring community but even Pontiac residents. I will proudly represent our downtown council district and bridge the gap between a community that rarely uses our beautiful city center and a downtown that needs pedestrian traffic.