Khambrel Marshall is coming
up next.
From KPRC 2, this is Houston
newsmakers with Khambrel
Marshall. >> And Good Morning and welcome
>> And Good Morning and welcome
to Houston newsmakers. I’m
delighted to welcome District F
Houston City Council member
Tiffany D Thomas. Good to see
you. Lots to talk about this
morning. Good morning. Thanks
for the invitation. Always a
pleasure to see him. You have
this community center, the elite community center. We do
elite community center. We do
say this is nothing like the
your grandpa U.S. communities.
It is altogether different.
Absolutely. This is actually
the first type of community
center of its kind in the city.
It’s an example of integrated
community development. It’s
a 60 million dollar investment and a 30 year vision that’s
and a 30 year vision that’s
finally coming to pass. So you
and your from the Alief area.
So I add something to do free
not only for your constituents,
but for you as well as you
queue up. You didn’t have
anything like.
>> This is known as the old
cool again and I live leave
want to Alief ISD schools and
so to be able to witness the
investment in that community is
tremendous. And we look forward
to celebrating with everyone on
January 14 for the ribbon
cutting. So how does this kind
of thing come about? I mean, is
this going to be something
that’s going to be duplicated
in other communities within
the city of Houston? That is the intention of the city.
the intention of the city.
But I you know, to be honest,
the the genesis of this
community centers really with
the daily super neighborhood,
all community members for the
last 30 years have advocated
for investment in their
neighborhood. Unfortunately,
it’s taken 30 years. But of course, with the support of
course, with the support of
Mayor Sylvester Turner, who are
just that, the commitment and
the vision of the people he may
show the funding was available.
He may should. We met. I
deadline will be able to
celebrate in the next month.
Okay. Good deal. Hey, you’re
the chair of the Housing and Community Affairs Committee.
Community Affairs Committee.
What’s the main focus of that
committee and what can you
point to?
>> As things that your
committee has done, that people
should know about.
>> Absolutely. there’s not one
simple thing with housing.
It is layered in its new wants
one of the things I’m really
proud of and what we’re focused on is the mayor’s initiatives
on is the mayor’s initiatives
for the 3,000 single-family
homes. Affordability in the
city is critical. And so we
want to make sure their new
ever you are whatever your
income that we’re creating
pathways of economic
development and wealth building
by owning your home. So the 3,000 homes that we’re
3,000 homes that we’re
investing in with our
120 million dollar bond that we
passed in January will be able
to make sure that we’re
creating home ownership for
people who once had an
opportunity to the neighborhood. But now they get
neighborhood. But now they get
to come back. So we want to
call people from acres homes,
Sunnyside, Alief the east and
to come back to the city
purchase, affordable homes and
create their wealth. So what is
the challenge of making sure
that you can get that number into those homes? Understand
into those homes? Understand
that there is a challenge
sometimes.
>> Processing the number of
people who you really want to
come into the process.
Absolutely. And also think it’s
a part of One of the guidelines we pass with the Developers
we pass with the Developers
Neck Council is to make sure
that developers are marketing
in the community. And I will
tell you the community
developers that are
participating in this program
have been very intentional to
make sure people in the neighborhood can purchase the
neighborhood can purchase the
home in the neighborhood that
they once lived in. Our
reporters have been doing a
number of stories recently
about some of the quality of
some of the homes in this case
apartment complex assure you
said, I know most recent we’ve
seen issues hitting apartment complex is more than anything
complex is more than anything
else. Absolutely. But it’s been
able to get attention and
hopefully some responses
providing basic necessities for
these residents. They reached out to us other media and it
out to us other media and it
seemed to work because we see
pictures like these. It makes
it. So how can anybody live
like that? But landlords and
other people are responsible
for some of those places.
And now maybe with the
attention of City Council.
Another actions, hopefully
something can happen. What is a
challenge for your committee and for the council to make
and for the council to make
sure that these kinds of
housing situations don’t
continue to exist. I mean,
you’re a really good point.
And I think what we notice that
the peak of the pandemic, when
people were forced to live at
home and stay home, that the
conditions that they were living get and what we
living get and what we
realized, what we really had to
landlords about is that life is
not just about the parks in the
green spaces, but also the
quality of the conditions in
their unit.
>> And Mayor Turner and several
of my council colleagues, we
have been really focused on
this matter to created a strike
force to address this. And I
think it was a distinctive to
remind landlords new and old,
especially if they’re receiving
city financials enough for
subsidy on that. If you’re
going to do business in this
city, we want to make sure that
the clean that the air that
they breathe breathe a that
the resources available to them
and that they’re safe as well.
So there’s a serious series of
measures that we’ve implemented
in some organs that have come
before council that we I notice
that we have housing, but you
also have quality of life and a
lot of times those kind of
things go together, don’t they?
And how do you work together as
committees on those kinds of issues? My colleagues
issues? My colleagues
Councilmember Robert Gallegos
is chair that committee.
the departments that roll up
to him to report to him also
intersect with housing because
you can’t talk about housing
and not talk about quality of
life. So we have very open
lines of communication and
making sure that the
information that’s related to
both the property in the
development of it, but also how
people live in those
developments that we
communicate and make sure that the mayor has those priorities
the mayor has those priorities
so he can incorporate those
an agenda item. So I ask you
about a new public safety,
something you’ve been very much
involved in this. Well, you’ve
got a couple of initiatives
you’ve been working on. What is
that involvement and what kind
how will that impact the people
that used to shore? So for me, public safety is more than It’s
public safety is more than It’s
not exclusive to policing.
And so I’ve taken a community
development view of public
safety by launching a street
light initiative. One of the
things that I noticed when I
was campaigning in because I
live in the community that I
represent is that there are
many intersections in southwest
Houston in West Houston that a
dark. So even when you look at someone who’s taking the bus
someone who’s taking the bus
and getting off from work,
walking from the bus, stop to
their home might be So making
sure that public spaces, the
work that they’re lit. And so
we have a street light
initiative. Those lights are
being installed. We’ve surveys
in the community work within a
Public works department as
we’re moving on the right
track. And so in addition to
working with HPD, to make sure
that after hours of poker
clubs, all of those things are
addressed, very basic quality
of life, things making sure that the sidewalks are fixed,
that the sidewalks are fixed,
making sure that you have a
sidewalk, very simple things
that you’re not a victim of
crime and that you’re not in a
vulnerable place in the
neighborhood. It would seem
that those things will
understandable that be
something that would be
everybody. We have that.
But obviously the places where
it’s not made of absolutely.
And the reality is that some
of our neighborhoods are vulnerable. Some of our
vulnerable. Some of our
neighborhoods have not had the
same attention. Some of our
neighborhoods have been
historically excluded council
for me. I’m very intentional,
making sure that the
neighborhoods that may not have
the popular names, but they
have people that are living
there and invested that they
get the same resources that are
available from a couple of
weeks LULAC came out and they
were actually not happy with the way the city is structured
the way the city is structured
in terms of elections. And they
were saying specifically.
>> They want single-member
districts across the board.
No at large you thought about
that. You you obviously
representing a single member
district of Doom, but you grew
up and in those. What are your
thoughts about that? You have
any feedback on that? Well, you
know, I represent district f
and I happen to believe that we
all the cultural county of the
city, we have multi ethnic
groups and communities,
multiple And I also think that
that large members actually do
serve as a supplement and the
support to the work that we do
at this level. I mean, the
reality is you’re not going to
always have a Tiffany D Thomas
that the strong supporter of
your district, that there’s a
reality that I will leave.
you may get a member that may
not care your priorities.
That’s where you’re at large
members come in. You have 5
additional people on. So you’re
not hand cuffed to one person
that may not be carrying your
messaging carrying your priorities. So I interpret that
priorities. So I interpret that
as a actually a more balanced
government because it’s not
just me advocating for your
concern. And of course, I’m
proud of their territorial of
the District F but my at March
colleagues have demonstrated
support. They’ve demonstrated
that they are willing to take
my lead on their priorities and
also take that the to the administration to support my
administration to support my
agenda as well. I have to leave
it there. Thank you, Tiffany
Thomas, what you’re doing and
it seems like only yesterday
I was watching you. You are
>> Good for you. Good luck in
the next couple years. As you
continue, whatever than their
horizons going to take for you. It’s a human thing to be along