Mary Ferdon
The two candidates vying for the Republican nomination for Columbus mayor in the May 2 primary both say that the city’s ongoing issue with homelessness would be a priority should they be elected.
Mary Ferdon, 61, the city’s executive director of administration and community development, and Milo Smith, 72, former Indiana state representative for District 59, are running for the GOP nomination.
Ferdon said “there is no obvious one solution” to the city’s ongoing homelessness issue but said she would focus on the safety of both city residents and the homeless population, continue working with code enforcement and law enforcement to develop strategies to increase safety, support Brighter Days Housing and encourage property owners to secure vacant buildings and lots to reduce the chances of homeless people sleeping in them.
In addition, Ferdon said there would be a “big push” for housing, including affordable housing, in her administration and she would continue focusing on long-term efforts that seek to address two of the main causes of chronic homelessness — substance use and mental health disorders.
Ferdon said her administration would continue to work with the Alliance for Substance Abuse Progress to help those with substance use disorders and the new Mental Health Matters initiative in the community to see what can be done in the community to positively impact mental health.
She said she would be open to the idea of establishing permanent supportive housing in Columbus but “the difficult piece of that is trying to figure out where you put your permanent supportive housing to make sure that it’s not disruptive to any neighborhoods” while being close to bus lines and services that the population needs.
“There’s a spectrum of homelessness,” Ferdon said. “Some of it is caused by temporary circumstances like a loss of job, and we have a lot of local resources which can help address those needs. …The challenge I see in Columbus are those who are chronically homeless and there are often some underlying substance abuse and mental health issues.”
Smith said homelessness is a “major concern” and part of one of his top priorities, public safety.
Smith said he would largely approach the issue by trying to prevent people from becoming homeless in the first place.
“I would kind of step on the front end and instead of providing services once they’re homeless, I would try to implement some programs … to prevent homelessness from the beginning, and that’s part of focusing on public safety, which is one of my most important issues if I’m elected mayor,” Smith said.
Smith said he would start “by trying to help them with housing.” Part of that effort, he said, would include meeting the Columbus Landlords Association to try to increase the number of affordable housing units in the city.
“If I was elected mayor, I would sit down with the Columbus Landlords Association and see if we could increase the number of affordable units of housing available while still allowing them to make a decent profit on their investment because landlords make those investments so they can retire and have some cash flow in later years,” Smith said. “So, I don’t believe the Columbus Landlords Association could afford to provide housing unless there was some type of federal subsidy available to them, and I know we have some of that. But we need to focus on finding more affordable housing, and I would start with working with the local landlords association.”
