D.C. at-large council candidates jockey over housing, crime in debate

Former D.C. Council staffer Dexter Williams took a similar stance: “We don’t have time for mismanagement of funds that are going toward developers when they should be going toward affordable housing,” he said.

Voters will select two at-large council candidates this year, but they can’t be from the same party. The winner of the June 21 Democratic primary will appear with independent at-large candidates on the November ballot. In addition to Williams and Gore, Bonds is being challenged by Nate Fleming, D.C.'s former shadow U.S. representative who also worked as a legislative and committee director on the council.

Asked about barriers to building more housing that they’d like to eliminate, both Gore and Fleming cited issues with the Housing Production Trust Fund, while Williams said the city should explore how to better utilize vacant apartments in the District. Bonds pointed to the cost of land acquisition, adding: “Land prices are so exorbitant it makes it very difficult to build the housing that we need uniformly across the city.

Yes or no questions also helped separate Bonds from her opponents on several topics. She was the only one of the four who was not in favor of ranked-choice voting, and was alone in her opinion that residents under 18 should not be able to vote in elections. Fleming, alluding to his own experience interning as a 16-year-old with D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton , disagreed.“[That’s how] I was prepared to be sitting here today, with over 21 years of legislative experience,” Fleming said.

“If we want to address crime we have to look at the root causes,” Williams said, adding that D.C. has one of the highest per capita number of police officers in the country. “Just saying we want to add more police is a very linear and narrow way to look at this chronic issue.”

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