Kendrick Cunningham
What steps will you take (or have you taken) to ensure LGBTQ+ people who live in, work in, travel to Charlotte are protected against discrimination and included at all levels of decision-making?
As someone who identifies as non-binary, Kendrick is pioneering distinguishing Charlotte as world class city when conversing with external stakeholders. In world class cities, Kendrick says that sexuality must not dictate access to employment, public services or housing. Nobody wants to live, work or visit a place where people like them can be legally discriminated against and their abusers not held to any extent of the law. That is why Kendrick supported protecting LGBTQIA+ Residents in Charlotte's Nondiscrimination Ordinance and stood with LGBTQIA+ leaders in support of the non-discrimination ordinance.
Once elected, Kendrick will continue to fight to ensure that all residents of our city can walk around in a triumph-filled community that holds anyone committing hate crimes to the fullest extent possible. Not only will this help grow community resilience to overcome trauma from the first millennium, this will help to reverse the fact that Charlotte is the second deadliest city for transgender and gender-noncomforming people to live.
What will you do (or have you done) to address the affordable housing crisis that plagues Charlotte? What plans do you have to ensure Charlotte develops sustainably for future generations?
When Kendrick was in high school, he had to help his mother find a place that would let their family stay there using their Section 8 voucher. It quickly dawned upon him that this was not a happy, let’s go look at all the homes in our mind and see which one best fits our needs process. His mother told him that they had a certain amount of time to find a place that would let them use their voucher before they lost it. Unfortunately, they did lose their voucher for that very reason. Kendrick remembers being upset at everything because he felt it was unfair that they had the money, but still could not have access to housing because of a provider's discriminatory stance on section 8 voucher holders.
Ending source of income discrimination is one of the reasons he decided to continue his career in organizing beyond building youth power in North Carolina. It is one of the reasons he understands the complexity of the housing web and can talk among all key housing stakeholders to help us enhance our housing industry in our city. Kendrick believes that this is the viable pathway forward to eliminating De Facto Segregation in America which would remove a lot of barriers for an extremely diverse group of Americans across all income levels.
As our public health crisis continues to worsen, Kendrick has been urging city council leaders since 2017 to take swift preventative action and fully ban source of income discrimination. This would expedite the housing application process in our region and increase the amount of housing options Charlotte residents can qualify to access. Fully banning source of income discrimination would also spur on activity within the housing market, increasing the demand for housing. This would ultimately trigger price stabilization for a brief period.
During 2020, Kendrick also worked to advance political support for the Biden Plan to Invest in Our Communities through Housing, a vital piece of President Biden's Build Back Better Agenda. In order to create more triumphant communities and deflate the price of the Charlotte housing market, the City of Charlotte must outpace the building of housing units and the creation of housing options juxtaposed to that of the amount of units we need to house per income level per year. Once activity begins to occur in the market, housing demand will increase. This demand can only be driven by a housing market that embraces the ability for housing providers to offer an array of housing options at diverse price points. As demand increases and we continue to outpace the construction of housing with different options, the price of housing will begin to consolidate and enter a sustained period of deflation. This macroeconomic solution is what Kendrick refers to as Housing for All. In the end we would have increased the total revenue of our housing market.
Kendrick Cunningham is running because Charlotte’s historic affordable communities are on the line. Since the beginning of 2021, Kendrick has brought fresh ideas to bring more affordability to our fast growing region. A housing for all candidate, Kendrick firmly believes that housing insecure residents need permanent shelter and access to quality public services before worrying about getting a job, budgeting properly or attending to substance abuse issues. A victim of homelessness in Charlotte due to source of income discrimination and rising rent, Kendrick is extremely passionate about determining ways that our region can invest in innovative solutions to reverse growing trends.
That is why Kendrick championed Goal 3 of the Future 2040 Comprehensive Plan - Housing for All. Kendrick helped to lead organizing efforts to show city stakeholders that communities across Charlotte support housing for all. With the framework of the plan in place, the City of Charlotte can begin working towards ensuring that all of our residents, no matter their income, will have a housing option for them to access. Kendrick has been consistently meeting with White House administrators and senior advisors throughout this year regarding federal assistance in eliminating exclusionary zoning in Charlotte. Eliminating exclusionary zoning in America is a key clause in President Biden's Build Back Better Agenda.
What actions do you support (or have you supported) to ensure people have equitable access (including transportation) to jobs that provide a living wage?
Kendrick unwaveringly supports the Transformational Mobility Network. That is why Kendrick rallied public support in Charlotte for the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Kendrick have very fond memories boarding the Sprinter and Bus 7N/7S many times as a young child. The days it will be dead packed because the bus runs twenty to thirty minutes plus apart from each other and the times it has to pass you because it is too many people on the bus.
As the District 2 City Council Representative, Kendrick will work to make sure that our corridors of opportunity remain affordable for long time and incoming residents by strategically investing in high-quality public transportation projects that positively impact day to day life, like Envision My Ride. There is a priority need for increased bus frequency and less carbon emission in the Beatties Ford and Freedom/Wilkinson Corridors of Opportunity.
With racism being declared a public health crisis, what steps do you support (or have you supported) to address the racial inequities that exist in Charlotte? These include but are not limited to environmental racism, overpolicing, and access to healthcare.
As a community organizer, Kendrick works with the City of Charlotte Arborist Office and Tree Charlotte to shed awareness on the inequity of tree canopy and hoe that create s an adverse impact on utility bills in marginalized communities. Furthermore, Kendrick supports Medicare for all. Kendrick also advocated for Congress to pass the American Rescue Plan which significantly lowered healthcare costs.
Are there any additional comments or initiatives you'd like to share?
Check Kendrick out at www.kendrickcunningham.com!