Kenny Hill

Our health is affected by a variety of factors that are directly influenced by policies made by the city council and supported by the Atlanta Mayor. What is your plan to control the COVID-19 pandemic in Atlanta? What are your plans to encourage vaccination given that Georgia and Atlanta’s vaccination rates fall far behind the national average? Given that a growing number of Atlanta businesses are opting to implement vaccine mandates, would you support a vaccine mandate for public employees?

As Mayor, I would support an individual’s autonomy towards vaccination but also a company’s right to require vaccinations. I would only lean toward mandatory vaccinations if the COVID-19 threat to public health returned to the grave conditions of surge spread. Indeed, there is a long-standing history of mandatory vaccination and other instances where the government compels its citizens to act (possibly) against their will for the public good. Vaccination will be mandatory under my administration. The most persuasive method of getting more citizens vaccinated is constant and consistent information and education, through infomercials, hotlines, billboards, and other media.

COVID-19 has exposed and exacerbated economic disparity in Atlanta. What are your plans to promote economic opportunities for all people in our city? How do you plan to ensure this growth is shared by all, especially historically marginalized groups?

Recovery depends on protecting public health. It also depends on bolstering human capital, which can be done by assisting individuals to retain jobs or acquire new skills to obtain a new job. We must continue to vaccinate and test/trace for COVID-19 to reduce the spread. While some businesses are just starting to roll back online, we want to encourage workers to obtain training for new positions. We will announce apprenticeships coordinated by business leaders, City of Atlanta, trade schools and community colleges. This will serve to upgrade the workforce for higher paying jobs. Finally, we need to focus much of our efforts in depressed minority areas of the city. Even in a growing national economy, millions of Americans live in communities that are falling behind. Opportunity Zones (OZs) were designed with a simple premise: the tax code should encourage private investment in communities that are struggling to attract capital, create jobs, and lift residents out of poverty.

Do you support the Atlanta Homeless Union’s 4 demands - for “housing, healthcare, water, and a seat at the table” - and if so, how do you plan to meet these demands as mayor?

Improving housing affordability will require better alignment of three policy tools and a focus on financial literacy for low-income wage earners: reforming land use regulation to allow smaller, more compact housing; increasing taxes on expensive, underused land; and expanding housing subsidies to low-income households. This should spur housing growth. In conjunction with organizations such as NACA (Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America) and The Atlanta Land Trust, we will provide the education requisite for homeownership and the access to permanent affordable housing.

I would seek to mirror the Home Sweet Home Ordinance (originally from Chicago) here in Atlanta to provide more affordable homes for low-income residents. In addition, I would also take the following steps to support low-income residents’ efforts to remain in or to buy affordable homes:

• Provide down payment assistance

• Offer lease purchase financing

• Offer owner-occupied rehabilitation forgivable loans

• Offer homebuyer loans Incentivize/accelerate affordable housing development

• Bonds (Housing opportunity and Housing Revenue)

• Developer loans, Leverage Loan Fund, Transit Focused Fund

• Beltline Affordable Housing Trust Fund

• Provide Counseling and mentoring

Do you support the Atlanta Homeless Union’s 4 demands - for “housing, healthcare, water, and a seat at the table” - and if so, how do you plan to meet these demands as mayor?

The first demand creates a few problems. Because the city does not own those properties, it would be trespassing and conversion for us to go onto a private person’s land and to convert it to government properties. If, however, they intend that the properties be taken by the city for delinquent taxes or eminent domain for public use, that might be a more plausible scenario. However, the difficulty with this demand does not end there. Next, once the property is converted, we must work through issues of ownership – will it be owned by the city or the unhoused person. If the latter is the solution, I think the taxpayers might find it unwise to turn a newly converted property over to an unhoused person.

I also agree with the second demand for preventative health care. Funding and logistics must be worked out. I would add preventative dental care as well. The third demand does not sound unreasonable either. Again, we would need to explore funding and logistics. I respond to the final demand, to have a seat at the table, in the following way. Under my administration I will create a council to combat Atlanta homelessness to be staffed by someone from the mayor’s office, a senior member from the Department of Housing, a member from the Atlanta Medical Department, a member representing the Non-Government-Organizations, a member of the Homeless Union, and a member representing homeless shelters. Fighting homelessness will be a priority in my administration.

In the wake of all these natural disasters occurring nationwide, what is your plan to make Atlanta more resilient to the effects of climate change? Do you support declaring a climate emergency?

Among other solutions, we should consider the following: (a) install solar systems on public buildings (b) commit to increases in renewable energy (c) create municipal energy efficiency, and encourage the same in non-government buildings, including smart system control technologies, efficient lighting, and daylighting; (d) promote fewer car miles and greater public transportation; and (e) support (economically and informationally) energy efficiency in disadvantaged households.

On a broader basis, unless we address climate change, fossil fuels, and energy efficiency, Atlanta will be locked into issues of extreme heat.

The health of all persons, including immigrants and incarcerated populations, matter. During the pandemic, we’ve witnessed COVID-19 outbreaks in prison and ICE detention facilities. As Mayor, how will you ensure that the health of these individuals is maintained and held to the appropriate standards?

I would look to leverage the City Jail as a temporary overflow facility to ease the overcrowding of the Fulton County Jail. To further address the situation, we can look to other jurisdictions to see how they seek to solve common problems. Some of what I would institute includes:

• adult and juvenile correctional facilities continue implementing universal testing and contact tracing for inmates, staff, and visitors,

• maintaining "strict adherence" to recommendations surrounding personal protective equipment,

• regularly issuing soap and cleaning supplies to inmates at no charge

• expanding free telephone and video visitation services for inmates.

• conduct court hearings, such as arraignments, status hearings, plea hearing, sentencing, and revocation hearings all be held virtually. This to minimize inmate contact with outside individuals.

• increase pretrial services electronic monitoring capabilities, extending this option to more non- violent offenders and waive the monitoring fees.

It was also recommended that the Governor consider releasing inmates who have been approved for parole and consider all nonviolent criminals, medically vulnerable inmates, and those within six months of their release date for expedited parole. Many people have lost their lives to Covid while incarcerated. We need to do all that we can to protect this vulnerable population.

The pandemic has further exacerbated the opioid crisis. What measures would you implement to decrease opioid deaths and the spread of infectious disease among people who use drugs in Atlanta? Further, what harm reduction policies would you implement more broadly?

Atlanta, like most large cities in the USA, has experienced an uptick in opioid related addictions and deaths over the past several years. The pandemic has truly exacerbated the opioid crisis. We are forced to combat these two public health emergencies in a concerted manner, to deal with them most effectively. This will require the cooperation of medical professionals and all levels of government to ensure that the necessary tools are available to effectively combat these two-headed-emergency health crises.

There are effective medications to treat opioid use disorder (OUD) and reverse acute opioid overdose, as well as proven interventions to reduce harms associated with opioid injection. The dual crisis is so severe that it dictates that we take drastic immediate actions both to increase medical accessibility of certain medications associated with the treatment of opioid addicted patients and the relaxing of some local and state government policies and regulations concerning the use of the medication. Opioid medications for OUD, methadone, and buprenorphine, reduce mortality by as much as fifty percent. Also, the provision of sterile syringes dramatically reduces the risk of bloodborne disease transmission related to sharing syringes for intravenous opioid use, and syringe services programs effectively link individuals with OUD to evidence-based treatment. All of the recent changes to increase access to treatment that have been enacted during the COVID-19 crisis should persist not just for the duration of that emergency but beyond. I will seek to permit the relaxation of all rules and regulations necessary to save the lives of those addicted until the crisis subsides. In addition, I will seek to determine precisely where the most need is an attempt to immediately assist. I consider the opioid crisis in the city to be of high priority.

Racial justice, particularly in the context of the Black Lives Matter and Stop Asian Hate movements, has been central to our city’s discourse in the past year. How would you address hate crimes and discrimination as mayor?

I would institute an anti-hate program that would be rolled out in public service announcements, on billboards, television, radio and in schools. We will ask all citizens that, whenever they have the opportunity, to celebrate other culture and food. We would also ask citizens to teach children kindness and that all people are the same despite skin color, language, religion, or sexual orientation.

The problem with law enforcement is more complicated. I would first institute a clearinghouse database to record information regarding all police killings, brutality cases, and use of force cases. I will push for a national clearinghouse. This will permit us to keep records of these matters to determine the magnitude of the problems and any trends that might occur. Additionally, the national clearinghouse would maintain records of abusive and habitually bad officers.

The Atlanta City Council recently voted to move forward with a lease to the Atlanta Policing Foundation for the construction of a police training facility, called “Cop City”. Do you support this move, and what is your stance on public safety and policing more generally?

No response.