Charleston should be the first city in West Virginia to implement a Homes Guarantee which would include :

• $5 million per year toward: starting a public benefit corporation to put unemployed people to work building/refurbishing homes;

• creating a no-barrier housing option; increasing public housing by 1,000 units within 10 years; facilitating safe camping sites with access to services;

• and putting the Charleston Land Re-use Agency (CLRA) in the hands of renters, formerly houseless and houseless people.

Heal our children and families -- that means:

• a welcoming 24-hour trauma-informed healing center,

• meeting the national recommended ratio of school counselors to students, and

• a $2 million dollar annual youth development fund led by a representative youth council (ages 13-22) to support training, mentoring, treatment, and more.

Establish a publicly owned municipal broadband system to compete with monopolies, paid for with remaining American Rescue Plan funds--following the lead of South Charleston.

Pass a $15 minimum wage and guaranteed paid sick leave ordinances for Charleston employers, balanced with tax considerations to phase-in small businesses. We will also aggressively police wage theft and fair labor practices.

We will shift city resources, zoning laws, and other benefits toward small, locally owned businesses and away from the out-of-state corporations that undermine them. This will include $1 million per year in new business development funding, exclusively for small locally-owned businesses and the creation of 10 small business residencies to promote sustainable industries (like tech, the arts, renewable energy, and so on).

Establish a West Side Community Development Authority, starting with remaining American Rescue Plan funds:

• to support, train, fund, and promote local businesses,

• street light repairs,

• sidewalk repairs,

• fund community centers,

• and bring CURA into compliance with the law.

Bring Charleston’s public safety into the 21st century, by instituting the state’s strongest Citizen Review Board and de-criminalizing poverty and homelessness. We will also shift at least half of the police budget toward creating jobs to strengthen our city:

• the creation of a Crisis Intervention Team to respond to emergencies;

• an Anti-Corruption Unit to prosecute corporate crime and political corruption; and

• prevention programs, like the housing, drug treatment, jobs, and youth initiatives described in this platform.

Establish an office of Minority Affairs with an annual $2 million budget to support efforts led by and for people from underrepresented communities -- using a participatory budgeting model; eliminate food deserts by attracting grocery stores to the East End and West Side; use the Anti-Corruption Unit described above to investigate and remedy discrimination in:

• housing,

• employment,

• roads, and

• utilities.

Decriminalize harm reduction. Build a 24-hour Overdose Prevention Site to provide no-barrier access to help from a social worker, CDC-approved harm reduction services, a safe use site, connection to local non-profits and resources, and a cup of coffee; establish an office of Recovery and Overdose Prevention with an annual $1 million budget to support efforts led by and for people in recovery and people who use drugs.

Pass the strongest possible ordinance to decriminalize cannabis in Charleston and support efforts to fully legalize cannabis at the state and national level.