City council candidates discuss housing, more at forum

A candidates' forum hosted Thursday night by FORWARD Worthington offered the opportunity for people to learn more about those running for Worthington City Council.

Mike Kuhle is running unopposed for his Ward 2 seat on the council, while Amy Woitalewicz and Mariajose Saenz are challenging each other for a Ward 1 seat. One of the topics discussed Thursday was developing additional housing opportunities for Worthington residents.

"The HRA ... is under the city and utilities are under the city, and the three entities have different pots of money and I know that they combined to do Sunrise Estates," Woitalewicz said. "There's always options like that that we need to continue looking at, but it's difficult to find developers that can get the return on investment. We're really, really fortunate that we have a couple of new complexes going on, so there's always room to try to do more and to continue to press that issue."

"With some new properties coming up in Worthington, such as those two complexes, they don't need to get a market rate," Saenz responded. "They're just super expensive for our low-income families. But there's also other things that we can focus on, such as the market rate and talking about what that looks like in the city of Worthington and sharing some additional resources so that families are able to maintain their housing or secure housing."