Residents urge homeownership, land trusts and AI analysis; city staff cautions on land-value tax and rental restrictions

During the privilege of the floor, Sue Castle of 422 Kennedy Drive urged the council to favor homeownership over rentals, saying "South Bend has a 40% poverty level" and that "the answer is not rentals, it's homeownership." She recommended research into vacancy taxes and land trusts used by other cities and suggested using AI to analyze GIS data to identify neighborhood needs and suitable businesses.

President Lee asked the clerk to assign interns to look into the examples Castle mentioned. A staff member identified as Caleb told the council the city team conducts best-practice research, said Detroit's land-value-tax proposals were pending state approval and added, "not something that's allowable per Indiana code today." Caleb also cautioned that strict rental restrictions could reduce affordability and displace low-income renters, noting that many low-income residents are renters and may be unable to purchase homes.

What the record shows: these public comments and staff responses were presented for council consideration and a request for staff research. The poverty figure cited by the speaker is reported as the speaker's assertion in the public comment and is not verified in the transcript. The staff member's statement about Indiana code reflects the staff's interpretation as given in the meeting record.