Resident urges Tuscaloosa council to tackle homelessness with housing and zoning changes
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Summary
Carson Devos told the council homelessness on city streets is a safety and housing-affordability problem and urged mental‑health infrastructure and zoning reform — including ending single‑family‑only zoning — to expand affordable housing.
Carson Devos, a resident of 2330 University Boulevard, used the citizens' comments portion of Tuesday's Tuscaloosa City Council meeting to urge a more aggressive municipal response to homelessness and housing affordability.
"Like many of you, just over the past few months, I've been confronted with the reality of homelessness in Tuscaloosa," Devos said, describing encounters with people in crisis downtown and reporting that he has begun carrying a taser and pepper spray for personal safety. He asked the council to address "the fundamental and root causes of the problems we see in our streets," and recommended coupling strong mental‑health and crisis management infrastructure with policies to increase the supply of affordable housing.
Devos explicitly urged zoning reforms, including "abolishing single family only zoning and further deregulating the building approval process," arguing that such changes would expand housing availability for students and young adults who want to remain in Tuscaloosa but face unaffordability.
Council members thanked Devos for his remarks; the council did not take immediate action on the recommendations during the meeting. The speaker framed housing expansion as both a safety and economic‑development priority for the city.
Next steps: The comments were entered into the public record; councilmembers and staff may address zoning and housing policy through committee review or future agenda items.
