Malik wants to improve Akron's health, housing, and environment
Shammas Malik’s campaign for Mayor of Akron has released its Living Together plan.
The plan is aimed at improving health outcomes, housing conditions, and environmental sustainability, according to Malik’s campaign website, and builds on the work he’s done on Akron City Council.
The plan outlines four key components: addressing Akron’s housing crisis, from evictions, to poor living conditions, to affordable housing; improving efforts around new construction and neighborhood redevelopment; creating an environmental platform for the city; and continued focus on public health, including health outcomes.
Malik noted that an underpinning of the Living Together plan is addressing racial and economic disparities across the city.
“It’s a sad reality that when things go wrong in any of these areas – housing, neighborhoods, the environment, health – people of color and lower incomes are hit the hardest,” he said, pointing to statistics that show Black, single mothers are evicted at higher rates than any other portion of the population.
“We have to get to the root of these disparities, and that means rebuilding our systems in a way that promotes equity and fairness,” Malik said. “It also means engaging people, really listening to how these systems are interacting with their lives, and then responding to that.”
Living Together is one of four plans Malik’s campaign is releasing as part of his vision for Akron’s future. In the coming weeks, the campaign also will be hosting community dialogue sessions, inviting community members to join in discussions about each of these issue areas before releasing final detailed plans in early spring.
View Malik’s Working Together plan at www.MalikForAkron.com/working
Media contact:
Maria Duvuvuei
(330) 907-4405