Candidate Forum Puts Housing at the Center of Dayton’s Future

Darius Beckham, Karen Wick, Jeffrey Mims, Derrick Foward, Daryl Fairchild, Jacob Davis, Shenise Turner-Sloss, Tom Roberts (L-R)

October 3, 2025

On a recent Monday evening, the NAACP hosted a mayoral and city commission forum at the Dayton Metro Library. Residents packed the room to hear how candidates plan to guide the city through issues of leadership, safety, economic development, and, at the heart of it all, housing.

The event featured familiar leaders and first-time candidates alike. Questions ranged from cybersecurity and water billing to city management and neighborhood investment. But time and again, the conversation circled back to where people live, how homes are maintained, and what city government should do to make neighborhoods stronger.

The Event and the Candidates

• Mayor Jeffrey Mims emphasized economic development, job creation, and large-scale demolition as steps toward city growth. He pointed to investments in hotels, infrastructure, and education initiatives as measures that indirectly support housing stability.

• Commissioner Shenise Turner-Sloss pressed accountability, stressing that behind positive headlines, the city faces growing homelessness and eviction crises. She called for transparent partnerships with the county and clear performance metrics for the city manager to ensure housing policies are executed fairly.

• Commissioner Daryl Fairchild focused on neighborhoods, calling for stronger youth investment, better code enforcement, and technology upgrades that make it easier for residents to navigate city systems.

• Jacob Davis, attorney and first-time candidate, proposed linking nuisance abatement directly to first-time homeownership opportunities, and backed a Housing Trust Fund to expand repair and down-payment assistance programs.

• Darius Beckham, nonprofit leader, and Karen Wick, longtime business owner and school board member, emphasized relationship-building and more accessible mini-grant funding for neighborhood projects, especially in areas with fewer resources.

Housing Implications

• Neighborhood Stabilization

  Candidates differed on how to balance demolition with repair and rehab. Mims highlighted the city’s demolition track record, while Turner-Sloss and Fairchild stressed that continued teardown without enough reinvestment risks hollowing out neighborhoods.

• Affordability & Homelessness

  Several candidates underscored the urgency of addressing a rising unhoused population, high eviction rates, and persistent poverty. Turner-Sloss and Davis tied these issues to accountability, insisting that housing programs need more transparency and measurable outcomes.

• Utility & Billing Reforms

  Water billing was cited as a hidden burden on residents, with Davis advocating for longer notice windows and Turner-Sloss calling to bring billing back under city control. Both framed this as part of protecting housing stability.

• Mini-Grant Accessibility

  Wick and Beckham argued that small-scale neighborhood grants should be simpler to access and equitably distributed. Their proposals included guaranteed set-asides for each neighborhood and tiered micro-grants, ensuring even low-capacity groups can launch housing-related projects.

• City–County Partnerships

  The strained relationship between Dayton and Montgomery County was flagged as a barrier to tackling housing and homelessness head-on. Turner-Sloss pledged quarterly joint meetings, while Davis described collaboration as essential for nuisance property abatement, supportive housing, and mental health services.

Why It Matters for Housing

Dayton’s housing future depends not only on funding but also on functioning governance. The candidates’ housing visions reveal the city’s crossroads:

• Will demolition dominate, or will rehab and repair share equal footing?

• Will nuisance properties remain a drag, or become affordable homes for first-time buyers?

• Will mini-grants and utility reforms relieve pressure, or will red tape keep frustrating residents?

With housing identified as a top issue by both candidates and community leaders, November’s election will play a decisive role in whether Dayton neighborhoods stabilize, grow, and thrive in the years ahead.

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