During public comment at the May 4 meeting of Bethlehem City Council, Anna Smith called into the YouTube live-cast meeting to talk about affordable housing.

Smith, from Southside Bethlehem, was concerned that the rate of change “seems to have speeded up recently.” She said, “550 new, almost exclusively luxury apartments are at some stage between planning and occupancy right now.

“Neighbors from across the community have shared with us that they [feel] they have no power to influence the process, let alone have knowledge that the changes are coming.”

She said the community is being given “false choices that are designed to split us apart. It is a zero-sum game where we must choose which component of our community to save and which to sacrifice. We’re here tonight because we reject the notion that we must pick economic development against preservation-affordable housing against neighborhood character.

“We reject the way forward for our community that is determined by folks who do not live in our neighborhood [and] perpetuating cycles of marginalization of the voices of individuals who have long been excluded from our city’s decision-making processes.”

Smith said affordable housing, or “workforce housing” as she calls it in some of her on-line writings, “is our hallmark, whether it is 100-year-old row homes, multifamily homes on street corners or garages converted into an apartment or two in our backyards.

“We get [understand] affordable housing in our communities because we have been the most affordable place for folks to build their lives and grow their families since Bethlehem was founded. We know that affordable housing is complex and it is not a building you can point to. It’s integrated into the very fabric of the community.”

Smith said the Southside offers a model of affordable housing that informs the rest of the country, which could learn from it. “We believe that folks could learn from the density of our Southside neighborhoods and commercial corridors. If Southside were a stand-alone city, it would be the 52nd most densely populated city in the United States immediately after Boston.”

“We believe our neighborhood’s mixed income and mixed ethnic and racial character could be a model for other communities that have tended to segregate by income, race or ethnicity. We believe that our diversity of housing in our neighborhoods is one of our greatest strengths.”

Smith, claiming to quote census data, said 72 percent of residents rent their homes and make less than $35,000 per year. “This is certainly a major cause for concern. These are the folks who need affordable housing in our community.”

She said these people can afford to pay a maximum of $870 per month for rent and utilities combined. According to Smith, “These families are stretched to the limit, paying $1,000 a month for rent or more.”

Smith argued that solutions will come from subsidies and “really creative thinking.” Not from market rate development or from 10 percent affordable units in a market-rate building.

“The New Street Tower, for example, may be a solution for people moving here from New York or New Jersey, but it is not a solution for people living in our neighborhood.

“Concern about new development that places a burden on the South Side Community while not addressing the needs of small businesses is the most prevalent thing that comes up in discussion.”

Smith said that the people in the Southside feel powerless when it comes to having a say in the process ,which she said leaves people of color and low to moderate income behind.

“I ask you to challenge that dynamic. You may not live or work on the South Side or even set foot in our neighborhoods very often, but your choices moving forward will define who gets to live here and what their quality of life will be like.

“Use your power to lift up the voices of your Southside neighbors who don’t have any representation on [city] council.”

Smith said she will revisit the issue after the upcoming primary election.