ANN ARBOR, MI - The rent in Ann Arbor, to borrow a phrase, is "too damn high," according to Ryan Hughes, a 37-year-old computer programmer at the University of Michigan.

Hughes, who identifies as a democratic socialist, is now running for City Council as an independent in the 1st Ward with hopes of more aggressively pursuing the city's affordable housing goals.

He recently filed to compete in the November election against the winner of the August Democratic primary, seeking to fill the seat being vacated by Sumi Kailasapathy.

Hughes said he was lucky enough to buy a home for under $200,000 in Ann Arbor's Water Hill neighborhood about six years ago before prices skyrocketed, and he has two housemates helping to pay the bills. But he's tired of watching more and more people, including longtime renters, being priced out of the community.

He said renters he's known in his neighborhood have been forced to leave as their landlords have raised rents.

According to rentcafe.com, the average monthly rent in Ann Arbor was $1,476 in May, up 2.1 percent from the year before.

The monthly rent listed for a 630-square-foot, one-bedroom, luxury apartment near Hughes' house is $1,500, while an 820-square-foot, two-bedroom apartment in a nearby duplex is listed for $1,350.

Hughes said he knows state law doesn't allow the city to impose rent control on privately owned rental properties, but the city can put more money toward building dedicated affordable housing.

To do that, he proposes implementing a city income tax to raise tens of millions of dollars in additional annual revenue and then using that money to build new mixed-use developments on land the city owns, such as some of the surface parking lots in the downtown.

"The city owns a lot of land that could be built on, and I'd like to see us just get into the habit of building that kind of thing," Hughes said, expressing a desire to work toward meeting the city's goal of adding 140 new affordable housing units per year, a goal the city set three years ago and is falling far short of meeting.

Hughes proposes having the city operate the buildings as the landlord, rather than working with developers who will expect a profit.

The way he sees it, if the city maintains ownership of the buildings, then it can set the rents. He envisions affordable apartments above ground-floor commercial spaces for local businesses.

"People will be able to affordably live, work, and shop downtown without having to commute or own cars. We must make Ann Arbor an affordable place to live!" he writes on his campaign website.

Jeff Hayner and Ron Ginyard are competing in the 1st Ward primary in August. Hughes will take on the winner in November.

Hayner and Ginyard recently explained some of the reasons why they're running for the 1st Ward seat.

Ginyard said he wants to help Ann Arbor find solutions in terms of where to add more housing density.

Hayner said he wants the city to take an honest look at what residents are getting in terms of services compared to what they're paying.

Hughes argues Ann Arbor is in the middle of a housing crisis due to lack of affordability. He points to National Low-Income Housing Coalition data to conclude a person would have to earn nearly $20 per hour to comfortably afford a two-bedroom apartment here.

"This is out of reach for many of the people who work here, who then must commute from further away," his campaign site states.

He also notes a study a few years ago by the Martin Prosperity Institute found Ann Arbor was the eighth most economically segregated metropolitan area in the United States.

Hughes is proposing the city tax the incomes of city residents and corporations at a rate of 1 percent, and the incomes of non-residents who work in Ann Arbor at a rate of 0.5 percent, with exemptions for people who make below a certain amount.

That's something the city has talked about doing for years, but the city charter stipulates that implementation of a local income tax, which requires Ann Arbor voter approval, could happen only if the city's general operating millage is eliminated.

The city's finance department last year calculated a local income tax could generate as much as $11 million in new annual revenue after factoring in the cost of setting up a new city bureaucracy to administer it and the required elimination of part of the city's property taxes, which is the 6-mill general operating levy.

Hughes said under his plan, though, the city charter would be amended so the city wouldn't have to reduce property taxes to implement an income tax - it would just be an add-on.

The city's existing operating millage is projected to bring in $32.6 million in the next year. So, if eliminating it and implementing an income tax could net $11 million in additional revenue, having both could mean more than $43 million in new annual revenue.

Hughes cites more conservative figures on his website, saying he believes it would be somewhere north of $20 million, but the actual amount would depend on the exemption levels.

Hughes, an Okemos native who came to Ann Arbor in 1998 to attend UM and earn a degree in computer science, said he was inspired by the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign in 2016.

He acknowledges some of his ideas might be "outside the acceptable political spectrum," but he said if there's one thing he took away from the Sanders campaign, it's that people are ready to vote for candidates with radical, inspiring ideas.

He also supports the Black Lives Matter movement and is calling for creation of a civilian oversight committee with the power to investigate Ann Arbor police and make disciplinary decisions.