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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Is there a relationship between housing policy and violence?
Posted by: The Michigan CitizenPosted date: February 28, 2013In: State & Nation|
By Sylvester Monroe
Special to the NNPA from the Marketplace Wealth and Poverty Desk
CHICAGO —
Most people agree that high-rise housing projects in Chicago like Cabrini Green needed to be demolished. But the neighborhoods where many of the former project residents ended up often weren’t much better than the projects themselves. Moving project residents into new neighborhoods created tensions with established residents and that sometimes led to violence. In fact, some say public housing policy is one of the causes of violence in some poor Chicago neighborhoods.
Jamika Smith lives in a Chicago-style bungalow with her husband and baby daughter on the South side of the city. But she grew up in a housing project on the city’s West Side. As she recalls, it was not such a bad life.
“You could leave your doors open,” Smith says. “Everyone knew each other, and it was just this close-knit community.”
But it didn’t stay idyllic for long. Soon drugs moved in, and upstanding residents moved out. And life got tougher.
“We were just like, oh, they’re hanging out on the corners now,” says Smith. “All of a sudden, you just see the rise of violence in the community. And people just could not walk up and down the streets because they’d get shot.”
Smith moved out of the projects, went to college in Tennessee and eventually ended up in Marquette Park on the Southwest side — just in time to greet an influx of residents relocated from demolished housing projects all over the city, many with competing gang affiliations.
“For example, you may have been ‘Cabrini Green,’ that’s one gang,” says Smith. “And then you have the ‘Horners,’ who are another. And you put them all in one community area. Then you have war.”
Such violence has now found its way to Smith’s current neighborhood. Yellow police tape near a blood spot on the pavement marks the area where a 17-year-old boy was shot five times, just blocks away from Jamika Smith’s house.
Chicago is, in fact, something of a war zone today. More people were killed in the city last year than U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan. But did tearing down the projects cause the recent explosion in violence?
“I think the good news is that after we tore the high rises down, we moved thousands of families into other areas of the city and that crime was reduced I think as much as 60 percent at transformation sites,” says Charles Woodyard, CEO of the Chicago Housing Authority.
By transformation sites, Woodyard means places where the high-rises once stood.
Woodyard also says crime didn’t go up in most of the neighborhoods where former project residents moved. “There were a handful of exceptions, though, and it’s all about concentration,” he says. “What I mean by that is the number of these relocated households compared to the number of households in the neighborhood that they live in.”
Put another way, if too many people from the projects ended up in one neighborhood, there was trouble.
But Susan Popkin of the Urban Institute warns against oversimplifying the violence problem in neighborhoods where former project residents now use rent vouchers. “The Section 8 (voucher) holders tend to move to places where rents are low already and crime is already high,” Popkin says.
For more stories from the Marketplace Wealth and Poverty Desk, visit www.marketplace.org/wealth-poverty |
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Fri Mar 01, 2013 7:16 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Public Housing in Flint is often the site of violence and gang activity. They are given street names of "Little Beirut" and "Little Iraq" as an indication of the amount of violence.
But we need to look at the level of corruption that went into not only the creation of the Flint projects, but also the perpetuation of the violence through mismanagement. Then we have to consider the blame that belongs to HUD for their inability and failure to discern the level of corruption.
I never understood when and why the projects were built until I read Andrew Highsmith. blacks had been segregated into primarily two neighborhoods, St John and the area around the old Floral Park. The Federal Housing Authority's restrictive lending policeies made it difficult for anyone but specified white groups to buy homes. Flint's past leadership, including Charles Stewart Mott, created deed restricted housing that kept not only blacks, but also newly arriving undesirable immigrants from Europe and the middle east out of certain areas. Then came the I475 corridor.
The new interstate and I-69 tore through the heart of the black neighborhoods. The housing projects were constructed to basically warehouse those displaced by the new interstate highways. Those who moved first were underpaid for their homes and were unable, monetarily and by design, unable to buy a new home. They were relocated to the newly constructed projects. Those who were the last to leave got better financial packages and were able to buy homes in better neighborhoods. |
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Fri Mar 01, 2013 7:36 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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HUD implemented policies making those with addictions be designated as handicapped and moved these addicted people into senior citizen housing where they soon victimized the seniors. Housing for seniors should be designated senior only housing.
Past housing administrators lied to HUD about how many units were being repaired and the cost. A sexual harassment lawsuit against a past administrator detailed the staff manipulation of data to convince HUD they were in complaince. More and more units fell into disrepair.
There were numerous incidents of alleged illegal activity among the staff at Flint Housing. Complaints were made that several staff had outside repair business and they used Flint Housing supplies to run their business. This was facillitated by an administration that did not keep inventory control or control of their staff. Staff worked n their outside business interests while on duty with Flint Housing. The director appeared to have aharem in the various projects, even among the staff.
In one instance a young investor bought 2 apartment buildings on Hamilton by I-475, He was completely upgrading the buildings. He came to a local meeting and announced how all of his new cabinetry, kitchen and bathroom fixtures had been stolen in one weekend.
A Flint Public Service Officer was arrested for driving a truck with some of this stolen goods inside. PSO officers were the at that time the blight officers. A search of the home she shared with her boyfriend revealed equipment, toliet paper and other supplies her Flint Housing employee boyfriend had stolen from Flint Housing. |
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Fri Mar 01, 2013 7:54 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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The response of HUD to the problems at Flint Housing have often been as biased as the Board of Directors response to issues. HUD removed one board because of a conflict of interests and poor decisions. The new board, despite several years of operating over their budget, resisted Williamson's efforts to implment accountability . Staff refused to cooperate with certain members who were appointed under Williamson.
Things only got worse when the Housing Commission hired former staff of the now defunct CCDC when that agency was forcibly removed from oversight of the Flint Area Investment Fund. One of the staff members took control of the federal records and refused the federal government access to the original documents involving federal loans. Another was being investigated over a $15,000 check originally made out to Hinky Dinky that was altered and went to her fiance, now usband.
The City of Flint finally cut Flint Housing loose as a separate entity because of the annual deficits incurred by Flint Housing. They had meetings with the new Director about the number of sexual harassment complaints being made against him. Flint was no longer going to subsidize Flint Housing.
When John Carpenter was selected to manage the Flint Housing he immediately started implementing inventory control and staff accountability. HUD, although they disliked Williamson, began to see an improvement in the number of units rehabbed and available for occupancy.
John quit when the new board advertised his position. A new black board wanted a black employee. They got what they deserved when they found out their new director was under investigation in his former job and had allegations of misuse of Commission resourses here. It is accountability and not race that counts. |
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Fri Mar 01, 2013 8:17 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Flint Housing once again appears to have issues. The level of evictions is down when HUD has a zero tolerance for drug and other activity. Flint Housing blames Judge marable for their inability to evict trouble makers, but others claim the Flint Housing staff is unable or unwilling to document the behavior and put together an adequate eviction notice.
Either way there is too much violence in certain housing projects. At one time the drug dealers had their pit bulls in their apartments to guard and suffered no consequences. |
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Fri Mar 01, 2013 8:23 am |
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