Housing
Successfully Mixing Incomes in Greenwich
Published September 27, 2009 @ 11:08AM PT
Don't be fooled by the misleading statement in this NYT piece about public housing in Greenwich, CT, one of the wealthiest towns in the nation, where the Housing Authority manages 750 units, including 300 for the elderly:
"In many ways, the housing in Greenwich mirrors modern trends in public housing — low-rise, small-scale structures — even though most of it was built years ago."
The majority of the more than a million units of public housing in the U.S. is in developments with less than 500 units, and half of all our public housing is in developments with less than 100 units. Contrary to the high rises that capture our ire and imagination, most public housing is smaller scale and more unassuming than even these model projects in Greenwich - which offer low-income families, many former workers of the wealthy families in town, playgrounds, picnic and BBQ areas and comfortable, mostly well-maintained if aging homes.
The key to success of low-income housing like this is yes, de-concentration, but by that I mean not putting it only in low-income neighborhoods. It's not the low-income population in the projects and their lack of resources that's the problem when we think about public housing, but the limited overall resources of the surrounding communities and authorities in cash-strapped cities and neighborhoods (think New Orleans, Detroit, Memphis; Roxbury (MA), South Boston, etc.). When public housing is situated in place like Greenwich, or the South End in Boston, the natural "mixed-income" benefits of better schools, safer neighborhoods, and more amenities kick in for public housing residents in a much more effective way than demolishing units and trying to import middle-class residents.
As we prioritize more affordable rental housing, and try to desegregate wealthy communities (still in 2009!), we could use more favorable, realistic coverage of public housing like this from the media.
(Families enjoying life in Greenwich, CT; photo by WalkingGeek)
NYT Stands With Mississippi
Published September 23, 2009 @ 01:27PM PT
Last April, we featured a campaign here called "I Stand With Mississippi," started by the MS Center for Justice, to protest Governor Barbour's plan to decline federal stimulus funds. Yesterday, the NY Times stood with Mississippi - expending editorial capital on the almost four-year fight by social justice advocates to compel the MS government to to appropriately and fairly spend federal disaster recovery funds on affordable housing for affected low-income populations.
The STEPS Coalition, an umbrella group of MS-based advocates such as the MS Center for Justice, is named in the editorial for a report it released at the anniversary of Katrina, documenting the state's poor performance in rebuilding destroyed affordable housing relative to its post-storm projections and compared to Louisiana. We've documented here the most egregious example of Barbour's misplaced priorities - taking $600M allocated for housing redevelopment and using it to expand the port of Gulfport. Only 20% of all the money meant for low-income households has been spent on them; 50% has gone to wealthier homeowners.
Mississippi is the poorest state in the nation, and a state with poverty and inequality so dire that even Louisiana, hardly a progressive bright spot on the map, easily surpasses them in affordable housing recovery. This post is sort of meta... it seeks to highlight the on-going progress and battle the STEPS Coalition and others are waging to bring all affordable housing back on-line to the thousands of state residents still displaced - in trailers and out-of-state. But it also highlights the coverage this struggle is finally getting - national attention it's long deserved. It's like someone on the NYT editorial staff finally had a chance to read that random Katrina report someone recommended last month.
Show your support for housing and social justice advocates in Mississippi: Check out the MS Center for Justice, the MS NAACP, and the Gulf Coast Fair Housing Center, the STEPS Coalition, and their allies. There is a tremendous amount of social justice work happening and a tremendous progressive community in the U.S. South. Get involved today.
(Photo of farmers' market at Point Cadet Plaza in Ocean Springs, MS, a few weeks before Katrina hit in August 2005; Taken by Ken Roberts Photography)
Incomes Up 14% through Opportunity NYC
Published September 22, 2009 @ 10:03AM PT
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is hosting the Organization of American States today to discuss anti-poverty initiatives in the Americas. Featured at the meeting with be the City of New York's Opportunity NYC, a program of conditional cash transfers to low-income families to reward them for specific behaviors: attending school, attending doctor's appointments, working full-time, etc. The Bloomberg Administration, which launched the initiative as one of many anti-poverty programs managed collectively through its Center for Economic Opportunity, has renewed the program for a third year.
The program is both promising and controversial for providing what many deem paternalistic incentives that isolate behavior as the reason households are poor. I agree. But let's face it: Opportunity NYC is increasing annual household incomes by as much as 14% per year. Do we really want to condemn such a result?
Target Takes Food Stamps
Published September 21, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT
So many Americans are now using food stamps that more and more chain stores have begun accepting them, rather than lose these customers to economic hardship. New or expanded recipients include Target, CVS, 7-11, Costco, BJ's and Sam's Club.
Food stamp use was up 22% this summer from 2008, with more than 35M Americans using them. Food stamps now come on a card identical to a debit or credit card, offering discretion and privacy for Americans self-conscious about relying on public assistance. For businesses, Costco finds that food stamp users spend an additional $50 or so on purchases not covered by the benefit.
There's a message in here about economic hardship becoming mainstream, becoming normal. I'm trying to generalize it to an ideal world where one is not punished for being poor, where a low-income parent can stand in line at the grocery store without a sense of shame - that she's even at the better grocery store rather than an overpriced bodega or food bank is an accomplishment. (Of course, see the original link above to understand transportation issues.)
Expanded food stamp acceptance at more stores is one of these situational responses that becomes permanent. From the sound of it, businesses have to invest in some degree of technological or process change to accept these cards. These are likely not upgrades that will be rolled back once the recession really lifts. As anti-poverty activists, we should be thinking about emergency services and about long-term changes we can push through during moments of crisis. Yes, we've got to expand eligibility for food stamps so all the many million more bellies don't go hungry, but if there was ever a moment to update the poverty measure to reflect the costs of housing, health care or decline in wages - It's Now.
The Learning Curve Express
Published September 19, 2009 @ 09:35AM PT
Anyone who knows me knows I wouldn't easily give up an opportunity like guest blogging at Poverty in America. But HEAR US Inc.'s LEARNING CURVE EXPRESS, my daunting next venture, will keep me busy as I film short interviews with homeless kids and parents who don't count (by HUD's standards), living doubled-up and/or in motels. I will do my best to connect these homeless constituents with their (often clueless) legislators because Congress needs to learn much more about this topic.
Giving voice and visibility to homeless kids is what HEAR US is about, knowing they are their own best spokespersons. They more than proved it in our award-winning documentary, "My Own Four Walls." For the next 6-7 months I'll be traveling backroads in my bug-splattered RV, posting short clips depicting the bleak lives and the great hopes of the hidden and uncounted homeless families and teen population.
I hope to keep up with my PIA duties, but regardless will invite interested persons to take a peek at my travels and tribulations which I'll post on the HEAR US website, incl. at Change.org. Please join us in fighting for the rights and resources for homeless families in the US!
(Photo by author)
White Recession, Black Depression
Published September 14, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT
Barbara Ehrenreich published her fourth and final NYT column on poverty in the U.S. this week, raising the perennial issue of racial economic inequality. (Our previous coverage of Ehrenreich's pieces are here, here, and here.) From 2000 to 2007, African-American employment and incomes fell almost 3%. Now, as the "Great Recession" has engulfed us all, the unemployment rate among African-Americans is over 15% (compared to less than 9% for whites). The black-white and overall ethnic/racial wealth gap is nothing new, but it is easily overlooked at times of crisis when competing senses of "we're all in it together" versus white racial resentment towards President Obama blind us to the disproportionate burden African-Americans face in economic downturns.
Housing Choice in Crisis
Published September 12, 2009 @ 09:00AM PT
My organization, the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center (GNOFHAC), recently released an audit report about discrimination against Housing Choice Voucher holders (“HCVP” or “Section 8”) in the Greater New Orleans rental market. Our study revealed that landlords refused to consider voucher holders as tenants 82% of the time. Preliminary results also suggest that, due to intentional discrimination and program dysfunction, voucher holders end up relegated to a small, isolated, and likely low-resourced segment of the rental housing market. This is particularly problematic, since one of the stated goals of the Housing Choice Voucher Program is to promote race and class integration.
Audits in other areas of the country have turned up similar findings and point to the need for serious reform in federal housing policy. We recommend 10 actions to make housing policy more inclusive, fair and effective.
Our study demonstrates that while 75% of landlord refusals were outright rejections, 7% of the time, landlords added additional terms and conditions for voucher holders that were tantamount to a denial.
