In ‘There is No Children Here’ the projects are a very
inhabitable place to live. Living in such a terrible place is hard for
individuals to become self-sufficient and have hope for the future. There are
few opportunities for employment and advancement, poor housing conditions, lack
of funding, and a handful of good role-models due to gang violence.
There has been a modern idea that has tried to
disperse this troubled isolated population into a more encouraging, less
racially isolated, and hopeful environment. This idea is called Fair Share
Housing Development (http://fairsharedevelopment.org/housing/). We as students and
facility of NIU and the residents of DeKalb have experienced this first hand
with inner-city residents coming to our university and city for a better chance
for a future of success and significance. This process also helps these new
residents get away from tough living environments and into ones that will help
them prosper. This also can be known as public housing.
The question is if this is an efficient viable solution
to the inner city housing problems?
DeKalb is a great example and case study for this Fair
Share Housing Development. DeKalb has revealed that there are many problems
with this idea such as crime and improper planning for such establishments. I
believe that this Fair Share Housing Development is the long term solution, but
the proper planning needs to be in place. After talking to one of my geography
professors on the issue, he mentioned that DeKalb rushed the process. As we
discussed the issue, we came to the conclusion that the DeKalb’s policymakers
got too distracted by the money and tax incentives they were getting from the
matter. They brought too many inner-city residents at one time which toppled
funding and opportunities to these new residents and students. DeKalb also doesn’t have all the
necessary housing, services, employment opportunities or transportation in place
to bring a large amount of dependent residents to the area at this point in
time. Proper funding and counseling services also need to be in place to help a
new population of outsiders adapt to the new environment. Baby steps are needed
and it takes time to get all the correct measures in place. DeKalb rushed it
and now the community has to face some of the consequences of the decisions that the policymakers
and planners made such as more crime probability and a lack of mobility
services for these dependents.
From a broader picture suburbs in general are failing to
build and provide affordable housing. The article by Wbez 91.5 (http://www.wbez.org/news/despite-mandate-affluent-suburbs-fail-build-affordable-housing-113274)
mentions “WBEZ analyzed where LIHTC (Low-Income
Housing Tax Credits) credits have been used since the program's inception and
found affordable housing tends to be clustered in areas with higher rates of
poverty and racial segregation. This means fewer developments are being built
in wealthy suburbs like Deerfield.” This article helps explains that fair share
housing developments and affordability are hard to come by in ideal locations
especially in Illinois cities and villages. Some of these urban establishments
mentioned in the article do not want to participate in such activities that
might hurt their loc
I believe that Fair Share Housing Development is a
great starting solution to this inner-city spatial isolation problem. The
problem is that if this idea wants to go smoothly, we must plan appropriately
as lawmakers, planners, and also as citizens to help provide opportunities to
all. The constitution of our county states “promote the general welfare.” I see
this as providing opportunities and environments that give all citizens the
hope they need to succeed. Providing the correct planning of employment
opportunities, affordable spatial spread of housing, and transportation for
these new residents/students is what will make this idea thrive. Without all
services in place, it will fail badly like it has across the nation in numerous
locations.
I believe that the topic of “Fair Share Housing”, is very valuable to the reading, but I do have a disposition as far as labeling it as better. Project complexes weren’t always uninhabitable, or even poor living conditions. As stated in multiple articles and documentary’s that I’ve study during this course it took about a decade before the buildings were looked at as unlivable. Original these buildings were nice well furnished with great land skypes, within areas that weren’t so bad during the time that they were built. I believe that the issue wasn’t with the housing itself, but more about the lack of resource allowed to those who occupied the housing.
ReplyDeleteFair Share Housing is moving minority citizens who once occupied project buildings in the heart of Chicago to suburban areas. Was this to provided citizens with better living conditions or was it to move out the poor to make living conditions better for the rich? In the book “There Are No Children” it briefly speaks on the urban expensive housing units that was being built up the street. So you now have to ask yourself this question. What demographic of people currently live and these what use to be unlivable areas? What resources caused them to want to relocate from suburban housing?
I feel that if you do further research on these question you’ll start to see the hidden agenda behind Fair Share Housing. In my opinion it has these housing options has the potential of becoming just as unlivable as the project buildings that were knocked down. Whenever you put a concentrated group of people in one area with a lack of resources crime rate, and poverty tends to increase what makes this different?