Being a New Yorker is a pretty sad thing these days. I mean sure we live in a city that has the greatest parks, museums, theaters, neighborhoods, some schools, dance clubs, concert halls, sporting events, and other diversions. On any given day you can explore the world without ever leaving town. But what about the flip side of all this? I believe that it is the for sale sign to big business(S) that exclude, evict, demonize, and demolish the poor. Rents are sky high. Gentrification is bulldozing and building over working class neighborhoods. I live in Harlem which means that I am a daily witness to the gentrification effect.Mom and pop businesses around my way are closing like crazy. I miss the soul food restaurant Copelands(145th terribly. I used to go to Reliables the cafeteria part of it when I wanted finger licking soul gravy that I sopped up with a delectable biscuit. Places like this were built to serve people who were forced by defacto segregation to live in these neighborhoods. Nobody outside of Black and Latinos were even trying to live up here. Even though the overcrowding and often poor conditions were coupled with slum living, some great Harlemites managed to build , create, overcome, and even triumph against great odds. A great many others fell victim to the vices of the street. Some never prevailed against the poverty. I certainly don't want to see the bad days come back, but those moving trucks that bring one family in to the good new times are replacing another group who won't reap the benefits of this great opportunity. Some will end up homeless. It's not like outside of the Public Housing ( with waiting lists that go on for years )that there is all of this great affordable housing waiting for poor or even middle class people to come take it. This scenario is taking place in other neighborhoods around the city. People who survived for years now can't afford to stay where they've invested generations. Where do they go? What about the minimum wage workers? Where do they go once a neighborhood is the new Harlem, Williamsburg , e.t.c? Now factor in the abused, uneducated, burnt out of their homes, down on their luck, or whatever causes the Marshall to say "hand over them keys." What if they have children? Where do they go?
NYC might be the only city in the country with A Right To Shelter Law. The way I understand it to work is that after a person or family declares themselves homeless , the city provides temporary shelter until they can connect you in to permanent housing. This idea worked for all involved for years because they were sent to look at apartments in a lot of less than desirable neighborhoods. Landlords liked it because they received that good section 8 money. When these neighborhoods gentrify, why should a landlord take a lesser amount than the 3 grand more that they can make from some gentrifying tenants? Plus section 8 make a lot of mistakes. I'm not even sure if they give section 8 vouchers to shelter residents anymore. So now , record numbers of families are trying to get in to the Shelter system. The city has decided that many of these people are fakes who really have somewhere to live. They are now turning families away unless they can prove that they've exhausted all of their living possibilities. Correct me if I'm wrong , but doesn't standing outside with your sad and hungry children begging for shelter say something about your housing possibilities? The city now says that if you have a relative or friend then you should go and live with them? Huh? What if that relative or friend is abusive. What if there's no space? What if the rules of their subsidized housing say that they can't have other people on the list? What if s can go on and on. If the city told you that you were ineligible before today's policy change, they gave the family temporary shelter until the issue could be resolved. Now they are not giving them a reprieve. They are turning people away at the gate. There is no room at the Inn. Less not even discuss all of the tragic fires that happen when 2 or more families double or triple up in one bedroom apartments Are we the people really allowing Big Business Bloomberg to put children out in the cold?
I am not a give everybody a hug and it will alright person. I do believe that people have to take responsibility when they can. But the flip side is the playing field is not equal for everyone .I also believe that there are poverty hustlers who take advantage of the system. Does that mean that we throw the baby and the bathwater out into the street. I have done work in the Shelter System for years as a teaching artist. I have seen the best and worse of human nature in these places. I have seen how many of the children are lost, angry, and disappointed in their parents. I have listened to grown men cry about what they perceive to be their failures as fathers. I've seen mothers trying to hold just one more day. I've heard people describe the system as their Santa Claus. I've never heard anyone talk about the affordable apartment that they lucked out on.
Maybe the Shelter part of this post is moot. The city is not letting them in there anyway.
I'm so disappointed in our city these days.
2 comments:
Very well said. I've found myself just a stone's throw from winding up homeless in Manhattan so...I feel you.
You know, I know. How do you prove that you have nowhere to live? In most cases why would I bring my family out to sleep on the streets if I had a place to go? How you gonna put a mama and a baby out on the street? And what makes you think I want to lie about my lot to stay in some of those funky facilities? When I get in I am bunched up in a room with my entire family. No stove to cook hot meals most time. Signing in and out like I am on lock down. Being intimidated by the staff and being treated and spoken to like a stray dog on the streets. Eating the bullshit ass meals that some prepare with no love. Why would I want to lie to get into these places? And the sad thing is for the families that are there in the shelters who need help are not getting service in a timly manner. The people (families) who run the shelters are BIB PIMPIMG the syster. They bring in some of these agencies that could do more to help the homeless. Not all are guilty but some of the agencies take the money and run. Lets be honest, with the housing boom as big as it and the genocide of neighbors in Harlem and other boroughs like the Bronx and Brooklyn where are these people suppose to find housing anyway? What will their new neighborhoods look like? What about the environment, will it be safe to breathe the air? Will there child all of a sudden have asthma or some other symptom associated with poor neighborhoods? What about the schools and the neighborhood watch associations? It is a cycle of redundancy and heartlessness. Keep the brown man down. Keep that foot on the poor people’s neck.
Man yall better fight for whatch got cause we all could be next.
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