- After reading Sampson's review of the arguments and evidence for "poverty traps" of urban decay in inner-cities, Chicago in particular, and after reading the NYT article "The Death and Life of Chicago," blog your thoughts on the topic.
The struggles among those citizens living in Chicago seems a world away from what is happening here in Southern Utah. The crime rates are starkly different, the demographics are not very similar, and the two places may be about as far as two places in the United States could be. Having said that, I have never been to Chicago, but I have been able to experience life in the "inner city" when I was living in San Bernardino, California for about a year. As of the most recent census, San Bernardino has the 5th highest crime rate in California, right behind Compton. The poverty traps that exist in these cities is very real, and many people are caught up in the psycho-graphics that seem to have a very real grip on the inner cities in places like Chicago, New York, and Detroit.
While I really enjoyed the article about J.R. Fleming attempting to change the demographics of the city by placing people in the vacant homes, I don't know that this is the answer. While this may be one step to the process, it is only a part. There are two possible solutions to the problem that is discussed in the article:
1: Clean up all of the neighborhoods that have homes in them with the potential to become drug and/or gang homes, and place in them homeless people who have been able to find stable housing due to any number of reasons.
2: Allow for those homes to remain vacant with the premise that there will be a tighter security kept on them, or that they will be demolished altogether to remove any "blight" that is perceived by the community. Leave this lot vacant as an opportunity to boost the economy when an eligible home-buyer comes along who chooses to build here, and allow the neighborhoods to weed themselves out as those homes that are not able to be paid on remain vacant.
While I am emotionally unconnected to the project that J.R. Fleming has going on, I can see that there is a great amount of good that he is attempting to accomplish through the Anti-Eviction campaign. That being said, I also believe that those under this system, just as under the welfare system, should be expected to give back and that there should be a guideline for doing so. As discussed in another blog and one of mine previous, there is a government program going on in Ivins, Utah, that gives people the opportunity to help build one another's homes at a government subsidized rate. Programs like this allow the feeling of entitlement to exit the situation and allow people to realize that although there are steps that should be made in helping the poor, there is still a certain extent that people have to go to to help themselves.
The example of Martha Biggs, who serves on the Anti-Eviction campaign's advisory board is an example of the wrong kind of attitude to have if such an approach is to work. Originally kicked out of the Cabrini housing projects due to drug use, she had a strong hand in finding and subsequently living in the first house broken into and obtained for the campaign to use as an example. There need to be basic outlines such as no drug or alcohol use, you must hold some type of job, you must contribute X amount of time to community projects, etc. for such an endeavor to work. That being said, this campaign could serve to greatly help those people in Chicago who may not be as fortunate as others in obtaining a home, and I believe that no one should ever have to live on the streets or go hungry in the U.S.A. Having your own home is the "American Dream," and those who have worked for it would be cheated if others were to simply receive a hand-out. There are other ways for the government to allow those who have no home to find a place to live. And for those who are willing to work hard and obey the rules, there should be a set of guidelines that may place them on equal ground as other willing and able Americans.
While you are absolutely correct about not having homes be "taken over," I have to smile a little at your requirements for whether someone qualified to have help: "no drug or alcohol use, you must hold some type of job, you must contribute X amount of time to community projects, etc." If the individual had these things...they are likely not poor or in the poverty trap.
ReplyDeleteYes, I know (I've been there) it is possible to have a job and it by no means be able to cover even the most conservative of budgets. This is the typical poor of St. George. The poverty traps are pits dug for the poor that have the added difficulty of slippery walls (danger in their lives-gangs..., drugs, alcohol, homeless, criminal records, jobless...). That takes a few more layers of consideration.
I believe the principles that you call on to justify your points (programs that ask for the person to give back, avoid entitlement attitudes, ask for civil/lawful/stable lifestyles and behaviors-no drugs/alcohol.. :), are the correct starting points, though. Without them, no solution would work. I would include helping them fulfill the requirements, as part of the program-otherwise it's all just a joke to the person getting all stick and no carrot.
One who is truly impoverished, is often impoverished in more than one area of their lives (social, physical, financial, emotional, spiritual, family, family support, trust, true friendship...). It is astounding how impossible life can sincerely get. The weight unbearable. Compassion, kindness, coupled with real long-term solutions - wow. Nothing nicer.
While it may seem far-fetched wouldn't the only solution to eventually eliminating the poverty traps come through requiring them to remove the facets of their lives that cause them to become trapped? Drugs, alcohol, and joblessness may come at an early or later point in life, but there are also people who become homeless due to mental illness, PTSD, abuse, poverty or any other combination of factors. The government already has in place work programs that allow those with criminal records to obtain jobs.
ReplyDeleteYes, these individuals will need the government and their seemingly endless money and resources to help dig them out, but they shouldn't rely on the government. It's true there are many thousands or even millions of people stuck in this "poverty trap" that we are referring to, but there are also thousands of Americans stuck on welfare generation after generation. “Welfare's purpose should be to eliminate, as far as possible, the need for its own existence," - Ronald Reagan. There must be a change in the overall system for the system that J.R. proposes to work.