O c to b e r 19, 2011
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Page 21
Housing for the Poor Under Attack
Hope VI not
perfect, but it
has its benefits
by
J udge G reg M athis
T he U .S. g o v ern m en t
has p lay ed som e p art in
ho u sin g the p o o r since
the 19th cen tu ry . It w as
d u rin g W o rld W ar II,
how ev er, th at the p ro
gram grew , w hen hu n d red s
o f p u b lic h o u sin g u n its w ere
b u ilt aro u n d the co u n try to
house both retu rn in g v e te r
ans and th e ir fam ilies and the
poor.
Public housing then was usu
ally filled with mostly working-
class and middle-class whites,
not the stereotypical 'welfare
mother' the program's opponents
like to conjure. Decades later,
most public housing units be
came overrun with gang and
drug violence. Generations of
families lived there,
exposed to few, if any,
positive role models.
These com plexes
w ere v ie w e d as
'project cities', com
plete with a school
and grocery store within the com
plex. There was little reason for
residents to venture outside the
confines o f public housing, and
so they didn't. As a result, fami
lies that lived there rarely im
proved their situation, and the
cycle of poverty continued.
In 1992, then President Bill
Clinton, a Democrat, signed into
law the Hope VI project, a pro
gram that sought to demolish
public housing and replace it with
mixed income communities.
The thinking was that poor
residents would be able to mix,
and possibly be inspired by,
their w orking and m iddle class
neighbors, an opportunity they
didn't alw ays have under the
old model.
As the program got under
way, notorious housing com
plexes in m ajor cities like C hi
cago and N ew Y ork were torn
dow n and replaced with new
to w n h o u se s and a p a rtm e n t
buildings. Though Hope VI had
its ow n critics, research shows
that the program did w ork to
decrease crim e and helped in
still a sense o f pride in low- has had its benefits. We owe it to
incom e residents.
the nation's poor, and society as
It would be interesting to a whole, to end the vicious cycle
see what further benefits this of urban poverty.
project w ould bring, but we
W rite y o u r C on g ress men
may not have that opportunity. and w om en; tell them to c o n
Congress, led by a Republican tinue to fund p u b lic housing.
faction determ ined to cut so- F eel free to su g g e st o th er
called entitlem ent program s in w ays they can balance the
an effort to balance the fed fed eral budget, p erhaps by
eral budget, have elim inated e lim in a tin g ex cessiv e tax re
Hope VI funding from the 2012 funds for m u lti-b illio n d o lla r
budget proposal.
co rp o ratio n s.
Indeed, balancing the federal
Visit the Internet site usa.gov
budget is important...but at what if you need help locating your
cost? We must consider what elected official's contact infor
will happen to low-income fami mation.
lies, families that are certainly
Judge Mathis is a longtime
not doing any better financially, advocate fo r equal justice. His
given the current recession, if life story o f a street youth who
the program is not funded.
rose from ja il to judge has
Hope VI is not perfect, but it provided hope to millions.
A Legacy to Honor; A Dream to Achieve
Dr. King’s faith
in the next
generation
by
R oslyn M . B rock
As our nation dedi
cated the Rev. Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
memorial on the National Mall in
Washington, D.C. on Sunday,
we cannot help but reflect on the
legacy he left behind, the faith he
had in the next generation and
the dream that we must still strive
to achieve.
Without question, few shaped
our culture and our nation in the
20th century m ore than Dr.
King. His legacy of social justice
and activism has played an inte
gral role in so much of what we
take for granted today.
Without his advocacy for vot
ing rights, people of color might
still be unable to cast a ballot
unfettered. If not for his work
defending the poor, economic
disparity in America would be
far worse than it is to
day. And without Dr.
King ’ s call for non-vio
lence, the civil rights
m ovem ent m ight be
rem em bered for the
bloodshed and not for
its message of justice
and equality.
At the NAACP, Dr. King’s
legacy is prominent in our con
stant struggle to advance civil
and human rights. With our Fi
nancial Freedom Campaign, we
are building on Dr. King’s mes
sage that true freedom is inextri
cably tied to economic justice.
With that in mind, we are provid
ing underserved com munities
across the country with the tools
they need to attain and maintain
financial stability.
In our health campaigns, we
have embodied Dr. King’s re
mark that, “O f all the forms of
inequality, injustice in health care
is the most shocking and inhu century attempts to roll back
m an e.” W orking under that rights for people of color.
motto, we are organizing cam
Dr. King succeeded in secur
paigns to bring additional atten ing full voting rights for people of
tion and resources to the fight all color, but this election season
against HIV/AIDS and child we see a somewhat coordinated
hood obesity.
push to implement laws that
When we fight for equality in would disenfranchise poor and
education, we rem em ber Dr. minority voters. He strove for
King’s belief that education func equality between all races, but
tions “to teach one to think inten our nation is stuck in a “tough on
sively and to think critically,” crim e” mentality that imprisons
something that all students de African Americans for drug of
serve.
fenses at 10 times the rate of
With all that Dr. King gave to their white counterparts.
the world, his most enduring gift
Dr. King brought his attention
may be the faith he had in others. to poverty, but these days the
Dr. King had an unwavering gap between rich and poor is
faith that future generations wider than ever before, and the
would continue his fight to en war on poverty has been nar
sure that the arc of the universe rowed to a series of bromides
bends towards justice. He trusted and unrealized initiatives.
that if he provided the vehicle
It is up to this generation, and
and destination, we would be the generations that follow to
able to forge our own path to live up to Dr. King’s faith and
wards equality.
stand on the frontlines in this
W e m u st re m e m b e r Dr. new battle for civil rights.
King’s faith as we fight 21st
I grew up in this organization
as a member of the NAACP
Youth and College Division. In
spired by the work of Dr. King
and those who followed him, I
joined the association as a fresh
man at Virginia Union Univer
sity and later served as a youth
board member.
I am proud to say that in its
75th year, our youth and college
division is25,000members strong,
making it one of the largest orga
nized groups of young people of
any secular organization in the
country.
These youth are the future of
the organization, and we must
have faith in them as Dr. King
had faith in us. After all, there is
still so much to do before we
achieve Dr. King’s dream of full
equality.
The future is calling, and with
your help, the NAACP will an
swer.
Roslyn M. Brock is the chair
man o f the National Board of
Directors fo r the NAACP.
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