In response to the article “Uptown community to rally against violence” in the Oct. 24-30 issue of Inside, we who live and work in subsidized housing in Uptown feel the need to tell another facet of the story.
The attendance at the September and October CAPS beat meetings for 2311, 2312 and 2313 was at a record high, easily reaching 100 for each meeting. Quite a few attendees identified themselves as homeowners who moved into the area in the last few years. So many of the attendees were non-minorities that the meeting could hardly be said to be representative of Uptown demographics.
Residents came to the meetings because of a couple of recent street shootings that took place in the neighborhood. There was no doubt that residents were concerned about safety, upset with the increasing violent incidents, and were eager to find someone to blame.
The easy target was the police. Fingers pointed at areas such as ineffective policing strategy, slow responses to emergency calls, negligence while on duty, attempts to conceal facts, etc. When the more objective residents pointed out that the policemen were allies, not enemies, some residents turned elsewhere to hunt for scapegoats. They found them in tenants of subsidized housing.
How could one make the connection between street violence and tenants of subsidized housing? The rationale of the angry crowd was that since street violence often took place in the immediate neighborhood of that kind of housing, those tenants must be involved to some extent. That idea grew like a fireball. At the end of each of the CAPS meetings, the prevailing feeling was to look for means to get rid of those “undesirable neighbors,” under the banner of fighting street crime.
We who live and work in subsidized housing feel just as concerned about fighting drugs, gangs, and street crimes. We too are concerned for our safety, that of our families, and friends who come to visit us. We are as much victims as any other Uptown resident. But by lobbying for stricter regulations to evict people like us more easily, the rally and the mean-spirited flyers promoting it help widen the class gap and deepen misunderstanding between homeowners and tenants in our neighborhood.
We want to know one thing: Do the rally organizers intend to fight street violence or to get rid of low-income housing? If the answer is street violence, we will join forces and fight together. If the true answer is the latter, the Uptown neighborhood will be more divided than ever. Low-income housing is part of American society. Help make it better, not make it disappear.
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