This is from a member who recently unsubscribed...her reasons are very pertinent to list discussions. This is forwarded with her permission. - David Brauer, list manager
-- I suppose I could have posted before I left and said why, because it is pertinent to recent discussions. If you feel its appropriate to post this, feel free. I can't go through with my plans to move to Mpls, due to lack of affordable housing there. I'm an RN with a 45 year work history, and I've raised two children on my own. I had no reason to think I'd ever be living on a fixed income, until disabilty became a unwelcome reality. Guess what? This can happen to anyone. Doesn't take long to run through ones savings, unless there's a LOT of them. :) There are few options for living in Mpls for someone in this position. The current average rent on a one bedroom apartment would take the majority of my monthly income. Not sure how anyone on a fixed income is supposed to accumulate the sizeable deposits most require. Subsidized or public housing waiting lists have grown impossibly long: the process is incredibly cumbersome and invasive, even if one is willing to live in the neighborhoods and conditions available. So basically, there is no room in the (Mpls) "inn" for people in my position that I can discover. There are some possibilities for living in housing designated for the elderly and disabled, similar to what I'm living in now. (altho those also have very long waiting lists) However, I do not identify myself as an "elderly or disabled person", and I do not meld very well into these segregated settings, as I have learned by living in one. There are many like me: active, intelligent people (even if disabled or elderly) with much to contribute to your city, in terms of community and volunteer involvement. People who not ready to retreat to segregated housing with only others of "our own kind". Add to this the growing numbers of single parents, all the "working poor", and the need for more affordable housing in Mpls is glaringly, painfully clear. Today I read in the paper that less than half the affordable housing that was to be completed after removing the projects has been completed. This doesn't surprise me: affordable housing isn't nearly as much a priority to those who have no need of it, as it is to those of us who do. Everyone loses, eventually, when this happens. Cities lose the sense of "community" that comes with diversity of generations, abilities and experiences. The young and fit, and those of all ages who able to earn incomes large enough to afford places like Mpls will stay. The rest of us equally valuable people, will go elsewhere, where we will usually do without the richness of experience offered by a city. I hope to see this change someday. G.Mills Montrose, Mn _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
