Kevin Diaz' article in today's Star Tribune gives the gist of HUD's backpedaling on moneys already committed to this fiscal year's budget for MPHA.$1.5 million erased from the current operating subsidy creates a serious challenge for MPHA management - where to slice when the entire package is already in execution. Mention was made at the Minneapolis Highrise Representative Council's board meeting this past Thursday that security costs are a big-ticket item and that a triage decision at MPHA would perhaps prefer continuing the roving team of Minneapolis police officers over full funding of the security guard contract.
This choice can be framed as preferring reactive to proactive management of security concerns and is analogous to the "one strike and you're out" profile that Congress has insisted is the rule for removing tenants accused sometimes anonymously and sometimes for off-site behavior of acquaintances and/or relatives over which said tenants may well have no control. Removal of federal Project Lookout funding for citizen crime watch initiatives is a companion piece that HUD Secretary Martinez defends, averring that eviction is a more suitable tool than the highly successful resident-driven crime prevention strategy. To the credit of the Pawlenty Administration, state funding that replaces this federal subtraction has been left in place for now but the deep deficit in the next state budget suggests that such continuing support may be in jeopardy. Municipal financial support related to preventative security concerns may also be in harm's way as the City of Minneapolis confronts its own hard fiscal challenges. If public housing tenants are returned to the tender mercies of persons who prey on the elderly, sell drugs to the gullible, and tear at the social fabric of our lives with other violence against persons and property and the public's defenses are reduced to a roving team of eight uniformed officers for a population of 5000 tenants in forty-odd highrises and the overworked capacities of 911 responses, we will inevitably lose ground in what has been a dramatic turnaround in the quality of life in our public housing domiciles since the bad old days of the 1990s and before. The uniformed guards at our front doors and our volunteer crime prevention strategies are proven assets that give our residents the same peace of mind that one expects in any domestic setting. Prevention works, pure and simple. In contrast, short-staffed reactive law enforcement misses nuisance crimes and can lead to the tense and often adversarial relationships with law enforcement that now prevail in Minneapolis' low-income neighborhoods. Enforcement is much more expensive than prevention in the long run. There are no easy solutions when public money and personnel are drawn off to pursue hegemonic pretensions elsewhere on the planet and our municipal leadership refuses to speak out against this wanton abuse of the national government's capacities. It is also not helpful when the Minnesota House Republicans contemplate eliminating MFIP and food assistance for legal immigrants, limiting access to Emergency Assistance to once in every 18 months (vs. every 12 months), limiting education for MFIP participants to 12 months (vs. 24 months), reducing eligibility and increase fees for childcare assistance (cutting 1200 families off childcare), eliminating state-funded Medical Assistance for legal immigrants and undocumented pregnant women - all measures that drive desperation, not allegiance. "Come," said President Lyndon Johnson, "let us reason together". Reason indeed, lest baser necessities drive our social contract. Fred Markus, Horn Terrace, Ward Ten, in the Lyndale Neighborhood --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.443 / Virus Database: 248 - Release Date: 1/10/2003 TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Send all posts in plain-text format. 2. Cut as much of the post you're responding to as possible. ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
