Allysen Hoberg Writes:
As a shelter provider who has tried to site shelter in non-impacted neighborhoods, we come up against just as much resistance from those neighborhoods as we do in "impacted neighborhoods." Are we supposed to spend years (YEARS!) banging our heads against a wall to try to site one shelter in Linden Hills when we have community members sleeping outside?
PL: You know we hear this kind of comment a lot, but I don't think the answer is as simple as "non-impacted neighborhoods just don't want affordable housing." In the last 10 years in Lynnhurst we have had only one affordable housing project come forward to our board (The Boulevard Project at 53rd and Lyndale) and we voted in favor of it 11 to 1. Our polling of neighborhood opinion found that the community appeared to favor it by something like 3 or 4 to 1.
Now does that mean that there wasn't a lot of screaming and yelling about it? NO. There was. But just because there is a lot of angst doesn't automatically mean that the majority of the people don't or won't support it. There will always be people opposed to any kind of change in their neighborhoods, but no one should interpret that the loud voices of a minority speak for the neighborhood as a whole.
That being said, every project is different and each will and must get judged on its merits.
And since Allysen mentions Linden Hills specially, this is a neighborhood whose council has adopted an affordable housing policy that seeks to find ways to welcome affordable housing projects to the neighborhood. I guarantee you that if an affordable housing project comes forward in Linden Hills there will be a lot of neighborhood people working to make it happen. In fact they are already trying to find sites to develop.
I would also mention here the presence of the group SWING (SouthWest Interfaith Neighborhood Group for affordable housing). This is a group with tremendous support that is working to find ways to site affordable housing in the non-impacted neighborhoods of SW Mpls.
So lets stop stereotyping. Lets look at the facts of each project and talk about the merits of specific projects in both impacted and non-impacted neighborhoods. And lets not interpret the loud voices of a few to speak for everyone.
Paul Lohman
Lynnhurst
Where we have voted in favor of every affordable housing project for the last 10 years.
Paul Lohman [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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