I have e-mailed all of the City Council and the Mayor urging them to give Simpson Housing development rights for their supportive housing.
This scenario has been played out over and over again for years in Mpls. Not enough money to provide suitable, truly affordable housing and, even when money is scraped together, then the struggle is on to find a place to site it and not get backlash from the neighborhood. This results often in the project being scuttled or being located in already poor and overburdended neighborhoods. I suppose it is tempting to hurl words of NIMBY etc at the folks who protested against the Simpson Housing Project. I don't think that accomplishes much. What would accomplish much is for our City Leaders to refuse to be swayed by such protests. And also if our leaders would make the effort to educate, educate, educate both themselves and their constituents about the ill founded stereotypes and assumptions that are contained in the fight against providing homes, decent homes for our poorest residents. Philadelphia and NYC have models that have proven to be very successful to provide decent homes to poor and homeless folks. .. If you want me to e-mail info on both these efforts, contact me offline and I will send you descriptions of what they do. In NYC Pathways to Housing has been very successful in providing decent, affordable, supportive housing. Commissioner Dorfman is very familiar with Pathways to Housing. It is so easy to be against something or some group of people....but the energy used against...could be used to welcome supportive housing, welcome people into our neighborhoods and work together to make this a decent city to live in for all of us. This effort to contain, ignore, and hope poor people just disappear fails every time, it will continue to create a city divided and a city that will continue to be segregated along class and race lines. We need leaders who have vision, and the courage to carry out that vision. And who are farsighted enough to know that there needs to be a commitment to a solution...not a catering to people's fears and prejudices. Everyone has a right to live in a decent, safe neighorhood. Margaret Hastings Kingfield REMINDERS: 1. Be civil! Please read the NEW RULES at http://www.e-democracy.org/rules. If you think a member is in violation, contact the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[email protected] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
