"The fact that housing is in such bad condition speaks more to the way the City and the region have funded public housing than the residents," he continued.
"The poverty conditions in that area are created by conscious decisions of lawmakers. By not funding public housing properly, you create psychological conditions of deprivation, which are passed on through generations."
THE PUBLIC WORKS OPTION
"We need a massive public works project in the city in order to renovate public housing," Courtney said.
Residents could participate in rehabilitating their communities and take advantage of current laws that require residents to work in order to keep their housing, Courtney said.
"There could be training programs for people who don’t have living wage jobs,” Griever suggested. “[Residents] could be trained to do the renovations. A certain portion of those [units] that need to be renovated could be available to the people who are working [on the renovations]."
Courtney believes the benefits of such a program could be enormous. "It would be labor intensive but the money you put in on the front end is miniscule in terms of the money that gets produced in the back end because of the revitalized community," he said.
The public wealth will increase. Education will improve. That creates a more harmonious society," he added.
Beaty likes the idea. "It would be great if they got paid to do [the renovations]. People want to work and have the skills."
HOUSING IS A HUMAN RIGHT
Housing is a human right. Every single person, regardless of race, class, or sex, is entitled to affordable housing, advocates argue.
"When you understand human rights, you understand every human being has a right to shelter," Courtney said.
"If you’re going to implement a program that shows how work works, you’ve got to have affordable housing, you’ve got to have living wages," Griever said. "If you don’t have living wage jobs, then you have to have subsidized housing for everybody."
"The idea of having apartments for people who are working as nurses and teachers is great," she said. "But the people working at Burger King have to have housing too. If you go to work everyday, you should be able to have it."
"If the City was really committed to an egalitarian region, they could find the money [to save public housing]," Courtney said. "They don’t have to give tax breaks to all these private developers… why do they need our welfare to keep going?"
THE CITY'S ARGUMENT
