Public housing crisis in atlanta

As a former public housing commissioner in florida, i can tell you first hand that most of the people involved with the decision making process in washington d.c. have absolutely no "on the ground" experience with the management and day to day problems realized in public housing projects or the section 8 program. for the last thirty years funds have been cut that should have been allocated for maintenance of PH units. Section 8 funds have been cut back for the last 25 years. program funds for education and day care to help the poor integrate into the work community have been subject to draconian cuts, all the while, bureaucrats in washington scream for "welfare reform" which is only a polite way of saying "cutbacks for assistance" to the poor, creating a deluge in homelessness, crime and helplessness among this segment of our country. we spend trillions on warfare, taking bread out of the mouths of babies and grandparents. we spend trillions on the construction and maintenance of a vast prison system, and do nothing but watch as the feds cut education funds to the bone or mandate ridiculous programs that foster unscientific social agendas, cutting of arts programs, eliminating school meals for the poor and making a college education or trade school education completely out of reach for all but the wealthy by making student loans ever more costly and eliminating or cutting back financial aid grants. gentrifying former properties held by PHA's isn't the answer to the problems now endemic to hosing for the poor. cleaning them up, having real law enforcement in the area that is not afraid to do the job they are paid for in PHAs,offering comprehensive day care centers, real job training and education, plus some common sense criteria for program eligeblity would be a good start. having managers who do more than pay lip service to community demands is necessary, and giving those managers real tools and funds to deal with them would be a major assist in cleaning problem public housing project areas up.REAL JOBS AND REAL EDUCATION means REAL OPPORTUNITY to get out of the ghettoized projects. Stop paying multinational corporations to take american jobs and send them overseas. make it costly to do that. start producing goods here in the USA again, instead of importing everything from sneakers to microchips. If we are serious about building good neighborhoods in atlanta and all over america, it is time we realized that in order to do this, we need to provide means and ways for our citizens to become self-sufficient. we need to rebuild commerce within our country, producing our own goods and services, educating our citizens instead of training them to take nonsense tests, make sure that medical care and housing(simple shelter and utilities) is affordable for all, whether it be an effiency apartment for the single soul or a multi-bedroom home for a family as opposed to focusing on the building of luxury mc mansons and glitzy high end shopping malls that cater only to the very well-to-do. then we will have less need for public housing, less need for prisons and a healthier economic tax-paying base of citizens.

by raine (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 13 comments) on Monday, April 23, 2007 at 8:59:47 AM