Housing and Community Development

I am pleased with revisions in public housing policy that integrates families into communities, rather than isolate them in segregated public housing. Historically, these have been havens for criminal activity. Children suffer especially because of crime, drug use, and substandard concentrations in school. By allowing people to live in mainstream communities, this helps to alleviate these problems. Particularly, the voucher system is a win-win for all involved: the program costs less to administer, provides more traditional home settings for enrollees and makes good use for otherwise vacant properties in neighborhoods. The children also have the opportunity to attend more optimal academic and social settings.

I am also pleased with President Obama's approach to urban recovery, in that the problems that affect urban areas are interconnected and must be addressed appropriately. Indeed, several of the topics that we have discussed in this course are interrelated to the issue of inadequate or overpriced housing (such as lack of urban jobs that pay living wages, the proclivity for single mothers to represent the highest percentage of the working poor, etc.).

Programs such as the Mons Valley Initiative are excellent examples of community collective approach to promoting solutions to housing and community needs problems. Locally, Habitat for Humanity and Atlanta Falcons' Warrick Dunn's programs that provide homes for eligible families to promote home ownership and community stability are stellar.

An overlapping problem with housing, however, is transportation. If people had access to Marta in the suburbs would help more take advantage of the voucher program and find and maintain jobs. Recall earlier this year the impact on the discontinuation of Clayton County's transit. The recession is surely making it worse for all, especially those who are marginal.