NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #20/NN_1992_20.iso/spool/misc/activism/progress/6368

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From: New Liberation News Service <[e-mail]>
Subject: THIS MONTH IN HISTORY: 9/21/79...
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THIS MONTH IN HISTORY: September 21, 1979

from LIBERATION News Service #968

Activists Charge HUD Program to "Deconcentrate" Poor and Third
World Residents from Inner City Areas Discriminatory

NEW YORK (LNS)--A federal policy designed to "deconcentrate" the
poor from inner-city areas is drawing increasing fire from
community activists throughout the U.S. The activists charge that
the program, administered by the Department of Housing and Urban
Development (HUD), is just another way to remove poor Third World
people from their neighborhoods in favor of richer whites who are
anxious to move back into inner city areas.
    Under the program, called the "regional housing mobility
program," 22 regional planning agencies have been invited to
submit proposals which would "facilitate the movement of low
income and minority persons...to housing in non-concentrated
areas, particularly in suburban areas." When choosing agencies
for the program, according to the Washington Post, HUD considered
regions within the 50 largest cities with the highest percentage
of Blacks and Hispanics and regions where the central city has
the highest percentage of poor people. According to its
proponents, the program is designed to "increase opportunities"
for poor people to move into more affluent areas.
    But that is not how it is being viewed by community
activists in the cities invited to submit programs--New York
City; Norfolk, Virginia; Philadelphia; Newark, New Jersey and El
Paso, Texas.
    In Philadelphia, the program has become a hotly contested
political issue. Falaka Fattah, co-chair of Philadelphia's Black
United Front, stated that the program was nothing new and that
groups in Philadelphia, including the B.U.F. since it's
formation, had been fighting "recycling" for years.
    "It's part of a 20 to 30-year plan," Fattah told LNS in a
recent phone interview. "South Philly, where alot of Black people
used to live, is now being called Center City and most of the
Blacks have been displaced. In West Philly also, around the
University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University, Blacks are also
being displaced."
    Fattah explained that there was a policy of "land banking"
in the city, wherby houses that people could be living in were
being kept "boarded up."
    "The houses are being held so that when the neighborhood is
empty they can come in and fix them up or put them on the
market," she charged.
    By scattering Black and poor people in the suburbs, critics
charge, the program will drastically dilute the concentrated
political power that could grow out of concentrated populations.
In Philadelphia, for instance, a massive registration drive among
Black voters earlier this year was generally credited with
blocking Mayor Frank Rizzo's effort to ride a "vote white"
campaign to another term in office. But as Henry De Bernado of
the North Central Revitalization Coalition in Philadelphia told
the Washington Post, "This (program) will effectively destroy any
political power minorities have in Philadelphia. There will be no
Black or Hispanic leadership in this town."
    In recent years, De Bernado asserts, inner-city low-income
and Third World residents have set their sights on staying where
they are and building up their economic and political base.
Nevertheless, HUD, backed by federal and state officials, has
boldly pursued redevelopment plans designed to change the
composition of inner city areas from a large percentage of Third
World working class residents to upper and middle class whites.
    The "regional housing mobility program" in fact is only one
of three major programs with the same objective.
    Under the facade of "expanding housing opportunities for the
poor" and "facilitating housing integration," the department is
using funds alloted under Section 8 and supposedly earmarked for
housing subsidies to the poor, to move poor people out of their
homes. Frequently they are transplanted into neighborhoods where
many do not want to go and where also, according to recent
reports, they are not particularly welcome. In the last two
months, for example, several crosses have been burned on the
lawns of homes owned by Blacks on Long Island, the primary site
for re-locating Blacks and Hispanics in the New York City Area.
    Fattah pointed out that the use of Section 8 funds was a
"misuse."
    The federal agency, however, not only encourages the
movement of the poor into "deconcentrated" areas but also works
directly with local public housing authorities to remove
residence preference requirements, and counsels residents on
available housing in suburban areas. Unemployed and even employed
Third World people often can't even afford to visit these areas
what with the cost of transportation and the lack of day care
facilities where they can leave their children. So HUD conducts
bus tours and provides escorts and babysitting and child care
service to "directly assist" the poor in finding suburban homes.
    But as Fattah stated at the end of the interview, "It's
become more apparent to people," what the implications of the
program are. "And the people are not going to accept it."

----------------------------- 30 --------------------------------

Dutifully transcribed by humble NLNS staffer Phillip Zerbo.
Comments, suggestions, requests can be addressed to <nlns>,
<[e-mail]>.