White Suburbs Go Ghetto Fabulous in Antioch, California

I am no big fan of Section 8 housing. On the one hand, I am happy that a young child doesn't have to live on the street. On the other hand, I don't want them all living next door to me.

Don't get your knickers in a bunch like I said something horrible - or worse - elitist. I'm not going all Uppity-Barack-Obama, as Republicans have accused him. But I haven't met a single person who was happy to have Section 8 neighbors.... not even the other Section 8 folks in the neighborhood. And if you're a Section 8 recipient, and you feel offended, do me a favor: Take an assessment of how well your kids are doing in school, how much trouble they cause in the neighborhood, and how much curb appeal your property lost or gained during your tenancy. If your assessment goes well, trust this blog post doesn't apply to you and curb your offense.

While I'm sure there are perfectly good and upstanding Section 8 recipients living somewhere in the United States, who somehow live in such a way that property values rise around them, I haven't had the fortune of meeting them. In fact, if you're a regular reader, you know exactly how owning a home surrounded by Section 8 has treated me. And I ain't smiling.

I'm sure you've heard the psychology-speak about price and value. For the most part, humans perceive greater value when something is expensive. The same is true in reverse... free and cheap things are perceived (and treated) as throw-aways. In some studies, the exact same product is presented with a different price. And guess how the item was perceived in each scenario? You feel me...

In other words, when you aren't required to fork over a lot of money for something, you won't treat it with the same respect. That notion is often applied to the Section 8 reputation. The recipients simply aren't investing as much as other renters and certainly don't own any piece of the property. May as well be a cheap hotel room.

Well the housing foreclosure crisis and Section 8 collided in Antioch, California, and the Antioch residents are none-too-happy. And while I don't appreciate the color-line drawn by this article (because my Section 8 neighbors span the color wheel), I do see the foundation of the crisis brewing in Antioch. From the New York Times article titled "As Program Moves Poor to Suburbs, Tensions Follow":

Under the Section 8 federal housing voucher program, thousands of poor, urban and often African-American residents have left hardscrabble neighborhoods in the nation’s largest cities and resettled in the suburbs.

Law enforcement experts and housing researchers argue that rising crime rates follow Section 8 recipients to their new homes, while other experts discount any direct link. But there is little doubt that cultural shock waves have followed the migration. Social and racial tensions between newcomers and their neighbors have increased, forcing suburban communities like Antioch to re-evaluate their civic identities along with their methods of dealing with the new residents.

The foreclosure crisis gnawing away at overbuilt suburbs has accelerated that migration, and the problems. Antioch is one of many suburbs in the midst of a full-blown mortgage meltdown that has seen property owners seeking out low-income renters to fill vacant homes. The most recent Contra Costa County records available show that from 2003 to 2005, the number of Section 8 households in Antioch grew by 50 percent, to about 1,500 from 1,000. Many new residents are African-American; Antioch’s black population has grown to about 20 percent, from 3 percent in 1990.

The article goes on to describe more of the color-clash, and how Black citizens have sued the local police for expanding the "driving while Black" mentality to the "renting while Black" assault. And while I don't subscribe to the underlying racism that peppers Antioch's latest woe, I share a deep understanding about what it's like to get squeezed by Section 8, watching your own property value melt into the ground, and wondering why your neighbors are getting more rude, more lazy, and seem to think garbage is an attractive lawn decoration. ::sigh::

Comments

[Demetrius Gibson]

Nothing in this country is done without some hidden agenda behind it... And it is never a pleasant surprise once it surfaces. Section 8 to me is one of those hidden agendas intended to suppress the good that is involved in helping those who are less off. What better plan than to get hard working Americans upset by the thought of someone who is less educated and less civilized, but for some reason have the same status as those who bask in the suburbia life.

"It seems like the plan is working like a charm."

Bit of Advice: Be thankful for yours, protect what's yours and don't worry about anybody else's!!

[Hawa]

@Demetrius: Less educated neighbors? Not a problem here. Less civilized? Not so much a problem here.

I'm not sure about the intended spirit of your advice, so I'll just share this...

I am eternally grateful for what I have. I'm no rich woman, by any stretch, but I have a roof over my head and some food on the table.

"Protecting" mine takes on a whole different flava when I'm surrounded by folks who don't give a rat's a** about my property, deal drugs, terrorize the neighborhood, steal electronic equipment from my minivan, and share their "lawn ornaments" on the grass in front of my home.

Not "worrying about anybody else's" is a fast way to lose your own, because what happens to the "least of us" will always happen to the rest of us.

I worry when my neighbor's house is on fire, because I understand how fire spreads. The same is true for social and economic issues.

I won't go into the way social programs (that worked with awesome results! by teaching a man to fish instead of handing him enough fish for a day) got scrapped for simple hand-outs. Social programs with roots in creating chronic dependence sometimes sound good on paper but are producing less and less innovative and productive citizens.

[blujewel]

Hawa, you've said so much between the post and your comment to Demetrius.

While Demetrius's last words have some value, I'm not seeing how he's seeing the bigger picture. When you protect yours, somehow you're still putting yourself in the line of fire because those with nothing to loose will always find ways to infringe as you've described. It's like when you get a new car and you park it at the far end of the lot, someone thinks you think you're too good to park closer, which incites some to go dent or scratch it; "just because".

Before I moved to my current home, I lived in a decent community and when they moved the new tenants in from the city, there went the neighborhood. The Section 8 renters treated their new digs like it was worth less than the squalor many of them had previously lived in. Meanwhile, their new digs were 2 bedroom, two bathroom condos and or townhomes with more space and amenities than they'd even been used to. It saddened me to watch the homeowners have to constantly fix what their tenants had broken, or neighbors worry about their homes or cars.

I've always been of the mindset that when someone hands you a lemon you make lemonade. I fail to see why people ruin something that's intended for their betterment. I'm truly pissed when I hear the many horror stories about Section 8 tenants. I so wish I could have the government subsidize my damn mortgage and me not appreciate it. *shakes head angrily*

Let me stop before I blog in your comments. I know you feel me.

Love!

[Hawa]

@Blu: Hey, girl! I set myself up to be misunderstood in this post, but because you know me, you caught my point.

I have friends that range the entire spectrum of background/upbringing, education, color... you name it.

This post wasn't about picking on folks who need financial assistance. Hell, I was a single mom on welfare once. Then I finished college and got off.

My point related to those who don't value their own lives (or Section 8 property) enough to make good neighbors. What can I say about those willing to pee on my investment because they don't respect the investment I made?

As some have lamented, poor neighborhoods used to be beautiful. Clean streets. Flowers. I grew up in such a neighborhood. Poor didn't mean "of destitute mind." It meant "has less money but just as much pride."

Demetrius mentions "hidden agendas," but I find the current state of welfare one of the biggest hidden agendas out there. Why do mothers have to pretend that fathers are absent to get help? Why is the brokenness of the family unit reward with assistance, but a unified couple is on their own? That's a crock, and it encourages broken families and hopelessness... the same hopelessness that has my Section 8 neighbors treating my neighborhood like a garbage can.

I don't care about a person's circumstances. I care about the heart. I personally know some poor and uneducated that I'd rather spend my time with than to spend a minute with a wealthy, educated jerk.

I hope Demetrius finds his way back here, because this is something worth talking about.

[Demetrius Gibson]

In my opinion I believe Section 8 is a backlash from the government rather than a blessing. The more outrage from civilized citizens justifies their reasoning behind why it's best for those of lower social status to be ignored. (That in my opinion is one of the US Government's "hidden agendas") I understand that some people just have no regard for the life of others, I also realize that there are people who desperately want to get out of the dangerous neighborhoods they live in, but lack the qualities needed to acquire a good paying job therefor they stay trapped in deplorable living condition. They "deserve" assistance, but I also feel the social workers need to do a better job of filtering out the bad characters before they instill them into good neighborhoods.

Hawa: Your anger is justified and it should not be overlooked, but I feel that some things just can not be controlled, just dealt with. And the best way to do that is by tending to yourself in every sensible way.

If you can't encourage the bad ones, reprimand them with your words, if that doesn't work call the police or start a protest!! LOL

[rawdawgbuffalo]

Im with D on this and u woman have a safe weekend

[Anthony Taurus]

Screw all of this civilized talk. I hate section 8. Plain and simple. Rarely do you ever see people on welfare that are trying to do better for themselves. They're sucking on the public's tit and that's really all it is. My father owns an apartment building in New York City. So from that alone, you know I've got stories. His problem is that, he's one of those guys that shake your hand and it's a deal, very old school. He wants to be helpful...blah. So, he accepts these mongrels and their bastard children hoping to give them a chance. The problem is, 2, 3, 4 years down the line and they haven't done a thing to better their situation.

We had one tenant here whose welfare dried up. So, what does she do? She starts destroying the apartment here and there so she could call housing and complain. What happens? Those complaints get 2+ years of free rent. We finally get this old hoodrat the hell out and she's trying to take EVERYTHING with her.

There are more stories in between as well. But, I'll finish off with the most recent set of useless bastards.

Now, we've got this young Spanish couple with a child. Instead they stay their behinds home with their parents, get jobs or go to school, they jump right on the public tit. The guy's a loser, smokes cigarettes around the baby regardless of how much his baby momma complains. Yet, neither of them are going to college. They're upstairs all day making noise and doing a whole lot of nothing.

I think the problem is that the people who need it don't go on it because they're too proud to be on it. They'll figure out a way to work 2-3 jobs and raise a child rather than be on the public tit like some adult babies. Then you have these mongrel animals who never knew what pride was in the first place. They won't dare pick up a finger to do anything to better themselves.

So, the people that you'd like to see in your neighborhood, or in my father's building, on welfare or "public assistance", those individuals who would do their best to get off welfare, are very few and far in between. So, we're always going to get these hoodrats that don't mind the free money at all. It's just the reality of the situation.

I tell my father to stop taking these people on. They're no good. We can't continue putting ourselves in this position ESPECIALLY when the choice is ours.