Atlanta Tearing Down All Public Housing. Will It Ever Happen In DC?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Children learn their values and ethics from their parents. When you have generations of families that have an ingrained sense of entitlement and welfare mentality, the 5 year old is most likely going to pick this up from their parents and community and settle for a lifestyle of handouts and taxpayer money, instead of trying to succeed and achieve “something” in this world. Forcing the parents to realize that they have obligations and that they can’t expect us to take care of them forever is the first step. Why must we constantly lower expectations for people? Why are we so quick to give them a handout and not expect some accountability for the money they are receiving from hard working individuals?

While I may not have chosen the exact wording, I do agree in spirit with this.

We do learn our values and expectations from your paretns and family and the "culture" we are raised in. I grew up in an upper middle class suburban neighborhood where my parents put a huge emphasis on education and working hard to get ahead. As a child and even a young adult, I saw those values as the norm because I had no other real world experience to contradict them. Of course, I still think they are good ideals but extrapolate this to a child who grows up in public housing, who sees his mom wait for the welfare check every month or working far too hard for too little money, hoping that the food stamps don't run out, who doesn't have the time/energy/interest in whether her child is in school or what they did bc day in and day out she is worried about money and getting by and add in an entire neighborhood living like that and a child grows up believing that is the norm bc they do not see anything else day in and day out.

I don't understand why people take issue with the fact that yes there are people who take advantage of the system and expect that the govt will take care of them - if that's how you grow up and that's all you see, that's all you know and by the time you are an adult and figure it out you are probably stuck in the same system that your parents were. Yes, there are people who are lazy and don't want to work but want the govt to take care of them. Public housing in notoriously crime infested - its a fact so again I don't understand why there is an argument?

I do agree that the the situation in Alexandria is bizarre - the public housing right next to million dollar town homes. I am suprised that its still standing there and some developer has not come in and tore it down for something more financially attractive but it certainly doesn't seem to effect the home values in Old Town

[Anonymous]

Laziness is not the major risk for these children. Crime is. The notion that low income families in the U.S. don't work is a lie that was really popularized in the Reagan era, when the "welfare queen" was demonized. But this is not really who they are.

72% of poor and low income families are working families.

Adults in those working families averaged 2,552 hours of work per year in 2006 apiece. To do that, you would have to work six days a week full time and take zero vacation days or sick days.

Compare this to Germany, where the average worker works 1,362 hours per year or South Korea, where the average worker works 2,400 hours a year. Or the average American, who probably works 2,000 hours a year (I'm guessing at that last statistic).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:...
Adults in those working families averaged 2,552 hours of work per year in 2006 apiece. To do that, you would have to work six days a week full time and take zero vacation days or sick days.
...

I don't dispute your basic point that a lot of poor people work hard but don't get ahead. However, that figure seems pretty meaningless, since you could only get that average if you restrict the sample to those who work full-time, in which case it says nothing about those who don't, which is the group that our conservative friends are complaining about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:...
Adults in those working families averaged 2,552 hours of work per year in 2006 apiece. To do that, you would have to work six days a week full time and take zero vacation days or sick days.
...

I don't dispute your basic point that a lot of poor people work hard but don't get ahead. However, that figure seems pretty meaningless, since you could only get that average if you restrict the sample to those who work full-time, in which case it says nothing about those who don't, which is the group that our conservative friends are complaining about.

It's not meaningless. Previous posters are saying that poor people don't work. The earlier statistic states that 72% of them do. And of those who work, they work as hard as the average American. So when you say poor people are lazy, it's wrong. Really a minority (28%) of poor people are not working. I would bet that more than 28% of posters on this board do not personally work a full time job.

[Anonymous]

And no, the statistic was not restricted to those who work full time. It is of those who worked in 2006. Lots of poor people work several jobs, bringing the average up.

[Anonymous]

public housing projects are a disservice to the many hardworking, honest, and responsible people who live there and are trying to create a better future for their children. it is very hard to evict people from public housing, so the thugs, drug dealers, and other criminals stick around setting horrible examples for the kids. i believe in helping individuals and families who need help and are willing to help themselves -- and MANY MANY poor people are. they deserve an opportunity for their kids to go to good schools and have good role models and its seems like mixed-income housing provides that better than these public housing nightmares. and yes, we lived across from a while block of section 8 housing, tried to fight the crime and filth (and by that i mean mounds of chicken bones and crab shells in the gutter, litter everywhere, etc) and got tired of eight year old calling us MFers because we wanted to live on a clean street without gunfire, fights, and loud screaming/music at all hours of the night.

[Anonymous]

Instead of public housing being free of charge - have the tenants pay a small rental fee - like $100 a month?

When people have a vested interest in something and a small "ownership" they are more likely to A) take care of it better B) have an appreciation for it C) give them an incentive to achieve something better for themselves

Free handouts/public housing only de-values that "something else" and gives no incentive to do better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Instead of public housing being free of charge - have the tenants pay a small rental fee - like $100 a month?

When people have a vested interest in something and a small "ownership" they are more likely to A) take care of it better B) have an appreciation for it C) give them an incentive to achieve something better for themselves

Free handouts/public housing only de-values that "something else" and gives no incentive to do better.

Public housing is not free of charge. People pay on a sliding scale based on their income.