Here’s an opportunity to reflect on what you — and others — might cherish and mourn if your home was swept away by some deliberate, government approved action.
Two back-to-back stories reflect simple but highly important losses that might happen to you. (There are also other losses in these stories that might be disruptive threats to your happiness).
Do you think you’re too secure, perhaps too wealthy and too important for it to happen to you? Dream on. We’ll get to your middle or upper class sense of false security a little later.
The first notional “bulldozing” is threatening a public housing project in San Antonio, Texas. For all the supposed horrors of American public housing, how is it that the residents of this project are prepared to fight fiercely for the preservation of a largely Mexican American housing complex? Their aim: to protect their sense of community, belonging, and mutual support.
This particular story might well have a silver lining. The owners and the redeveloper of this housing project have committed to community input in the design and execution of its plans1. This nod to the perpetuation of a public housing community is still far from common as governments directly or indirectly refurbish aging public housing stock. Read more at kens5: Preserving history, culture with new developments becomes balancing act for Alazan Courts public housing units
From the same city — San Antonio, Texas — another government-directed initiative is playing out that threatens ‘homeowner’ ability to hold down jobs essential to their survival.
Homelessness in America has moved beyond the realm of chronic mental health and/or drug use to encompass those who are employed but cannot afford housing. This much darker story, about repetitious clearances of tent encampments, is about loss, including the impact it has upon those camp residents who struggle to keep working. Read more at kens5: ‘It’s just messed up’: Homeless swept from downtown encampment again
Could such a catastrophic home loss happen to you — a financially secure middle or upper class home owner or renter? Of course it could. Never mind floods, wildfires and other natural disasters. A simple government action could doom your house, whether you are rich or poor.
‘Eminent Domain’ refers to the right of a community to seize property that impedes community interests — a new highway, perhaps. If that impediment happens to be your home, there is a big difference to your prospects compared to the stories featured above. Your rights have been embedded in law to at least allow fair financial reimbursement for your loss.
Needless to say, legal protections currently available for homeowners are not in place for those occupying public housing, or trying to survive in homeless encampments.
Footnotes
- In 2019, San Antonio had plans to have a private developer tear down these homes and replace them with a mixed income development. Local residents and advocates fought the proposal and won a commitment from the City that all of the 501 units would be replaced or renovated. Try: San Antonio Nixes Mixed Income Nirvana To Build New Public Housing
