A new Abell Foundation report showing the number of occupied public housing units in Baltimore City decreasing 42 percent over 15 years is a problem for everyone in the region. Evidence points to the fact that former urban public housing residents are moving to the suburbs and bringing crime with them.
In August Charlena Hemby, who owns a hair salon in Edgewood, told The Examiner, “In my opinion, it?s the gangs; the youth don?t have much to do, and people are moving here from the city. … It definitely used to be much better.”
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Harford County Sheriff Jesse Bane said he was unaware of the housing report. But he said newcomers “bring the values of where they came from and are tearing apart the fabric of the community.” Parts of the once rural Harford County have become a haven for illegal drugs, drawing people from surrounding counties who fuel the trade ? and out-of-state gangs who make money from it. All those arrested in relation to an August murder were from New York, Bane said.
Since 1994, a federal program known as Moving to Opportunity assigned housing vouchers to about 4,600 families in five cities, including Baltimore, on a random basis. The program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, was based on the idea that if you take people out of high- crime areas and move them to more stable communities, they will give up crime. Analysis shows that they may have moved ? but in general did not give up their former lifestyle.
Many Edgewood residents said problems in their community started about five or six years ago when residents of city housing projects were relocated to the area. Aside from the MTO program, many more people are receiving housing vouchers that allow them to live anywhere. The Baltimore Housing Authority says that the number of those receiving Section 8 housing vouchers has risen from 6,000 to 12,000 over the last 15 years. We do not yet know where recipients of those vouchers decided to live, but the counties would be a short hop.
So those who say Baltimore should be left alone to self-destruct are deluded. Widespread failure of massive public housing projects is self evident. But if Baltimore?s Housing Authority is “in the demolition business” as “The Dismantling of Baltimore?s Public Housing” says, and continues on that path, more people from some of Baltimore?s most dangerous neighborhoods will move to the suburbs. That is especially so as more high-rent properties go up in once-blighted neighborhoods.
Building more public housing, as the report suggests, may mean fewer people move out of Baltimore, but it does not solve the drug and gang problem. That can only be addressed by stronger parental and familial oversight and children committing to graduate from high school. Until that happens, building an “adequate” supply of public housing will solve nothing.
