I believe most people (U.S. and Canada) have no idea how much zoning laws have altered our society, in encouraging big-box retail on greenfields (doing their part to kill vibrant downtowns), in encouraging leaving abandoned buildings vacant rather than allow "non-conforming" uses, in segregating people by economic status (and, therefore and indirectly, by skin color),... Yet the legislation that creates zoning laws often is decided by committee and only rarely generates discussion among the voting public -- if they know about the changes and their ramifications.
Another plug for the Granola Shotgun blog...
Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome. - Booker T. Washington
Getting rid of boarding houses was a goal of our neighborhood. The last boarding house here left about 8 years after DH and I moved here.
While there is nothing wrong with small scale living and the simplicity of renting a room, a concentration of room renters here resulted in run down properties and tenants who were not always stellar in their behavior. It is like any other concentration of poor people, a higher degree of crime exists.
One house here that is now worth about $1 million was a boarding housein the 40’s, 50’s, and into the 60’s. It is now occupied by the daughter of the boarding house owner. This daughter is now an elderly lady. She tells tales about how strict her mothher was as the lady of the house. The house was not chopped up with partitions and bathrooms in the middle of once grand rooms like many if our fablous old houses. These renters had to have their rooms regularly inspected for cleanliness. This family has cared for this house for nearly 100 years.
Most boarding house owners were not as meticulous and our neighborhood suffered.
Now there are local zoning laws that control how many persons unrelated to each other can dwell in one housing unit. While that seems draconian, it exists to combat drug houses and the like. When we had 5 priests unrelated to each other buy a 7, 000 sq ft house here, they went for a varience of this zoning. No one here doubted this very expensive house could house these guys but I personally wondered how they could afford it. They were in some kind of Catholic priesthood that allowed them to have jobs. A good gig if you can get it.
Last edited by iris lilies; 1-15-18 at 10:33am.
Same story in this neighborhood with absentee landlords (we have single-family homes and some duplexes, almost no apartment buildings). Especially in winter you can tell which houses are absentee-owned. I'm glad the housing crash washed a bunch of them out of the 'hood.
Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome. - Booker T. Washington
-Our downtown used to have weekly motels. Well they tore them down and now expensive condos went up with penthouses going for a million. Looks good but what about the people that lived there? many were elderly on small incomes. It breaks my heart.
So nice of you to direct people to this priest you mention. The "poor" (i.e., the hungry, homeless, sick, naked, imprisoned and thirsty") will be always with us, as Jesus said. To recognize them as one of us is a great thing. I wish Dorothy Day was still around. We could use more people like her, but at least we have some compassionate priests and law enforcement officers.
"Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it--every, every minute?" Emily Webb, Our Town
www.silententry.wordpress.com
For many years the YMCAs would offer these Single Room Occupancy/"SRO" rooms. Many were like tiny efficiency apts. but with bathrooms down the hall and laundry elsewhere. Unfortunately they decided that was no longer part of their "core mission" and so most Ys have abandoned those.
I agree there's a need for these SROs but they won't be rebuilt in the gentrifying urban core. It's too bad there's not some way to re-use some of the large empty commercial spaces for some of these types of residences, and keep it safe by keeping some rooms for on-site managers.
I've thought that it would be great to reclaim old spaces, like parking lots, and install very small shelters. They could be as small as Japanese pods, or as large as a tiny house. But the idea would be that they would simple provide shelter from the elements during the night. They could be self-policed, or perhaps have some type of oversight from social services.
"Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it--every, every minute?" Emily Webb, Our Town
www.silententry.wordpress.com
Around here, seems like every other house has an RV of some sort just sitting there for most of the year. I think about all that wasted living space when it's 15 degrees outside. Ditto empty shopping centers and malls. A real problem here is warming fires from those who don't want to stay at the shelters. The city looks the other way so the fires in the woods and parks continue.
In the book I mentioned they actually discussed a new SRO that recently got built in San Diego. It took much effort since it wasn't compliant with the various zoning/building codes, but it happened. I'm sure it's not fancy, but it's got to be so much better than a homeless shelter. And the cost was relatively cheap, like $25k per room. The problem with homeless shelters is that people and their stuff aren't safe. Even the crappiest of SRO's at least offer a private room with some level of security. I might not want to live in one, especially if poorly managed, but if financially my choices were that, sleeping on the street, or sleeping in a shelter, I'd definitely prefer the SRO.
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