The Joke That is Public Housing

You know, I really don't want to use this blog as a forum to gripe about my job or rage on and on about the absurdness of Public Housing [aka the Projects, let's be real and not try to make it sound sweeter by using such jargon]. After all, I'm sounding a little hypocritical, considering that my living is earned by other people's lack of making one for themselves. If my last sentence doesn't piss you off, stop reading this. You just won't get it. But you have your days where you're just fed up. Today is such a day.

I believe initially the intention of project housing was an idea of the US government's to be able to form a Reservation, if you will, for African Americans. Something similar to what our Native American brothers and sisters were forced upon, promising them "somewhere of their own to be" so that wealthy white landowners could have all of the good farming lands to themselves. Don't agree? I dare you to find any urban housing development from the 1960's that wasn't catered specifically to blacks, hence the Reservation comparison. It's an area designed specifically to house one ethnic group. Period.

When "the great migration" started in the early decades of the 20th century, thousands and thousands of blacks moved north, looking to reach their own quintessential American Dream. Promises of industrialization and factory jobs meant that they, unlike the generation before them, could work an honest job and bring home an honest wage and support their families. No more beatings. No more forced, unpaid labor. Free at last, free at last, good God Almighty, they were free at last.

But what does our Government do? Panic. "OH NO!" They cried. The blacks are coming to Chicago and Detroit and New York and Pittsburgh and taking all of our jobs! Where are they going to live? Not by quality white people! Let's erect tall buildings and make false promises of better living. Let's give them all kinds of benefits- free food, health insurance, even help to pay their rent. The catch? Just one- they just have to stay there in the housing developments, not attempt to move out and live in quality neighborhoods where they can own their own home. Sounds a lot like a Reservation to me.

And the part that irks me most? Who is paying for all their subsidized rent? Who is footing the bill for the food stamps and medical coverage? Why, Johnny Taxpayer- of course!

At some point, Civil Rights became a huge issue in our country. A few brilliant African Americans decided that they still haven't achieved equality, and decided to protest and boycott and make some pretty thought-invoking speeches. Good for that handfull that didn't accept project living as their only choice.

As time went on, the Projects evolved into housing for the poor, the disabled, the uneducated and the unmotivated, of all races and creeds. In other words, still a Reservation for society's undesired. Smart, visionary-type black folks got out of the projects and decided that Uncle Sam was not going to dictate how or where they lived. They were going to work hard, educate themselves and their children, and by golly thanks to Fair Banking and Fair Housing practices, they were going have a life truly of their own! Maybe no one has ever told these folks- but just because you may have been born and raised in the Projects, that doesn't mean you need to stay there! Ones sole ambition shouldn't be to live as much as you can off the taxpayers dime, and think that it is totally OK to choose to not be a productive citizen.

So, this isn't meant to be a racial debate. If anything, I'm pleading for not just the Black Americans who live in project housing, but the po' white trash and the so-called mentally disabled to ask themselves just what would they be doing if housing wasn't so freely available to them? YIKES! They'd have to find a job! And I, blissfully enough, would be out of work!

At some point our government, who stared this mess, needs to put their foot down. If the option to receive public housing wasn't available, better regulated or limited to the "truly needy", people would have to start being responsible for themselves. I strongly believe that certain groups of people NEED to start educating themselves about how badly they are being used and exploited. The folks that own urban housing projects are mad rich, once again taking advantage of the less fortunate not unlike plantation masters of long ago. For every poor piece of ghetto trash they rent to, ownership gets a big fat subsidy check. Let's not even get into all of the grant money and housing restoration incentive checks these owners are eligible for just so we can keep the projects lookin' pretty! Ask me how much of this "grant" money the owners get to pocket for themselves, it might make you sick.

Personally, I shiver at the idea of someone using me as the vehicle to make them wealthier. I'd feel so violated. This is American after all, I can create my own wealth. I choose whether or not I live a comfortable lifestyle by the sweat of my brow and the Biblical principal that states simply "if you don't work, you don't eat". And I don't care what pop culture says- there is no such thing as ghetto fabulous. And if you find that mind-set attractive, then list your occupation as slave, 'cause honey that's what you are.

I could rage on but at some point I need to get back to my own reality, which is all the bitching in the world by me isn't going to make one bit of difference. The recipients of public housing need to be ashamed. They need to get off their fat apathetic asses and stop feeling so entitled.

So I feel a little better now that I've exercised my right to free speech. Don't agree? Agree? Either way, you're always welcome to comment.