You
know it’s election time again when local
candidates start advocating more affordable
housing for the city. The mantra we hear from
poverty pimps like Lawrence Community Works and
liberal politicians is that we (the tax payers)
have to do something for poor people who need a
place to live. They say it is the responsibility
of government to provide low income housing for
those who cannot afford it. And the sad thing is,
it sounds good so people buy into it.
We have completely lost our perspective here. The
responsibility of individuals who need housing is
to go out and get a job, save their money and
find a place to live that is within their means.
The responsibility of government is to provide
services to the public such a public safety,
education, clean streets and snow removal.
Lawrence has more than it’s fair share of
low income housing. Building more will actually
ad to the social and economic problems of the
city.
What Lawrence needs is less low income housing
and more middle income and high income homes. We
need more single family homes. We need more owner
occupied homes. This will build up our dwindling
tax base so we can get off welfare and start
paying our own bills in city hall. Middle income
and high priced homes will provide more tax money
to the city budget and increase the level of
services as well as the quality of life for those
of us who live here.
Look at the single family homes that go up for
sale around the city. Within a few weeks they are
sold and usually sold for more than the asking
price. The real housing crisis is that we have a
shortage of single family homes. With all of the
abandoned buildings and vacant lots in this city,
adding more "low income" housing means
the city must increase the amount of services we
provide while taking in less money to pay for it.
The job of city hall is to raise enough money to
balance the budget. Lawrence would be empowered
if we were more self sufficient and didn’t
have to bow to the whims of the state every time
they come here and tell us what to do. If there
is one thing we learned from the state’s
attempt to take over the school system in 1997 is
that the people of Lawrence want more local
control. We can’t have that if we increase
low income housing.
How can we be the masters of our own destiny and
make our own decisions if the state has our hands
tied every time we try to improve the city? We
have to free ourselves from the bonds of state
and federal control and truly take back our city
if we are ever going to be successful.
If we are serious about turning Lawrence around
we have to stop falling into the trap of
advocating low income housing and all of the
social problems that go along with it. Let’s
face it, folks, by increasing low income housing
we are increasing crime, teen pregnancy,
illiteracy and a myriad of other problems in
Lawrence. That is not progress.
There are huge amounts out money being made by
poverty advocates who live to keep Lawrence poor.
Sure they do it under the banner of "helping
the underprivileged" but the facts show
differently. And we allow it, because anyone who
speaks out against increasing social programs are
labeled racist, cold hearted, unfeeling ogres who
don’t care about the downtrodden. Well, I am
her to tell you that the politics of class
warfare will only work when the majority of the
people do not pay attention to the real facts.
Most of the people who advocate more low income
housing in Lawrence do so because they profit
from it. A few months ago I wrote a scathing
column about Lawrence Community works and their
political meddling. In response I got a nasty
letter from Armand Hyatt saying I was inaccurate
by saying Community Works makes money on the
city. This is all semantics. Executive Director
Bill Trainor (who lives in Cambridge) is drawing
a very nice salary advocating poverty programs in
Lawrence. I am also quite sure that the money
funneled through community works helps to pay for
that salary. So, it’s in his bet interest to
advocate for more low income housing, even though
he knows the stranglehold this has on the city.
As long as low income housing is made more
available in Lawrence there will be a larger
numbers of poor people concentrated within the
city. The state mandates that there must be 10%
low income housing for each community. Lawrence
has more than triple the state mandate. There is
no low income housing crisis in the city of
Lawrence and I don’t care what the local
politicians say. It’s all rhetoric. We have
more than our fair share. In fact, we have more
than almost every other community in the state.
The low income housing crisis is not in Lawrence,
but in the suburbs where the poverty pimps live.
But don’t say that too loud, North Andover
is fighting the state’s anti-snob law and
trying to stop ANY low income housing from
locating to their town.
And it’s not because they are racist or cold
hearted either. It’s because they know that
an increase in poor people means an increase in
social problems like crime. You can’t blame
them, nobody wants more crime in their community.
What offends me is that they want it in ours!
Most of the surrounding communities are nowhere
near 10% affordable housing mandate required by
the state. THAT’S a low income housing
crisis.
That’s where Community Works and the other
poverty pimps should be concentrating their
efforts. But you know they wont do that because
they don’t want poor people in their
neighborhood. Isn’t it funny how they think
it’s good for Lawrence but not good for
their community?
If we are truly going to address the problem of
housing and poverty maybe the anti-snob law has
done Lawrence a huge favor. Maybe now that the
suburbs are being forced to take in their fare
share of poor people and social programs, the
liberal suburban politicians will start to look
for real solutions.
Just imagine Lawrence in the near future with
single family homes where every vacant now sits.
Imagine how easy it would be to combat our
economic problems and plan for a prosperous city
with local tax revenues paying most of the city
budget. How can that be a bad thing? Now imagine
Lawrence in the future with 50% low income
housing and a city budget that is still mostly
dependent on state and federal funds. We just did
that for an entire decade while the rest of the
country was experiencing that best economy in
history. It didn’t help Lawrence at all did
it?
All I am asking is that the people of Lawrence
use common sense and look at the reality of why
we are still the poorest community in the state.
If we always do what we’ve always done,
we’ll always get what we have now.
Personally, I want Lawrence to be a better city.
The poverty advocates don’t live here and
for the most part they only care about getting
fat while we live with the devastation of their
social programs. Please, no more low income
housing in Lawrence. Let’s build homes to
attract tax payers and move this city forward.
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