Appreciation for Pat Clifford

Gentrification Forces Winning

It is not often that you get to show appreciation for someone who has not died, but Pat Clifford was fired from the Drop Inn Center in Cincinnati which I guess is similar to dying. The Coalition is having an evening of appreciation for Pat's work. For the new readers, Pat was the Cincy Coalition director and then he stepped in to running the shelter after buddy gray was killed. The Cincy Drop Inn is constantly under pressure to stay in business against the corporate/gentrification forces in Cincinnati. Those business folks finally got enough power on the Drop Inn board and terminated Pat right after he returned from vacation this summer. If you have the ability and want to support social justice, feel free to attend this event.

Come celebrate and honor Pat Clifford’s 20-plus years of service to the Drop Inn Center and the Over-the-Rhine community! Pat believes that it is the responsibility of all of us to end homelessness. Show your support for this ideal by coming together with others to honor Pat’s continuing presence in our community and his work with us moving forward.

Date and time: October 19^th, 6:00 PM-9:00 PM

Location: Coffee Emporium, 110 East Central Parkway, Over-the-Rhine

Appreciation Program at 7:00 PM

Food and drink provided. Open and free to the public

Sponsored by friends of Pat Clifford. Pat requests that any donations be shared with the Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition and InkTank.

If you can’t attend, please consider sending us a written statement or photo of Pat to be displayed at the event. Send to Catherine Stehlin at the Cincinnati Coalition before Friday, October 15^th.

Send to: Josh Spring LSW

Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless

117 E. 12th Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202

Office: 513-421-7803

www.cincihomeless.org

Brian

Posts reflect the opinion of those who sign the entry.

Gentrification=Attacks on Poor People

Neighborhood Wars

Gentrification is insidious in that it slowly overtakes a neighborhood. It is feared by poor people, and spreads fear throughout the neighborhood. People start believing that all their problems within the neighborhood are caused by poor people. They start to believe that if they do not kick out the poor people their housing values will decrease and they will lose their nest egg or become homeless themselves. In Tremont, Ohio City and now starting in Detroit Shoreway there is this drive to "develop" the neighborhood. It is usually led by the neighborhood development corporation and by a small group who are single minded in their focus to improve property values. These are worthy goals, but it all falls down when the health of all income levels are not taken into account. There are many CDC directors who try to work with both low income and higher income households and the attempt to balance the needs of each. There are some who try to integrate the neighborhood and champion diversity. But a few who just let the developers go wild, and are hostile to poor people.

Some CDCs restrict access by non-profits who serve poor people out of a fear of attracting homeless and the downtrodden. They condemn and bulldoze property that is unsightly. They demand action by the City to make it illegal to be poor (panhandling, anti-"camping," and anti-feeding ordinances). They constantly chew the ear of the elected local official until the Councilperson finally breaks and forgets about their poorer constituents and follows the vision of the rich developers (potential campaign donors) to move away from affordable housing.

The results are:

• All the shelters get pushed to the "bad" parts of town away from bus lines, social services, and government offices.
• The innovative ideas like pay to stay places (non-profit flophouses) or sweat equity affordable housing co-ops or one stop service centers do not get tried.
• Land is left vacant or used as community garden/park space to avoid the development of affordable housing.
• It is harder to locate a place to live that is affordable to a person making service sector wages.
• When people fall out of their housing through eviction they fall all the way to shelter or the streets. There are no longer safety nets to catch people.
• Housing gets more expensive city wide because certain markets are shut off to people.

This is gentrification and the results of gentrification. The Center for Community Change does some work on gentrification. Also, the National Low Income Housing Coalition has some articles on NIMBY issues.

Brian

Posts by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless staff and Board.