Category Archives: On PAR

Research-in-Action: Uneven development/Gentrification and NYCCLI

Announcements, On PAR

All of your group projects are related to processes of uneven development and gentrification and all of your community contacts are working together to address these issues through the NYC Community Land Initiative (NYCCLI).   As you begin working on your popular education products, try to think about how it will relate/contribute to NYCCLI’s work as an alliance.  The following might be helpful to review:

Analyses of the Problem (including Banking on Vacancy) that NYCCLI is trying to address

Related/allied efforts around Community Gardens

Promising alternatives that NYCCLI has researched and is learning from

And some of the popular education materials we have produced to help us reach target audiences:

Video introduction to NYCCLI, the problem and our response (and the website more generally)

Flyer: Why Community Land Trusts

Coming soon: a board game and comic strip/poster!

Research-In-Action: Criminal (in)justice

Announcements, On PAR

We discussed the Morris Justice Project, but haven’t had time this semester to go deeply into how the criminal justice system is shaping (the future of) NYC, so for anyone who is not familiar with this issue, I strongly encourage you to take a little time to review the following:

How Jim Crow still exists in America (an NPR podcast with Michelle Alexander on the prison-industrial complex and how it plays out in cities)

1.5 Million Missing Black Men (a pretty powerful NY Times feature article from this week)

And then maybe take another look at the Morris Justice Project, to see how one group of residents and academic collaborators are addressing this issue through PAR.  I particularly recommend looking at MJP’s creative methods for visualizing data, reporting back to the community, and grounding public discussion around a complex policy issue from the perspective of those most affected.

On PAR

On PAR

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On Monday we discussed two PAR projects that relate to our work- both in terms of their substance (the role of real estate speculation in producing homelessness, and the impact discriminatory and aggressive policing on people/communities of color) and in terms of their methods for influencing social change through PAR.  We took note (above) of some particular contributions that we see in each project, and drew out some lessons that could be applied to each of your group projects.  Please keep these examples and lessons in mind as you proceed with your work, especially the popular education products!!

RR: PAR

On PAR, Uncategorized

The reading, Banking on Vacancy: Homelessness and Real Estate Speculation, a report by Picture The Homeless (PTH) effectively summarized the many issues with the housing crisis. The data and statistics discussed in the report are all incredibly striking. It introduces the topic with the statistic of vacant buildings and lots and the amount of people that potentially can be housed in these spaces: 3,551 vacant buildings and 2,489 vacant lots can house a total of 199,981 people. How can a city permit this to happen when homelessness is on the rise?

The city has been developed to promote a free-market economy and the commoditization of property. These spaces are primarily privately owned buildings and lots, with a mere 10% of these properties being owned by the government. Even the vacant publicly owned buildings are not being renovated and developed into function public spaces or affordable housing. The vacant spaces that are privately owned are nearly impossible to overturn into affordable housing and remain as unusable structures. These real estate tycoons warehouse these properties as investments that they sit on until the market deems it profitable to convert these spaces into market-rate real estate. Frequently these buildings will have a commercial tenants, but vacant apartments because the owners obtain enough profit from the store-front without dealing with the “hassle” of residential tenants. Property warehousers do not provide any benefit to the community, they only neglect the needs of the community and the people by maintaining these properties for their personal gain. Additionally, PTH points out the correlation of the location of homeless folks and vacant property. The 10 community districts from which the majority of homeless folks come from also have the highest density of vacant property in the city. Finally, the expense of the government for the homeless shelter institution is dramatically excessive. The city spends about $3,500 a month to house someone in a shelter which accumulates to an annual expense of $856 million. Clearly, the system in place does not solve the housing crisis, but simply diverts it with temporary housing. The government must begin developing permanent affordable housing for homeless folks which will ultimately reduce the annual expenses of the city for the shelter system.

Picture The Homeless’s report also details numerous solutions and policies that could be enacted to solve the housing crisis. Their recommendations, as listed in the report are: end warehousing, pass legislation that would mandate a city wide count of vacant property, introducing three year vacancy limit on private property, developing more Community Land Trusts, make information on housing and ownership more available, altering the Area Median Income policy for affordable housing, exposing the true identity of private owners of vacant property, and cataloguing a thorough data set of partially vacant building. All of these recommendations must be set in place in order to adjust the housing system to provide better housing. However, not all of them can be enacted on at the same time. In my opinion, the most effective method would be targeting the government’s budget for the homeless shelter system. There has to be a progressive rotation of shelter properties into affordable permanent housing. Before affordable housing is developed, the city must localize the AMI policy so that the rents are not incredibly skewed by higher income residents as well as introducing an annual vacancy count.  Once all affordable housing is truly affordable, then the government should begin developing affordable permanent housing from the vacant properties that it owns as a way to test out if it is effective. Once it is proven to be an effective policy, then the government should begin acquiring properties that have been vacant for excessive periods of time so that private owners begin renting out vacant apartments and more affordable housing can be developed from the appropriated properties. Thousands of New Yorkers have been anticipating the adjustment of the housing system in the city, which is finally so close to happening.

 

 

 

Reading Response

On PAR

When reading the Picture the Homeless report on Homelessness and real estate speculation, I was very inspired by the sleep outs. “Sleep outs” is the name of PTH’s public education demonstrations. In these instances, individuals actually slept on the streets in front of abandoned buildings. They also engaged the community in conversation about homelessness, gentrification, and vacancies. How cool would it look like to perhaps stage another sleep out to do a public education piece for City College. Recently, the unknown number of homeless CCNY students was brought to attention on the CCNY Secrets Facebook page. In order to bring the issue of homelessness back to home base, it would be quite the movement to stage a sleep out on the front steps of our college.

Like Morris Justice, knowledge can only be valid if it has impact on people’s lives. The key phrase here is people. A lot of the time, policy often removes the human impact in its strive to achieve its economic or political goals. What I really liked about the Morris Justice explanation of valid knowledge was the fact it created room for different voices to express their different or similar experiences. Valid knowledge is, “produced only in collaboration and in action, and that those typically “studied” should be architects of the process”.

The public engagement of sleeping on the streets is a compelling way of gathering that type of valid knowledge. Especially if the issue is unknown to the majority of individuals. At that point, it’s a perfect opportunity to explore why there was a information blackout. How does the denial and access of information inform the citizen as they make their political choices? Participatory Action Research is a wonderful method of uncovering the layers of a complex issue, generating a scenario, and then not proposing a reductivist solution.