Gentrification with less displacement and more integration

 

    As I've mentioned in my previous article, there are a lot of problematic issues that surround gentrification-- the generational wealth lost, the injustice of a system that serves rich white people, and low-income children growing up in low-income households with little or no opportunity to break out of this cycle because of the neighborhood they've grown up in.

    One of the most important details I'd like to focus on in addressing the issue of gentrification is the fact that "integration should not solely involve the movement of people of color into White schools, neighborhoods, and work places, but also the movement of White people into spaces occupied primarily by people of color," (Pierce 2). However, that often leads to wealthier, White people moving into POC neighborhoods, raising the rent for the neighborhood, and then forcing POC out of their neighborhoods because the housing cost rises-- or in other words, Gentrification. However, there are multiple ways we can prevent segregation whilst integration occurs, which is necessary for the children of low-income families to have better opportunities for success in the future, as it's proven that "the future achievement of ever-poor children is related to the length of time they live in poverty. Persistently poor children are 13 percent less likely to complete high school and 43 percent less likely to complete college than those who are poor but not persistently poor as children" (Ratcliffe 15). Therefore, the integration of lower-income POC households in a neighborhood along with higher-income households is integral, and one of the ways we can achieve this is through CBAs, or Community Benefit Agreements. A CBA can act as a housing contract for a neighborhood, laying out certain terms and conditions for the neighborhood before it's built. For example, we can require that a certain percentage of the neighborhood is affordable for lower-income households amongst middle to higher income households, making it so that these lower-income households aren't forced out of their living spaces. 

    The problem isn't the mixture of white higher-income and POC lower-income households, but the fact that there is a need to make a neighborhood completely white higher-income without the integration of lower-income households. By having a better mixed housing situation, children in lower-income households will be given better opportunities than if they lived in a predominantly lower-income neighborhood and environment, as they'll have access to better schooling, better community programs, that they wouldn't have access to otherwise. 

Citations:

Pierce, Andrew J. “Integration without Gentrification.” Public Affairs Quarterly, vol. 35, no. 1, 2021, pp. 1–21. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/27009632. Accessed 22 Feb. 2022.

Child Poverty and Adult Success - Urban Institute. https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/65766/2000369-Child-Poverty-and-Adult-Success.pdf.