This is a real situation that occurred in a north
part of Denver.
Back in the early 1900s there was a lot of
metal/construction/steel work being done in that part of Colorado. The people
who then built homes near to those work sites started a pretty tight-knit
community of homeowners who then proceeded to give those homes over to their
children through inheritance and down through the generations. This created
generation of generation of hardworking homeowners who knew their neighbors and
were deeply involved in their neighborhoods.
-Dick move #1 by the Government: In the 1960s they
built 1-70 right through the heart of the vibrant, suburban community inspite
of thousands of people protesting.
-Dick move #2: They declared the homes and the area
condemned and started displacing hundreds of people. The residents attempted to
sue them and the case went to the Supreme Court, but the government sided with
the government and the homes were bulldozed for far less than they were worth
leaving the former-homeowners screwed.
-Dick move #3: The area they were living in was a
Residential Zone and in the 1970's the government decided to redistrict the
lines of the community so it was no longer considered Residential and therefore
it became ILLEGAL for them to make ANY updates to their houses. If your
driveway was cracked and your roof had a leak –tough luck. This remained in
place until the year 2001. For 30 years residents were unable to make even
basic updates to their homes –running the value of property and the area in
general into the ground.
Fast-forward to today. Denver is a blossoming
cityscape with many many land-developers buying up as much property they can to
build new houses and apartments on it to ride the wave of financially gouging
new people moving into the city. This has brought the price of land up
throughout Denver and has led to a lot of “gentrification”.
Unfortunately for those formerly renting places in
the area –this means they can no longer afford to keep up with the rising costs
and will inevitable be sent packing. It also means that the land-buying
opportunists are eyeing people still living in the broken area of north Denver
and saying, “Hey I can pay you what your house is worth on face value.”
You end up with a situation in which common, every
day, hardworking people who have lived in the same place for generations are
now forced to sell their crumbling homes for $200,000 on land that could easily
be worth $400,000. I mean obviously it’s their fault right. They chose to be
poor and everything.
A lot of the people in these communities are also
very diverse racially –Hispanic, black, and white home-owners throughout
the area.
So Denver, like many booming cities, is making the
mistake of “displacing poverty” where the invisible low-income family is being
muscled out of their own homes to be chucked further out of town –probably to
the impoverished areas of Aurora –instead of being supported.
Another issue the community is having is The School
v. Railroad Tracks. Recently the residents actually had to convince the
government that a bridge was worth building near their schools because in order
to get to it, Elementary school children had to cross over train tracks –and
when trains were around UNDER and AROUND the live acting trains to get to
school every morning.
It’s astounding how much crap can be forced upon an
entire area of people doing absolutely nothing wrong other being home-owners
and possibly being of a race other than white.
On top of all of this a recent article says homeless
are now suing the city of Denver for systemically forcing them out of the area:
“A group of homeless people have sued Denver, claiming the
city has systematically forced the homeless out of the downtown area, illegally
taken and destroyed their possessions and violated their civil rights in an
inhumane and vindictive way.
The 36-page complaint, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in
Denver, accuses the city of clearing downtown of the poor and displaced by
conducting sweeps of homeless encampments in order to make way for new housing
and economic development.
"While gentrification may have positive benefits for a few,
it is not a legal basis for treating this vulnerable class as though their
civil rights were non-existent," the suit said.
The lawsuit, filed by a
group of homeless members of Denver Homeless Out Loud, requests class action
status, which would make all the city's homeless plaintiffs.
"As rents have risen and the number of displaced have
increased, shelter beds have remained stagnant," the suit says.”
Source (The Denver Post): http://www.denverpost.com/2016/08/25/homeless-sue-denver-call-sweeps-unconstitutional/
The only good news is that various non-profits and
groups recognize what is happening and are stepping in to defend those who
would be left ruin.
They are also
working with the home-owners of these areas so they know what their real
options are and have support to remain in their communities if they choose. Because
of this attention –even the school system, which had formally ignored the
struggling neighborhood and its school –also started sending more resources and
support since it became glaringly obvious to everyone that they had been
neglecting that area financially for decades.
Hopefully the community stands its ground and isn’t
bullied to further sinking by those who would seek to profit off of this
oppressive situation.
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