Faith Filled Family Magazine August 2016 | Page 72

What Glass observed occurring
in the inner cities of London in
the 1960s pretty much describes
what we are seeing in urban
cities across America today.
There are winners and losers
during and after the gentrification process.
Let’s start with the winners:
Homeowners.
In
Bedford
Stuyvesant, home prices have
risen 200% -300% more than
what many long-term buyers
spent originally. This puts owners
in a powerful economic position
if they intend on tapping equity
or selling and moving from the
city.
Realtors. With most sales there
is a commission. Both selling
and buyer’s brokers stand to
gain 4%-6% on every deal that
they broker. With houses selling
for over a million dollars, a broker
can amass close to $100,000 for
merely brokering a deal.
Banks and Developers. Those
who have access to cash can
engineer the deal of their choice.
Banks make money lending and
developers have deep enough
pockets to pay a resident to
leave their residence for a paltry
sum from $7,000 to $100,000 or
more. But they will renovate the
building and either sell it at a far
higher price than they spent or
keep the building and increase
rents so that they can make their
money back in a designated time
in the future.
No one deny a business person
the right to profit from an investment. The hue and cry arises
when the effects on communi-

ties become clear. An examination of the losers reveals the
more somber picture.
Tenants. Renters making a
meager salary cannot afford to
purchase their dwelling. They
live by the mercy of the landlord some lured by the dollar
utilize some ruthless tactics to
encourage renters to abandon
their homes. Some landlords
go so far as to create uninhabitable and unsafe conditions in
their buildings to get tenants
to move out. Some pay lawless individuals to loiter in and
around the building scaring
tenants into moving out.
Cultural artifacts and traditions.
A library in Bedford-Stuyvesant
curated a very interesting photography exhibit. A resident
had conducted a walking tour
of the community and photographed roughly twenty murals.
(There are so many more.) Her
rationale was that eventually all
these murals would be lost to
gentrification because redesign
of buildings would follow on the
heels of displacement of individuals. In addition, the AfricanAmerican themed murals did
not reflect the culture of the
new white community of arrivals.
Homeless. The already homeless will now share their homeless shelter with the newly
designated homeless. As a
result, competition for too-few
affordable housing slots would
surely increase.
In and of itself, gentrification is
not a problem. However, the
impact of gentrification creates problems for residents,

schools, and churches.
As
Christians we cannot turn a blind
eye to the suffering of others
around us. So what can we do?

1

.Devise solutions.
I am
happy to say that this is just
what the Bedford-Stuyvesant community did. Churches
united and convened a forum to
address implement one solution.
Churches in attendance pledged
to combine resources to purchase land and to build affordable housing.

2

.Matching Services. Community leaders convened
to discuss the concept of
senior citizen house-sharing.
There are seniors in the community who live in a house alone,
and there are also seniors in need
of housing. Under strict guidelines and oversight, community
leaders devised a strategy to
match senior home-owners with
a senior home-searchers.

3

.Homeowner
Seminars.
Provide education to financially prepare potential
buyers for homeownership.
Sharing this vital information on
a rotating basis is as critical for
first-in -family home-owners as
college preparation is to first-infamily college students. Everyone needs to know how to save
and establish credit so that they,
too, can become owners.

4

.Church
Emphasis.
Churches spend a great
deal of time talking about
moral lapses, but what also
is important are sermons on
stewardship that go beyond the
importance of tithing. Families
must know how to secure their
finances as well. I am not sug-