Section 8 (Akron, Lorain, Elyria: foreclosure, renter, crime rate)

[Jorge Camargo]

Is this amoung other things bringing crime to subburbs? Is moving people to shaker, euclid, lakewood, parma etc..., bringing down values and more problems?

[JR_C]

IMO, it's a "chicken and egg" situation. For whatever reason--a foreclosure crisis, for example--makes property values fall. This makes these properties accessible to a "lower class" of people. This often results in more of the original residents leaving. Which, in turn, results in even lower property values, due to the greater supply and decreasing demand.

How you want to read "lower class" is up to you.

[orion1778]

Read this Hanna Rosin article in The Atlantic. It is specific to Memphis, mostly, but similar trends can occur in any city.

American Murder Mystery

"Studies show that recipients of Section8 vouchers have tended to choose moderately poor neighborhoods that were already on the decline, not low-poverty neighborhoods. One recent study publicized by HUD warned that policy makers should lower their expectations, because voucher recipients seemed not to be spreading out, as they had hoped, but clustering together. Galster theorizes that every neighborhood has its tipping point—a threshold well below a 40 percent poverty rate—beyond which crime explodes and other severe social problems set in. Pushing a greater number of neighborhoods past that tipping point is likely to produce more total crime. In 2003, the Brookings Institution published a list of the 15 cities where the number of high-poverty neighborhoods had declined the most. In recent years, most of those cities have also shown up as among the most violent in the U.S., according to FBI data."

[BelieveInCleve]

Its kind of a sad situation. Section 8 can add a lot to the decay and the crime rate of a neighborhood. Im not saying that everybody on section 8 is bad because I know a lot of good people and friends that were or still on section 8. It saddens me to see what happens to certain neighborhoods though. Adding just one or two section 8 houses to a nice street can send it on a long downhill journey. Once quiet streets filled with owned houses can turn into a haven for crime and drugs. People on section 8 are poor so they bring a lot of those problems to other neighborhoods that wouldnt have usually had them. Nicer neighborhoods with nicer houses used to naturally keep away the poor because of the high costs, along with the majority of the crime and drug problems which comes with the poverty. Because of Section 8 and a few other programs that natural order has been ruined

People in poverty have to make money some way which leads to the drugs and robberies which leads to higher crimes which leads to gang warfare. That leads to huge drops in land and housing values and than properties and grass gets neglected which can drop it even lower. Next thing you know you have abandoned houses on your street along with ongoing drug activity and crimes. You have the businesses closing down and graffiti popping up and people selling drugs on the corners. People drinking and smoking outside and loud music with people hanging out of the windows and littering/loitering. You get the point, its the making of a new ghetto. This could be prevented most the time if it wasnt for Section 8 and other programs. Its just sad to see, and the worst part is that it could have been prevented which kind of annoys me that they let this go on and dont do anything about it.

[htlong]

Originally Posted by Cle440

Its kind of a sad situation. Section 8 can add a lot to the decay and the crime rate of a neighborhood. Im not saying that everybody on section 8 is bad because I know a lot of good people and friends that were or still on section 8. It saddens me to see what happens to certain neighborhoods though. Adding just one or two section 8 houses to a nice street can send it on a long downhill journey. Once quiet streets filled with owned houses can turn into a haven for crime and drugs. People on section 8 are poor so they bring a lot of those problems to other neighborhoods that wouldnt have usually had them. Nicer neighborhoods with nicer houses used to naturally keep away the poor because of the high costs, along with the majority of the crime and drug problems which comes with the poverty. Because of Section 8 and a few other programs that natural order has been ruined

People in poverty have to make money some way which leads to the drugs and robberies which leads to higher crimes which leads to gang warfare. That leads to huge drops in land and housing values and than properties and grass gets neglected which can drop it even lower. Next thing you know you have abandoned houses on your street along with ongoing drug activity and crimes. You have the businesses closing down and graffiti popping up and people selling drugs on the corners. People drinking and smoking outside and loud music with people hanging out of the windows and littering/loitering. You get the point, its the making of a new ghetto. This could be prevented most the time if it wasnt for Section 8 and other programs. Its just sad to see, and the worst part is that it could have been prevented which kind of annoys me that they let this go on and dont do anything about it.

thurmont and hawkins comes to my mind here.....

[BelieveInCleve]

Originally Posted by htlong

thurmont and hawkins comes to my mind here.....

Where is that at? Akron?

[htlong]

yes it is in Akron, in a very nice area,it is a few blocks of apts. and duplexes which allowed for people to enjoy a nice neighborhood without the cost of buying. some new landlords bought the properties and saw the section 8 as a quick way to fill the apts.
unfortunately the new Tennant's seem to a (not all)large amount of the renters choose to steal and sell drugs.
one renter was complaining about the roaches in her apt the TV showed her apt and there was trash everywhere, so does the bad land lord bring the roaches or the bad Tennant's? I feel it is both one wont spray and the other wont clean. I have been poor several times in my life but I have never been dirty they do not go hand and hand.
the mayor and city council are busy building new projects that are nicer than my house, so why would anyone want to get a job and have to pay rent?
the mayor and council travel worldwide...(vacation) but never seem to bring any jobs back and this supposedly is why they are seeing the world on our tax dollars,

[BelieveInCleve]

A lot of similar things have happened around Elyria/Lorain too. Its one thing for the "historical ghettos" to have section 8, because those areas have been poor and bad areas for a while and Section 8 will really have no effect on them and in some cases it will even improve those areas somewhat. However, the sad part happens when they do section 8 in historically nice areas, it brings the whole neighborhood down. I saw it happen a lot in Lorain too, some areas on the eastside and in south Lorain. Elyria too to a lesser extent, theyre even allowing rentals and section 8 in some areas on the east and northside now, which is half the reason why those areas are not improving and are starting to further decline even though they are still nice areas. Section 8 was full of holes before they even put it into action, it was made for a good reason but a lot of bad and negative things have happened with it that far outweigh the little good it did.

[htlong]

the entire welfare system was created with good intentions BUT!
there isn't any time limit on any of it.
helping those down on their luck is fine but we have 50 plus years of families that claim to be down on their luck. they grow up with free food,housing and medical,and the attitude some have is that it is a entitlement!
the entire system needs a revamping,and stop the drop out of school,get pregnant or get busted for drugs or thieving and go to prison,
this is considered just part of life.
now Akron has replaced the out dated projects with state of the art new homes,were the projects sub standard...yes, but will anyone see a need to get a job and waste it on paying rent,or buying a house? I doubt it.
these people were given the same choices as I had,get an education and a job, when the work left Akron in the 80's,so did I
my tax dollars at work sheeeeze!!!!!!!!!