Instead of feeling paralyzed,gentrifiers should support local tenants advocacy and homeless services groupsGentrification too often dissolves into a guilt-ridden zero-sum game, whereby current residents are told that to avoid being “part of the problem”, or they must simply avoid living in gentrifying areas altogether. This vote with your wallet approach,while significant, ignores the structural and political root of the problem. It is the lack of affordable housing, or tenant protections and political will that leads to the displacement of established residents,particularly communities of color.
Consider the Bay Area wave of young tech employees who gain driven gentrification that pushed out tens of thousands of primarily African-American and Latino residents. Their arrival alone was not the only force at play. The Bay Areas geography, significant political obstacles to higher density housing and a lack of investment in affordable low and moderate-income housing created a housing shortage that practically guaranteed the housing market would pit wealthier residents against poorer ones. Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com