Section 8 - Renters

I got an e-mail from a 6th ward resident who is also a leader in a neighborhood organization who has problems with section 8 people. I was at a ward meeting where the alderman mentioned that some of these section eighters have different mores from those individuals still living in the more stable neighborhoods around the city.

There are some horror stories. Surely it's unsettling to find a generally quiet neighborhood suddenly overrun by young people who know only sitting around, hanging out, or roaming. In addition to that we have to be their neighbors as well.

I'm sure there are quite a few section eighters. That is transplants from many of the formerly high rise city housing projects who are forced to move and use government rental subsidies to find housing in neighborhoods around the city. Of course I'm sure there are quite a few who are proving to be good neighbors. Unfortunately one bad case might cause a bad perception for other section eighters out there.

Even I've had an experience. We didn't particularly know how bad it was until after this particular family moved. We had trouble removing a fallen tree in our yard from their premises, they had children all over the place and the house was under a general disrepair. Although that's more on the property owner than it is the family in question.

When this family moved, the owner of this house gave us a grand tour. They left plenty of artifacts around such as for instance Barbie dolls. Behind a bush was plenty of trash in the form of soda cans. There were plenty of dead roaches and we had some work to do in order to curb our own insect problems which probably came from them.

Eventually the property owner was able to fix up the house unfortunately these days the home is sort of a half-way house for developmentally disabled patients. There are surely those who are concerned about that.

The lady has yet to respond to an email allowing me to post her e-mail, but I forward it to the alderman who didn't take long to respond talking about ways to handle this problem. It's great to know there's a way but of course relations between neighbors has to be considered somewhat delicate. In a way while it's great to see neighbors band together to solve neighborhood problems there are always those who may not feel obligated to be good neighbors.

Still, homeownership surely is a form of diplomacy. At times we have to work with our neighbors or indeed we might want a favor from a neighbor. Not that we have to be very chummy with the neighbors, but we do want good relations with them. May you have good neighbors, what ever their background might be.