Considerations for creating temporary housing communities

 

Rick Weil, LSU Sociology Dept., September 15, 2005

                        - Further Ideas, December, 2005

 

 

  1. Scope of the task

 

    1. It’s enormous, & this may outweigh any & all of the considerations below. 
    2. These are ideals, not necessarily realistic expectations.

 

  1. Security

 

    1. Most basic & important task
    2. Try to remove seriously disruptive people if it can be done.  Certainly remove people who commit crimes.
    3. Security load will be lightened the more a viable community structure can be encouraged

 

  1. Community

 

    1. A healthy community structure is key & will lighten all other tasks.  Avoid policies that foster social fragmentation & isolation, as these will create new problems.
    2. Keep families together.  Keep extended families together if they want
    3. Encourage friends & former neighbors to stay together, including new friends
    4. Possibly leave open the possibility of moving within the areas as social ties evolve
    5. Encourage as much self-governance as possible. 

                                                              i.      Encourage multiple levels of self-governance, with elected spokespeople representing groups of households, plus a level or two up.

                                                            ii.      Encourage residents to administer the area as much as possible

                                                          iii.      Encourage as much self-policing & neighborhood watches (with communications to real police) as feasible

                                                           iv.      Put representatives in good touch with outside authorities & give them a real say

    1. Encourage residents to initiate & create projects, whether building or activities
    2. Put in things like community centers, athletic/sport facilities, libraries, to the extent possible
    3. Provide other services like counseling.  There’s going to be a lot of stress

 

  1. Resist isolation from the rest of the community

 

    1. Create public transportation lines that link up with established public transportation
    2. Have adequate parking
    3. Encourage links & contacts with surrounding community to the extent possible

 

  1. Economy

 

    1. Provide as much information on jobs in the “outside” economy as possible & help people find jobs

                                                              i.      Help with transportation

    1. Also provide jobs & pay for some of the internal activities & administration
    2. Help with access to training, education: vocational, community college, other.  Possibly encourage satellite sites in the housing areas.
    3. Help with day care.  Try to keep the centers as small & close to families as possible.  If friends/neighbors care for kids, try to give them some facilities/resources/pay.  (But there will certainly be legal & liability issues I can’t address.)

 

  1. Exit Strategy

 

    1. Permit anyone to leave who can & wants to
    2. Have a strategy for building permanent housing.  Various neighborhoods may be rebuilt (e.g. in New Orleans), and new neighborhoods may be built in cities where the temporary housing is (e.g., Baton Rouge). 

                                                              i.      As much private building as possible, as much public as can’t be avoided.

    1. Balance new housing where the jobs really are with where you want the jobs to be.  If you build it & they don’t come, you’ve got new problems.
    2. Whenever community-building in the temporary housing is successful, try to permit groups to move into permanent housing together if they want.  If you can transplant a viable community, so much the better.

 


  1. Further Ideas (December, 2005)

 

    1. These ideas are designed to be zero- or low cost, to require little effort to implement, to promote community & reduce isolation, and to be consistent with the need to manage the communities effectively.
    2. Create safe gathering places with coffee & newspapers, magazines, & children’s books.

                                                              i.      These will encourage community-building, reduce isolation, provide information (including about jobs), will have constantly new materials (subscriptions) and will be relatively resistant to damage or take-over by aggressive or dangerous residents.

                                                            ii.      The community residents could chose the magazine subscriptions themselves.

                                                          iii.      I’ve already proposed this idea to my own synagogue’s relief committee; they like it; and I’m optimistic that we’ll be able to do it and fund it.  (I believe if we advertise this in appropriate venues, congregations nationally will find it attractive and contribute adequate funds.  Each location should be fairly inexpensive to fund.)

                                                           iv.      Community Coffee (a local company) & local newspapers might be willing to partner & give discounts or donations.

    1. Develop a kind of buddy system, where a more capable household teams up with one that needs more help. 

                                                              i.      This idea stems from current research on poverty and social dislocation, which finds that many of the problems come from the departure of the most capable residents from poor neighborhoods, leaving the less capable behind & isolated.  If this happens in trailer communities, problems may emerge and grow more difficult over time

                                                            ii.      If the “buddies” work well together, and permanent housing becomes available, buddies might move to the new housing together, and indeed, they might be offered priority as an incentive for successful buddying.  The trailer site might retain more balance between more and less capable residents, and the new landlord might be attracted by the idea that good tenants are moving in.

                                                          iii.      A buddy system is also designed to encourage beneficial community social networks.