Really Frightening Deja Vu

Apparently we seem to keep repeating the same errors of having policies with good intentions and horrible unintended consequences. The question is why did we not learn from what happened in the 70s and prevent its recurrence.

There is a 5-part series running in the Kansas City Star this week that has its focus on a zip code with the highest crime and criminal rate nationwide.

This is a quote from today's article:
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A history of decay

Built mostly in the 1920s and 1930s, the area’s once-tidy homes were populated by blue-collar white families and surrounded by bustling business districts along Prospect Avenue and other major arteries.

In the 1960s, those families began moving to newer suburban neighborhoods. Black working and middle-class families filtered in. By 1970, the ZIP code was 50 percent black.

Then, fueled by a federal program to help poor people buy homes, and assisted by real estate speculators who steered them to the area, the transformation became a rush — one that increasingly lured the poor.

That 1970s program subsidized mortgage payments, bringing in families with no home ownership history. Many lacked money to maintain their homes and yards. Houses gradually fell into disrepair.

A government report described the area’s “rampaging deterioration and abandonment of housing” as a serious problem that would drag down the entire city.
It was written in 1975.
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Today's version extends to multiple areas and multiple foreclosures, but the problems that arise from vacant and
abandoned houses continues.

What makes no sense to me is why if you subsidize rents and mortgages, do you not also work with the recipients to provide job training, counseling, and all other social services.

In much the same way that parenting and other pre-natal classes help future children, spending the money on follow-up and services in a proactive manner might prevent other zip codes from becoming a total haven for crime.

Today's problem