Group meets to discuss housing problems, solutions

A volunteer council of Cape Girardeau residents convened Thursday evening at the United Way to identify problems facing the community and discuss solutions.

The meeting was the second for the recently formed Authentic Voices group initiated by the United Way of Southeast Missouri, and focused largely on housing issues in low-income areas.

"[The United Way] recognized we need the input of the people we serve," director of community development Melissa Stickel said. "The thought process behind [Authentic Voices] is to gather people who are committed to making changes in their community."

Scott Johnson, pastor of Soulful Harvest Ministries, explained one of the reasons housing is seen as such a problem is its complexity. In his eyes, he said, challenges are inherent in the administration of housing aid.

"HUD housing can be a good thing, but it can also be a trap," he said, referring to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's housing assistance programs.

Cape Girardeau resident Betty Mosely agreed, saying while the programs are necessary, they can have unintended, generational consequences for low-income families.

"Some people stay in poverty because if they get a job, then they have to get a sitter, then [HUD] is going to cut back [that individual[']s] benefits," she said. "If your parents are on welfare, you grew up living that way. If that's the only thing you've ever been exposed to, it becomes a vicious cycle."

"There's no real transitioning from nonworking to working as far as government programs goes," Stickel explained. She outlined the paradox, saying the rate at which a person loses government benefits is sharper than the rate at which they can make up the difference in the workforce, especially if they earn minimum wage.

"It creates a disincentive to work," she said.

Zoia Martin, social worker and advocacy specialist at the SEMO Alliance for Disability Independence Inc., argued many of the problems associated with HUD housing are more prevalent in this region.

"Southeast Missouri is different than in any other part of the state," she said. "HUD is different here. In Cape, it's all about the landlords. In other areas, it's about the tenants."

In her eyes, tenants' rights aren't being recognized at all, which often results in people and their families being ushered into substandard housing. Resident Dominique Thompson said she's known several people who had been evicted for trying to remedy grievances by going to over landlords' heads to the city. Such action is illegal but -- if true -- would indicate serious problems in the tenant-landlord power dynamic. Nearly all members of the council agreed inspections should be more rigorous, and landlords ought to be held more accountable for maintaining their properties.

"Just because you're getting money from HUD," Morse said, "doesn't mean you don't need to be responsible."

Mosely said housing assistance also has forced low-income residents into certain sections of the city. This isolation, she argued, makes problems such as the lack of functioning streetlights or safe sidewalks easier to ignore.

"To me, independence is the cutoff that HUD doesn't want you to cross," she said. "You do not exist south of the bridge."

SEMO Alliance for Disability Independence will host a tenant empowerment seminar presented by the Equal Housing and Opportunity Council from 10 a.m. to noon Sept. 8.

The council is working with the United Way to organize a meeting where city officials, HUD representatives, landlords and tenants will be able to discuss best practices. The next meeting will be at 4:15 p.m. Sept. 25 at the United Way offices, 430A Broadway in Cape Girardeau.

tgraef@semissourian.com

1913 Rusmar Street, Cape Girardeau MO 63701

430A Broadway, Cape Girardeau, MO 63701