>> In New York City has proposed a 16% rent hike it would mark the largest rent increase in almost two decades and 300 thousand is kind of 100,000 in New York City at least.
Individuals would have to earn 300,000 dollars to have 100,000 in spending power.
Is the future of America one were only the wealthy can thrive?
A conversation on housing equality and justice close to home the root causes and solutions to a pressing national issue as MetroFocus starts right now.
♪ >> This is MetroFocus.
MetroFocus is made possible by Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III.
Bernard and Denise Schwartz.
Barbara Hope Zuckerberg Dr. Robert CN Tina Sohn foundation.
The JPB Foundation.
>> Good evening and welcome to MetroFocus.
Tonight we are taking a look at housing inequality it's a growing issue which New Yorkers rank as one of the top challenges they face.
We are previewing WNET groups close to home.
This series will examine housing inequality from frontline leaders representing a mix of communities throughout New York and beyond.
The town halls will tackle hard questions homeownership, gentrification, homelessness, and food insecurity.
This evening, as part of our chasing the dream initiative our panelists will take part in the series first I would like to welcome Mark Crane the executive director of Dream of Detroit, an organization that provides affordable housing in the Detroit Muslim community.
Welcome to MetroFocus.
>> Thank you so much.
>> a reporter with the Detroit Free Press and bridge Detroit welcome to MetroFocus.
>> think you so much.
>> also Rosalinda she is the founder of community to community and organization focused on food justice and food sovereignty.
Thank you so much for joining us.
>> great to be here, thank you.
And Egyptian born in New York City based singer, rapper, and activists.
Thank you so much for joining us.
>> thank you for having me.
And Mexican-American singer, songwriter, based in New York City think is so much for joining us.
Absolutely, with all of that in mind in the housing being such just a robust and diverse issue deeply affects everyone I want to start with you and get at least an understanding of what it is that you're saying the needs and challenges in the city like to trade and how they may or may not be similar to what we are seeing here in New York City.
>> I think often times what we are doing here in Detroit is somewhat unique but a bit -- gentrification here in Detroit it looks different than a lot of other cities.
We haven't necessarily seen the influx of capital that folks typically associate with gentrification.
So in Detroit, of course the population the automotive industry has shrunk but must immediately destroy has really dealt with a tax property foreclosure crisis.
We have seen what one academic called a predatory state, a predatory state he -- city.
That has started a cycle or books have been driven into property tax foreclosure the county takes their homes and auctions it off to the highest bidder who is often a speculator or someone else who doesn't have benefits in mind.
Since 2011 and 2015 thousands of families moved out of their homes.
Moved out of homes they inherited, grandma's home.
Having their dignity attacked really.
And a lot of times doing it in isolation until organizers and researchers really uncovered and started to shed light on the issue.
That has been a huge driver of what is happening and what we expect to see is that influx of capital that's going to move in the weight of folks who used to make a larger part of Detroit residency.
>> I think a lot of what we just heard with some very familiar to a lot of New Yorkers but from the perspective of your reporting what are at least are you seeing and understanding from a perspective of neighborhoods, not only gentrifying but changing some of the culture and essence of the city of Detroit?
>> I think what Mark was talking to about the impacts of the foreclosure crisis really is illustrated in the housing stock in the city but the changing dynamics of neighborhoods.
People that were there and I think one thing I think about a lot is a home, the reason I love reporting about housing is a home is a pillar in a community.
Housing is important for various reason but is not only approve of your head but it can be a family heirloom Mark said so with the foreclosure crisis and another issue we are seeing his family super dealing with title issues.
That's been popping up a lot with these compounding factors you have housing that's really unstable and a home that's not able to stay within a family lineage and when that happens family members might be driven out of neighborhoods and communities.
We have that side of things but we also have the fact that there are a lot of renters in Detroit.
There are a proportion of homeowners with unique struggles but there are a lot of renters and with that there are many struggles as well.
We have younger people who are moving in as renters.
We have homeowners becoming renters so you have these shifting dynamics changing and I think the thing about Detroit is unlike a lot of other cities it's a big city and there are so many topics, right?
It's cool, if you drive down Detroit I live near the area next to a separate city within Detroit the houses are very different.
Then if you drive 10 minutes down you have a totally different dynamic.
You kind of see the impact of a lot of these factors we've been talking about like the foreclosure crisis and the change in dynamics from becoming homeowners to renters.
A lot of ongoing conversation happening among people that I talked to who is Detroit growing for?
We are seeing a lot of investments but is it extending out into the broader neighborhoods because Detroit is such a sprawling big-city are we seeing those investments going to those different pockets in those different neighborhoods?
>> I think that's an excellent question people don't always think about one week consider gentrification of neighborhoods.
But where are they happening?
I want to bring you in and get your take on the way you're seeing at least investment in neighborhoods affect the communities that you're serving.
>> it's interesting because we serve immigrant families, low income Latino workers and farmworkers.
When you're talking about food security, I'm a third-generation farm worker Mexican American from Texas, right?
Hearing you speak about heirloom homes, for farmworkers, we very rarely can do that.
We are some of the poorest workers in the nation.
We are feeding everybody else but we are also dealing with neighborhoods that are in rural areas.
So for us a neighbor head is a big swath of land where there is mono agricultural productions.
Housing for farmworkers is incredibly difficult to find.
Home ownership immigrant families and farmworkers in rural areas is extremely difficult.
Our communities live in substandard housing.
Many of them live in company-owned housing by the industrial production firms across the United States.
For us, gentrification, for example gentrification for us is Microsoft going into a beautiful river gorge area and buying large pieces of land to set up computer production or computer input and displacing in many cases very low income farm workers who managed to buy homes or are renting homes.
Across rural America, especially Northwest Washington Berkeley are, this is a question we are dealing with.
It's also related to climate change because in some of our rural areas it's being impacted by the changing climate.
Realistically, we have always had -- homeownership is incredibly difficult.
Those of us, I think I'm third-generation.
I'm living in what I would call an heirloom home that my parents scraped to buy a little house in a small rural town that is becoming gentrified.
I looked at it as a privilege because the majority of farmworkers cannot own their homes.
They don't make enough money for that.
I love the fact that I'm included in this conversation because farmworkers in relation to food are generally excluded from these kinds of conversations.
From the big urban centers, so we have what you call it?
Partnerships with urban groups in housing issues and we try to connect the rural element.
We are producing the food needed in the cities.
A lot of times the folks in the cities cannot produce that food.
We are all really partners in the well-being of our communities at every single level including housing.
Substandard housing for low income Latino workers, immigrants, and farmworkers is rampant.
You are talking malt, infestations of animals, rats, and other things.
It's a very difficult issue for us to deal with.
We are dealing with that all the time.
>> I was going to say I certainly would say I definitely don't think that when people think gentrification pretend the think more urban neighborhoods and we certainly wouldn't think of a company like Microsoft having an impact on that.
In terms of buying up land that could be used for housing.
Renée, I want to turn to you and, again, a broad question but something I want to ask the entire panel.
Not only the effect of gentrification but what would housing justice begin to look like from your perspective?
>> You know I'm a queer Mexican-American singer-songwriter, independent contractor.
So the kinds of economic instability that is common amongst people of my community is, artists specifically and artists of color New York City is a city that is completely unaffordable to many people.
But I think the part that really worries me the most is the fact that sometimes we have been having to leave the city because of inequality and for me one of the things that has become sort of, it just makes sense to me, is spending time with my family in Mexico or subletting my place during the lower seasons of my work.
I don't think that something that creates security as a way of life that you can have a stable place Karen could be affordable especially in this economy and inflation with how it's going.
One of the other things that becomes more recent as gentrification is not think we see in this country but in places like Mexico City where more affluent neighborhoods have become completely flooded by what people, their self called digital nomads and they are not really welcome in welcome -- Mexico City.
They stopped raising our rents because this phenomenon is becoming international and people are being pushed out of neighborhoods by people who have good jobs and are choosing to live cheaper.
We are seeing phenomenons such as a yoga studios offering classes in English and other countries.
>> Wow.
>> It's kind of bone chilling to me and it's something that I've seen through my communities.
I'm very much in touch with the Mexican where community down there in Mexico City and saying that cross borders it raises for me of a lot of questions about border policy and how it's a one-way conversation.
I was raised in south of the Arizona birder -- border.
Looking at that from the two different lenses is so interesting to me.
For me, to answer your question more directly housing equality with look like not having to sublet my own room during the low season for musicians which is basically from like November to February at least in my experience just being able to at least dream of some type of someday buying a home it seems unattainable and hasn't it since I moved to New York City in 2007.
Just knowing it's not an option for me are having to do some other type of work in tandem to be able to afford it and having been a restaurant worker in New York City seeing the way that the conditions that immigrants live and usually in the city especially in docket emigrants were you have two or three people sleeping in a kitchen, for people sharing a room.
You have 10 people in just one apartment.
There's obviously a big mismatch between that and neighborhoods where you are buying a seven dollar latte.
>> Speaking of artists, I want to bring you in I know you use your work to to a lot of these stories.
It seems as though the presence of artists becomes a big draw to people to want to live in a community.
How does gentrification specifically affect the artistic community?
>> I have to agree with everything everyone said.
It's very much relevant to what I try to include in my music in my art and what I tried to stand for when I get a chance to represent my culture.
I think as women of color, people of color in general anywhere is just becoming absolutely ridiculous to be able to afford a decent state of living and to not have to sublet your apartment every other month.
I don't know a friend that's not doing that right now.
To have to juggle so many jobs to just be able to see yourself somewhere where you really will have been wanting to be all your life.
It is absolutely insane.
All I can really do, all I can offer is try to cultivate a safe space in my music and art where we can escape together.
I'm not waiting for the government to change things.
I'm fully Egyptian, I don't even fully see myself, I'm Egyptian American but like that comes you have everybody fantasizing about the American dream and Western beauty and all of these different standards and they come out to the states and we are not welcome here.
It feels like there needs to be some kind of radical change in the way we are making space for people specifically people of color especially in a country that was literally built on the back of peoples of color.
I check to keep my hobo, I try to lead with love and create a space in mind that I can share with people.
It sounds like a bunch of craziness but I think we do need to lean and and really support artists at this time who are trying to have a voice when the government is not letting us have one.
>> Keeping in mind, there is so much to talk about on the subject.
But with the last few minutes that we have left, I also want to ask and this might sound like a glib of insensitive questions but for a lot of people what you're describing are just get forces at work.
This is just capitalistic market forces at work and people are supposed to learn to move and change with them.
So, Mark, I will go back to you and see what is your response to people saying that a lot of what you are talking about in terms of neighborhood investment that's just the market working?
>> Good question.
I guess a couple of thoughts.
Number one, when I talk about a particular issue with the property text foreclosure crisis.
We know is happening across the country this is not just the market at work.
This is a failure of administration, collusion, this is predating the population so that's a different situation.
The transition from majority homeowners is here a market effect but we have to be clear a lot of it is being driven by things like large investors, private equity firms who turned their attention to the housing market as the next big thing they plan to take.
These are not mom and pop landlords that are striving this situation.
The really ill the group of people in a fitting at the expense of the rest of us and a place like Detroit where we are a proud, majority black city, a majority homeowners city to watch us go and become a majority printer city was heartbreaking.
We are merged out of that in the last year or so but we are seeing folks are getting mortgages they are young white folks moving into the city it's not the black grandmother and grandpa and middle age folks who foster homes.
It isn't actually a just return.
The last thing I will say is for black people, to be specific, the housing market has never really been more true the idea that homes built our with has never been true At Large it only works if we are constantly chasing new development.
It doesn't work when ever neighborhoods become majority black the values decrease we see it artificially depressed, we see evaluation of our homes.
We hear stories of people getting better appraisals when they have a white show or.
--shower.
For us, and a neighborhood like ours we are seeing an increase in capital and large investments we are trying to get ahead of that and we are trying to, right now, but as many parcels and homes into the community as we can.
Beyond just that to ensure stability because that's really what folks want.
Want stable housing, stable communities, they want to know that I can raise my family here and pass it to the next generation and that the market or the city isn't going to come and robs me of it.
For us, one of the solutions is the community and throat that we are trying to employ.
>> Rosalinda I want to go to you what does housing justice look like to you and do you see what's happening now as it's just the market at work?
>> We never see that.
It's always been really clear to us that our communities have just basically been ignored and left out even when we organize and try to get our voices into the spaces where decisions are being made about land, housing, transportation to housing and jobs.
That's one of the things about our communities is been very clear to us how left out have in and I think, you know, some of the comments about stability and well-being have a lot to do with you don't feel like you have a home and a lot of our community is migratory it's a land list.
We are in land list workforce.
Our organization is working on building a rent land trust.
We are providing plan to drink the production of food, our own Ira College of a food with housing on it.
So we can say as farmworkers if we live where we are producing for the way it's supposed to be produced it's healthier for us and for the community.
I also want to say there were some fundamental changes that have to be made in the growth management plans and in the planning of cities and the plantings of communities that there is some left over redlining and institutional thoughts about how land should be used and how housing should be built and what kind of housing.
It's like developers, architects, and political leaders are stuck in a profit would.
-- motive.
We need to go fundamentally back to how the growth management is planned in our communities and again that's where we have we have been ignored and we don't have access to that political decision making space.
I think that's a huge barrier even when we organize, organizing or even just decent rental housing is not sustainable.
It's not sustainable because it doesn't produce the stabilization and that well-being to be able to make -- have each generation do better.
I think everybody is seeing that across the board.
There needs to be a fundamental change in urban planning and growth management and in the political structure itself which is guided by profit.
We don't even think about market forces.
It's pure greed, profit, and extraction from communities and land when you are talking about building housing for what kind of housing should be built.
>> We are coming up on the ends of our time and my us that there is so much to talk about.
I want to give you the last word and sort of pick up on what we were just hearing from Rosalinda about the institutional way that at least cities and governments, local governments are approaching the lure of developer checks versus the needs of the people at least what are you seeing in Detroit?
>> One last thing I will add is that our dollars that have been coming into Detroit we're seeing where the dollars are going but a sizable portion that has been going into housing so we are talking about assistance, a fiction defense, we will see where that's going to lead and the effect it's going to have on families.
>> We are going to have to leave it there but the discussion we heard is all the more reason to check for the town hall Caesar -- series close to home.
The series of Chris examining housing inequality from the perspective of the frontlines frontline leaders representing a mix of communities I want to think all of my guests for joining me tonight really appreciate it and definitely looking forward to these important and powerful conversations.
♪ >> MetroFocus is made possible by Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III.
Filomen M. D'Agostino Foundation.
The Peter G. Peterson and Joan Ganz Cooney Fund.
Bernard and Denise Schwartz.
Barbara Hope Zuckerberg.
And by Jody and John Arnhold, Dr. Robert C. and Tina Sohn foundation, The Ambrose Monell Foundation, Estate of Roland Karlen, The JPB Foundation.
