Low Income Housing

I managed a low income housing project for a year. It was a huge learning experience on all levels and it gave me a chance to try out some of my long held theories about people. I was thrilled to find that for the most part they worked. I want to share some of these experiments today.
1. Treat people with respect at all times and in all circumstances. I believed it would change attitudes. It did. We saw people begin to hold their heads up, watch their language, be less defensive and combative just because we were respectful of them.
2. Be kind- the old adage that you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar WORKS! In that year, we did not have to go through the eviction process even once. There were a few situations where we gently pointed out that giving us notice and moving out would be in their best interests and they all choose that path.
3. Try to understand the whys behind things and you might be able to solve the problems. One pet peeve of mine was the tendency to threaten tenants with court or other action for things like junk piled up. Most of our tenants were single moms with no vehicles or men available to help them remove the old couch, broken washer, rotten mattress. Why persecute them? We set up quarterly clean up days. We loaded whatever they left at the curb into our pickup and hauled it to the dump. Problem solved- place clean- everyone happy.
4. Beautiful inspires better care. We fixed up and decorated the laundry room including a message board and reading material. We kept it stocked with paper towels and hand soap. Contrary to the popular belief that it would all be stolen- the area had never been kept so clean.
5. Service is contagious. When people moved in or out, they often needed to acquire or get rid of things. We knew who might have or need those things. We started letting other tenants know. Pretty soon, we had a pretty good bartering system going on. We had a spring and fall free yard sale in the hall. Tenants brought things in and took other things home. This helped with cleanup, also.
6. We felt that a strong sense of community would go a long way to solving the petty disagreements that can seem endless. We set up the hall with a donated computer, a tv/vcr, lots of movies, lots of books, some donated exercise equipment and toys for the kids. Once some ground rules were established it became a great place for the normally unsupervised kids to hang out especially in summer. Rarely did we have to intervene with behavior problems.
I held a once a month “Girls Night Out” for the women. We did facials, foot spas, etc. Our tenants spoke 5 different languages but “girly fru-fru” crosses all language barriers.
And it all worked. It was beautiful to see everyone acting as concerned neighbors, looking out for one another and being looked out after. When we left, they threw a party for us and said thanks for the sense of community we had helped established. I left knowing that we had proved that low income doesn’t have to be low class. I wish we all knew that.
That’s the view from my side of the street, what’s yours?