Push the poor to the suburbs where there is no transportation or services

Even more money for Ohio State was announced by The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. "Today, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) awarded a $30 million grant to Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA) and Partners Achieving Community Transformation (PACT) to help improve and revitalize the Near East Side neighborhood around University Hospital East.

PACT is a partnership between The Ohio State University, the City of Columbus and the CMHA. The federal Choice Neighborhoods Initiative Grant will allow PACT to redevelop and improve housing, empower people with workforce training and wellness programs, and grow this community by attracting new businesses."

Low income people are driven out of their neighborhoods in these types of  "initiatives" of transformation and empowerment and they rarely get the construction jobs and mom and pop stores can't wait it out. In Columbus we had German Village renewal in the 1960s, Victorian Village in the 1970s, and the Short North in the 1980s. In the 1990s, areas around Ohio State University were practically leveled as the University welcomed more initiatives, renewal and gobbling up land.  Where do these people go?  To the suburbs. No bus service, no churches of their denomination, no social services.  Here’s what I wrote in 2008 about a different alphabet soup of grants.

“Dear reader--housing doesn’t change lives. Marriage does. Parenthood does. Faith in God does. Employment does. Education can. Art and music can. Pets might. Leisure activities don't. Substance abuse will definitely change your life downward. But not housing. Ask any landlord who turned the keys over to a careless, slovenly tenant. Housing doesn’t create safe neighborhoods; it doesn’t get transportation issues funded; it doesn’t improve health; it doesn’t pass bond issues. In partnership with the private sector, this kind of housing for low income people creates jobs and profits for . . .the construction companies.”