Last week in print, we published Part Two of writer Jasmine Gallup’s in-depth report on the state of the housing market and housing affordability for buyers and renters in the Triangle. Twitter commenter Yolanda Taylor shared a thread of her thoughts in response to the piece.
“…just in general I’m annoyed by all the circular talk in Raleigh on this topic. None of it grounds racial justice equity, and just because you stick the word “Equitable” on your transit plan and ostensibly seek to build “affordable” housing along transit [lines] doesn’t mean it advances the health, the opportunity, or the quality of life of folks who are being displaced now. If you are leading this plan without impacted people, then you aren’t equitably developing housing for people priced out of the market. If someone making $70k annually is struggling to live here, then we know folks making less are as well. If you’re not creating communities where all people can afford to live here then your housing policies don’t advance equity and they don’t advance racial justice. It you applaud developers being able to build what they want in a city that’s becoming less affordable you don’t care about strategies that prevent displacement. Equitable change has never trickled down from those in power and who don’t share their power with the people. Equitable change comes from the ground up. Developers can’t lead the solution to the affordable housing crisis. I understand the law of supply and demand, but if that law doesn’t lift the needs of people being displaced then it’s an unjust principle and law that doesn’t offer the solution to the problem of affordable housing. A growing canon of research has identified measures that show racial disparities in outcomes related to growth. We must always analyze the impacts of proposed growth strategies on the most vulnerable communities. Equity has to be more than an output, it must be an outcome.”
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