Concentrating families in poverty is very destructive

A week from Monday, The Community Builders, the developers hired for the Charlesview relocation project, will present to the Allston/Brighton community about that project. The community's primary objective has been that the new development should be a mixed-income neighborhood instead of a low-income housing project.

Along those same lines, this story in today's Times looks at the changes in Atlanta as segregated housing projects are being replaced by mixed-income housing.

“We’ve realized that concentrating families in poverty is very destructive,” said Renée L. Glover, the executive director of the Atlanta Housing Authority. “It’s destructive to the families, the neighborhoods and the city... For us to think that a program that was conceptualized 70 years ago is still the right answer, it makes no sense,” she said. “Today is a whole new era.”

On the 6 acres where last year The Community Builders wanted to build 290 low-income apartments there is not enough space to create a mixed-income neighborhood. So many will be hoping to hear a different tune next week after last week's meeting when Harvard seemed unwilling to provide the land needed to build this new community the right way.