From todays Telegraph Journal...
Noel Chenier/Telegraph-Journal
SAINT JOHN - It's an urban success story, one that could, according to at least one observer, represent a small victory in the war against illiteracy and a looming provincial labour shortage.
Enlarge Photo Noel Chenier/Telegraph-JournalNarinder Singh, the general manager of Saint John Non-Profit Housing Association, says Leinster Court in uptown Saint John will help create a healthy neighbourhood. Years ago, Narinder Singh and the Saint John Non-Profit Housing Association began their fight to build a mixed-income housing project in the heart of uptown Saint John, with the goal of integrating all socio-economic levels of society.
"I look at what makes a healthy neighbourhood and a healthy neighbourhood is one that contains people from all backgrounds and all income levels, who are able to live together," says Singh, the general manager of Leinster Court, a 52-unit, mixed-income housing complex in uptown Saint John. "Low-income people are already part of the community and they should blend into it."
Singh's view, however, is a relatively new one, born of the urban planning mistakes made in the 1960s and 1970s when Saint John - and the rest of North America - tore down its older neighbourhoods to build housing projects that essentially concentrated the low-income populace within a few square blocks.
"If you concentrate people from a low-income bracket in one area, at the same time you reinforce stereotypes in that area," Singh said. "They almost become a segregated community within that community, and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy."
The City of Saint John has identified five areas that its calls "priority," meaning there's a high concentration of poverty in the area: the lower south end, lower west side, Crescent Valley, the area north of Union street, and the old north end.
In Fredericton, the city has a tendency to concentrate lower-income housing on the north side of the river, cutting it off from the downtown core.
Ken Peacock, a public-policy researcher at the University of New Brunswick Saint John, says the city's Crescent Valley area, just like subsidized housing across the river in Fredericton, has essentially been separated from necessities.
"Although it's in the city's urban core, it's far removed from services like health care, or library services," he said. "These are services that poor families need to ensure they can succeed economically."
"One of the reasons why it's very difficult to engage in meaningful economic activity in these neighbourhoods is because you're really cut off from the rest of the city."
Attached to this concentration of poverty is lower labour-force participation, lower education levels and the lack of the creative vitality that a city needs in order to thrive.
"You essentially have homogeneity of poverty," Peacock said.
Opening these communities up to the rest of the city and integrating mixed-income housing into the areas can help lower levels of illiteracy and raise labour force participation, which, in the case of Crescent Valley, is about 20 points below the rest of the city, said Peacock.
But it can't be done without a lot of effort.
Aside from the various hoops that an organization has to jump through if they want government funding, there are also city zoning issues to deal with and that means the often-negative input of neighbourhood residents.
In the case of Leinster Court, Singh says most of the objections were about the design and scope of the building and whether it would fit in with the neighbourhood.
Yet, since it opened its doors in March, Singh says the feedback from the community about the heritage-brick style building has been 100-per-cent positive.
Most recently, in Fredericton, residents of a north side neighbourhood appeared before city council to voice their objections to a proposed 12 unit development for low-income, off-reserve First Nations people.
But residents aside, cities across North America have recognized their error and are taking steps to fix it.
"We're aware of issues, and the city is working towards a new municipal plan that will probably be based more on a neighbourhood level," said Sarah Herring, an urban planner with the City of Saint John.
Frank Flanagan, director of development services for the City of Fredericton, says the city is doing its best to encourage more - and more integrated - affordable housing.
In addition to reworking their municipal plan, the city will also be reviewing its zoning bylaws to ease the process.
Though residents may complain, Singh, at least, sees the contribution these housing projects make to the greater good.
"Leinster Court is a huge asset to uptown Saint John, and we're very pleased it ended up being developed," he said. "Even though it was a lot of hard work, at the end of the day it was worth it, because a healthy city is an integrated city."
Prev
Linear Mode
