Our friend, Richard Thompson, at Mediaverse has an interesting post about a rebuttal from some well-known urban housing experts to the Atlantic magazine article linking Hope VI and Section 8 housing to Memphis’ crime problem.
In a sentence, they said it’s not about housing, but about too many poor young people. As a result, the bulge in that demographic tracks the bulge in the crime rate.
The most salient paragraphs jumped off the screen:
“In 1990, Memphis was a city of 618,652. The city’s poverty rate was 22.9 percent—139,767 people lived below poverty. By 2000, Memphis had grown to 650,100. Along with the rest of the nation, its poverty rate had declined—to 20.6 percent—or 133,920 people. By 2005, however, while the city’s population fell to 642,251, its poverty rate spiked to 23.6 percent—or 151,571 people. While the overall number of poor people increased by about 12 percent, the number of poor adolescents (12-17) increased by about 45 percent.
“If one is looking for a prime suspect for rising crime rates, there it is. Between 1990 and 2000, the number of violent crimes (murder, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault) increased slightly, from 9,085 to 9,610. By 2005, while the city population was falling, the number of violent crimes increased sharply—to 12,629.”
This is an important discussion that we should all be part of, so we hope you’ll check out Richard’s post.
