Golden Gate Village is an opportunity for county
Often in life it's not so much what you do but how you do it that makes all the difference. Members of the Marin Housing Authority Board of Commissioners haven't yet grasped an opportunity to do more while rehabilitating the public housing units inspired by architect Frank Lloyd Wright at Golden Gate Village in Marin City.
Before I came to California, I was hired as director of development and maintenance for the East St. Louis Housing Authority. I learned how government dollars were used. I was appalled that most federal money to help the poor did not go to the poor. It went to banks, construction companies, social workers, government agency employees (like me) and a raft of all-too-willing consultants. I also saw how regulations and traditions often maintained the very discrimination and inequity they were intended to correct.
To change that, we hired and trained local residents. Many had never held an office job in their life. They adapted quickly, thankful to step beyond their previous “essential services” (a title I find ironic) and housecleaning jobs.
On the construction front, we pushed and pulled locals into well-paying union jobs. That wasn't easy. Helping a neighborhood handyman step from fixing a stopped-up sink, for example, to installing full house plumbing to code was way more difficult than I had imagined.
We struggled through a terrible thicket of resistance, including the murder of a construction worker, as we forcibly integrated the previously all-White unions. But we hung in, because the goal was clear: Don't just build housing, use new housing to correct inequalities.
We involved the people most affected, kept the housing money in town, strengthened the local economy (as well as the community) and trained residents for more successful futures. Paying attention to how we built the housing made all the difference. Our county Housing Authority could do the same.