Critique of housing decision called disappointing

It’s hard to quantify the level of my disappointment in seeing a Houston Chronicle editorial veer off into an outmoded, skewed analysis about my decision to reject the Houston Housing Authority’s (HHA) plans for a project on Fountain View in the Galleria area (“Housing dreams” Page 35A, Sunday).

First of all, there are good reasons to question the economics of the project that originated prior to my administration. This multi-family project of 233 units would have cost $56 million, which equates to $240,000 per unit. Only 23 of the units, just 10 percent of the entire project, were to have been designated for families living below the poverty line. The rest would have been available for people with incomes considerably higher than the poverty line. There were also concerns about the $6 million developer’s fee from this deal. It was simply too high. Repeatedly, people use the argument of helping the poor to advance the interests of others who are interested in profiting.

More important, the Houston Chronicle editorial board criticizes me for deferring the hopes and dreams of children living in high-poverty neighborhoods by not signing off on this project. With a poignant reference to “A Raisin in the Sun,” the editorial states that the city is preventing these children from living in better neighborhoods. This is not true. I have asked the HHA to get to work on affordable housing in all areas of the city, including so-called high opportunity areas like District G, consistent with my plans. You see, I value all neighborhoods of Houston and do not believe that only wealthy areas have value to our children. We cannot and must not say to the kids in Fifth Ward, Second Ward, Sunnyside, Denver Harbor or Acres Homes that unless you move to the Galleria area you will forever be trapped at the bottom of the economic ladder and unable to take part in the American Dream.

The “silver bullet” to eliminating systemic poverty is not moving families from areas that have been overlooked and underserved. Rather, the answer is to invest in these neighborhoods with quality affordable and mixed income housing, good schools, retail and economic development, parks and green space, transit options, and job and business opportunities. Far too often people who live outside high-poverty areas believe that the answer to eliminating poverty or improving school test scores is to close neighborhood schools and move these low-income families across town. That suggestion does not require any accountability from institutions to improve these neighborhoods and schools.

I have no problem with people disagreeing with my decisions — that comes with the job. I do, however, have a big problem with an institution that does not reflect the diversity of this city publishing a lecture on race and class that does not elevate all children, regardless of where they live. I know the people and their dreams because I was born and raised in such a community, where I still live. My dreams came true because my parents, neighborhood pastor and teachers believed in me. I choose to still live there today because it is my way of living by example for the youngsters in my neighborhood.

It is sad that some still see Houston through the black and white lens of Lorraine Hansberry’s 1950s America — a city in which the dreams of a child growing up in a black neighborhood must be deferred unless his or her parents can move someplace else.

“A Raisin in the Sun” was written before the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, the advent of single-member districts, the rise of an African-American middle class, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech and countless other heroic achievements and unsung sacrifices that have created the diverse and welcoming city we live in today.

We have a lot more work to do on this long journey to equality, to be sure — but the Houston Chronicle editorial board needs to reset its perspective.

A good first step would be to increase diversity on the editorial board so that it looks more like Houston and has greater access to the diversity of life experiences that the majority of Houston knows.