WS Chronicle

To The Editor: 

 I am a relatively new resident of Winston. My children and I moved into our home in the Northeast ward in November of 2022. One of the first things I noticed was that half of the housing projects at Cleveland Avenue were boarded up.  

I am a bit like a rabid fox. I’m just not going to let go of a question until I get an answer. So, I kept asking why these homes were unavailable. Finally, I was informed that they were slated to be redone and made into tiered rent, affordable housing. 

Now, I have been a resident of public housing. I know that public housing, by design, is tiered rent. You pay what the government determines you can afford. Therefore, this initiative sounded like a fraud to me.  

Meanwhile, a sign went up across the street from those homes that announced new houses in the $220’s were coming. “Who is gonna pay that over here?” I wondered.  

That question was answered in a poorly advertised community meeting with Council Member Burke. She informed us that the city would give the buyers $45k and the county would give them $85k so they would only need a loan for about $100k. She asked this group of people, wasn’t that affordable? 

“Well, no!” Not for most people in this area. Only six houses were being built and an untold number of units were being demolished. Not only that, the houses already had a huge waiting list before the neighborhood residents even knew of the incentives.  

I took all of this in as I saw the evidence of more and more homeless camps. I joined with my church in trying to help. Then today, I learned about Ashley Elementary. A school beset by black mold causing the students and staff to develop health issues like severe asthma. Although funds for architectural plans for a new school were approved by voters in 2016, it took until October of last year to begin work on the project.  

You might wonder why I would mention the school when we were talking about housing. It’s really simple. In order to build the new school on 11 lots near Cleveland Avenue and 27th Street, the city had to rescind its offer to public housing for the same 11 lots. So, do we poor people want somewhere to live or a safe, healthy building where our children can attend school? 

This is utterly ridiculous in my opinion. I can tell you that there are several large plots of land on New Walkertown Road. Not to mention, there are a number of useless hulls of buildings on Liberty Street that could be demolished (not for a school but perhaps housing). Those have been unused for over 30 years.  

It is not reasonable to sack housing for schools or vice versa. This is not a practical or sensible solution. I venture to say that more wealthy communities would not be extended such a false choice. I encourage my community members to join me in creating an expectation that the lots will be replaced by another equivalent offer to public housing.  

Angelia Lawrence 

Winston-Salem