Affordable housing brings low-income stereotyping
As an online editor for this newspaper and as a resident living in Apple Valley’s Cobblestone Lake neighborhood, I’ve been following Andrew Miller’s coverage of the Dakota County Community Development Agency’s proposal to build senior apartments in the neighborhood as well as a 45-unit low-income townhome complex just north of the Cobblestone Lake SuperTarget.
I sympathize with the CDA, who has been making a noble effort to inform residents about these projects. I also sympathize with my neighbors who share a concern about affordable housing stereotypes. After all, stereotypes have some basis in fact.
The problem with basing arguments and opposition to something based on stereotypes is that those stereotypes can be misleading or unfounded for the given situation. I believe the CDA’s two projects would be a benefit, not a burden, to the surrounding neighborhoods. Certainly senior housing seems like a great idea for our neighborhood. The affordable housing, which would actually be located just north of SuperTarget and therefore not technically in Cobblestone Lake, is also a potential asset.
I prefer to save my outrage for realized incidents of crime and poorly managed property, not for what I think might happen. A resident of my neighborhood pointed out that it’s much easier to fight a project like this before it’s built than to change things once they’ve been built. That may be true, but I urge him to look at Apple Valley’s record.
First, the two CDA affordable housing complexes already in the city have not had any more police calls than other neighborhoods, according to the police department.
Secondly, the City Council and Police department have been very responsive to crime patterns in multi-family housing areas of the city, most recently through the Neighborhood Collaborative Officer Project, or NCOP. This program allows officers to patrol given multi-family complexes on a regular basis, getting to know the beat and the residents and their problems well.
Third, there’s the efforts the Police have made to learn Spanish as a way to better build relationships, being proactive instead of reactive. This program helps officers connect with the Hispanic community and makes interactions safer and citizenship stronger. These are also communities who often populate the affordable housing complexes.
Apple Valley is a city with strong citizen involvement, vigilant residents who care about their neighborhoods. I’m proud of that. We have neighborhoods worth protecting. But, I would also argue we have neighborhoods worth sharing. Let’s not limit residency to only those with higher incomes. Good, hard working people who struggle financially aren’t a threat to our communities, but our pride and prejudice might just be. I say allow the projects to move forward. Something needs to especially in this tough economy. If problems start to creep in, I have a strong feeling our city, our police and our citizens will step in to stop it.
I appreciate your comments. As a resident of East Apple Valley for over 25 years, I appreciate the contributions that the CDA has made to our community in the past, and I support the proposed developments.
I was at the planning commission meeting and the DCA open house, and there were other people there who support the project. Although several people made positive comments they seem to have been lost among the emotional charged comments against the project.
As a citizen nearing retirement. I want Apple Valley to be a place to live for the rest of my life, and a place where people who are working to make their lives better can live. I trust our Planning Commission and City Council to vote for this project because it is the right thing to do for our community and for the people who currently work in Dakota County and would like to live here as well.