Introduction
Urbanization has been linked to human economic and social development and progress, as these urbanized areas provide exciting opportunities for growth and renewed lives. It is also evident that urbanized areas are faced with complex economic and social challenges that have risen in recent years. These challenges and opportunities have created important tasks for policymakers to develop long-lasting solutions. One of the major economic problems facing cities is gentrification and displacement. This occurrence creates conditions for the displacement of people as it raises the cost of living in a particular area. This paper examines the causes of urban renewal in America generally, its effects, assess the policies to deal with the problem, and possible solutions.
Overview
Gentrification involves urban development whereby a city neighborhood develops quickly in a short period. This is caused by an influx of middle-class or wealthy people. These people rebuild and build new homes and businesses that make an area that was once undesirable become desirable. This will result in an increase in property values, housing prices, and rent. New businesses and social amenities come in place to cater to these newcomers. These changes attract even more and more people to settle. As property value and prices go up, the original, usually poor tenants and owners are forced to leave and go to more affordable neighborhoods, thus becoming displaced. Displacement, therefore, is the involuntary movement of persons away from their homes or home region.
Various types of displacement occur in gentrified neighborhoods. Direct displacement occurs when residents cannot continue staying in their homes due to rising house costs. Indirect displacement is when one goes to reside in a neighborhood as a low-income resident vacates that same neighborhood. Low earners cannot stay because of increased rents and sale prices when low earners leave. There are some discriminatory policies, such as changes in land use, that push people from these areas. Cultural displacement happens when the size of residential change improves. Services become focused on new residents, and the neighborhood’s character transforms, making the remnants in the area feel isolated despite them remaining in the neighborhood.
Problems of Gentrification and Displacement
Gentrification becomes a problem because it either forces or prevents low-income families from shifting to previously affordable neighborhoods. It can completely transform the culture of a place and even change the name of an area (Sakran 219). It compels the original residents to vacate their homes through increasing property prices, coercion, or buyouts. In some cases, there is discrimination against the poor by the rich or the powerful, and its primary focus is on the spaces that do not involve low-income earners and people of color. Additionally, it causes negativity from the poor toward the rich. It has exacerbated racial as well as economic tensions across many American communities. Racial relocation caused by redevelopment is sometimes compelled by situations rather than by legislation. Political authority is eroding as new local leaders begin to disregard the demands of the existing long-term citizens. These remaining inhabitants retreat from civic involvement and may eventually depart the region physically.
Causes of Gentrification and Displacement
Several factors contribute to gentrification, among them is family structure. Many double-earning couples who have children in old age are moving to cities. Young and wealthy people with no children are moving into gentrified places. This is because these areas provide many services that satisfactorily serve this population. Rapid job growth facilitates gentrification in that jobs wanted by the young wealthy workers are found in cities. Cities are becoming important service centers full of financial businesses, law firms, insurance companies, and high technology employers. These are typically white-collar jobs offering very high payments. Neighborhoods around cities become desirable as they offer wealthy people shorter commuting routes. As they settle in these neighborhoods, they become gentrified.
Current Policies
At the local government level, policies encourage the rich people to obtain or renovate old homes and neighborhoods with low-income people. The rich, for instance, are given a tax deduction that enables historic preservation and environmental improvements, which motivate gentrification. Similarly, government initiatives designed to lower mortgage loan interest rates in underprivileged areas enable purchasing a property in these redeveloped districts more appealing. Furthermore, federal public housing reconstruction initiatives that encourage replacing dwelling units with less densely inhabited, more varied single-family housing have considerably aided redevelopment in areas with failing housing projects.
Attitude, preference, and cultural changes have contributed to this problem. More people strongly prefer old houses that have character and delight found chiefly in central cities (Clerval 1055). As wealthy homeowners occupy them, old houses get fixed, changing the neighborhood’s beauty, and extra businesses come up to be of service to these new residents. This beautifies the neighborhood, thus attracting wealthy potential homeowners. More like-minded people will be attracted to the place as it begins to gentrify, accelerating the regeneration process.
Some policies have been formulated at the local level to help deal with the issue of gentrification and displacement, for instance, using anchor institutions maximally to make them influential tools for fair development. Anchor establishments, such as health facilities, colleges, and other entities employ locally accessible procuring and hiring strategies to retain employment and income in their areas. In Richmond area, Virginia, for instance, the health system of Bon Secours has committed community monies in the Community Land Trust of Maggie Walker.
Nonprofit entities, such as controlled equity residential development, restrict the amount of capital that a participant may acquire via the sales of a house. This has contributed to the housing fund’s long-term stability. For years, the model has given financial assistance and opportunities to enable persons to get homes on a shared ownership basis, although they are limited (Hackworth 49). The Cooper Square Mutual Housing Association is an example of the LEHC model established in New York. It was led by the Cooper Square Committee, a coalition advocating for anti-displacement. Credit unions and other society development monetary institutions can provide credit equitably to support the locals and businesses owned by minorities usually sidelined in financial opportunities, for example, the credit union on New York City’s East Side. These unions also extend financial service choices to unsecured loans and predatory debt traps, hence their preference for bank loans.
Nongovernmental organizations have formed the Community Land Trusts, which are understandings between a community and a nonprofit organization to guarantee that long-term housing is affordable. They buy land and lease parts to individual persons or families at fair prices, separating the cost of buying land from the cost of housing. Residents are disallowed to sell these homes to make high profits ensuring that CLT can keep homes affordable for future residents. An example is the Oakland Community Land Trust, which secured the West Oakland home together with Moms 4 Housing. It proves how the CLT has been used to advocate against real estate investment that pushes black residents out of their homes and neighborhood. The city sells its insignificant vacant plots to developers to construct middle-income house units. This, however, has really not been sufficient to avert dislocation brought about by gentrification.
Shortcomings of These Policies
These policies will work well if political goodwill, capacity, and the needed resources are readily available. The federal government, for example, has shrunk investments in affordable housing, limiting its supply in low-income communities. Restrictions on land development and exclusive zoning practices have made it difficult for markets to produce affordable houses for low-income earners. Zoning focused on single family and detached family homes keeps the population density low in these areas as it restricts the number of people that live in a certain area. Jurisdictions also make development decisions based on revenue rather than community needs. Significant scale developments like hotels, stadiums and big retail stores attract people from across the region. These developments directly displace community and culture-based businesses of African American communities.
Proposed Policies
The problem of gentrification and displacement can be dealt with by considering some recommendations. The government can build income and assemble necessary support to ensure economic improvement in the neighborhood and the well-being of residents. It should provide essential services such as childcare, transportation, access to health, and a retail sector (Phillips 79). Again, there should be a reduction in taxes imposed on the property to protect long-term residents. Big cities consider these programs to retain homeowners living in areas considered to be at-risk. It is possible that forbidding extensive luxury improvement in at-risk localities can help deal with gentrified displacement. Governments ought to encourage small as well as medium scale, diverse income development in risky neighborhoods and prohibit extensive scope development. There is a need to build middle-class housing for those who cannot afford or buy houses.
The government can include the community in the planning and zoning of their communities. This planning process must be transparent and include the elderly and low-income residents. Community services should be developed or retailed for low-income residents, for example, medical services, housing, training, and job programs (Versey 709). It can purchase development rights for buildings or homes from low earners or enlist nonprofit organizations to purchase, manage, or preserve buildings or homes of these low earners. The gentrification process is inevitable; therefore, these proposed solutions will help lessen its harmful effects on affected residents.
Conclusion
Gentrification is beneficial as it creates more development and rapid economic investments, supports consumption and entertainment projects, and increases resource allocation to schools and stores. It negatively impacts the population as forceful displacement fosters discrimination from those in power or the wealthy and excludes the poor and people of color. As of 2018, 10 percent of low-income households lived in areas considered at risk or undergoing redevelopment. The above phenomenon occurs in towns and cities across America, but it is pronounced in Washington D. C., San Francisco, and the California Bay Arena. Just under 10% of all areas in California’s Bay region are classed as at risk or having preliminary or extensive urban redevelopment. Few San Francisco neighborhoods are classed as gentrifying but rather as steady, modest income.
Works Cited
Clerval, Anne. “Displacement: Cause and Consequence of Gentrification”. Urban Geography, vol 42, no. 8, 2021, pp. 1054-1057. Informa UK Limited.
Hackworth, Jason. “Gentrification as a Politico-Economic Window: Reflections on the Changing State of Gentrification”. Tijdschrift Voor Economische En Sociale Geografie, vol 110, no. 1, 2018, pp. 47-53. Wiley.
Phillips, Martin, et al. “Replacing Displacement in Gentrification Studies: Temporality and Multi-Dimensionality in Rural Gentrification Displacement”. Geoforum, vol 118, 2021, pp. 66-82. Elsevier BV.
Sakran, Joseph V. “Gentrification in America – The Potential Deadly Consequences”. Annals of Surgery, vol 274, no. 2, 2021, pp. 218-219. Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health).
Versey, H Shellae. “Older Women Causing a Ruckus: Gentrification, Displacement, and Tenant Advocacy”. Innovation in Aging, vol 4, no. Supplement_1, 2020, p. 709. Oxford University Press (OUP).