Question
This research paper will cover one of the central questions/themes/topics of the handouts and documents I included. When using outside sources please make sure to use scholarly articles The culmination of the project will be an original work of publication-quality scholarly research and writing. ). The research paper should be 15 pages and have an attached reference page. Proper citation and referencing is expected. Chicago style is the preferred choice, but MLA and APA will be accepted with a note of this made somewhere on the paper. The minimum number of references required is 25. Use Twelve (12) point Times New Roman Font and 1-inch margins.
Solution
Throughout the United States, many transformations are evident in economic and social make-up of communities. Many people living in urban areas have experienced housing challenges, including the lack of adequate housing and access to the right kind of housing to meet one’s needs.[1] A raging question is whether the available space is sufficient to cater to the growing and changing needs and demands of city dwellers. Urban neighborhoods have changed significantly in the recent past, as housing providers strive to ensure that the available space accommodates everyone. However, the law of demand and supply remains problematic and causes a class conflict, which leads to the displacement of less wealthy and influential members of society.[2] Although urban planners and residents seek solutions to address housing needs in urban centers, gentrification has emerged as the most pursued model.
The current paper discusses the emergence of gentrification as a solution to the housing problems in the US and its effects on the socio-economic reality of the working class in the affected areas. Before delving deep into the effect of gentrification, it is necessary to inform the reader what gentrification is and the factors that have led to the process in the United States. The next, and most crucial section of the paper, is the discussion of the actual effects of gentrification on the working class in the United States, following the transformation of their homes to accommodate middle-income families. Before the conclusion, the paper includes a discussion of how the government and other stakeholders can implement gentrification without causing a massive negative effect on the working class in the country.
Definition of Gentrification
One of the changes that have been witnessed in the recent past concerning housing in urban spaces in the United States is gentrification. The definition of the concept centers on the various groups that the change affects in the U.S. With the trend already evident in many parts of the United States, it is expected to increase through 2025 as the urban population increases and the demand for decent housing grows. The face of many urban neighborhoods is changing with expanding efforts for gentrification, with major effects on the living conditions of different groups in the country, such as the working class. The concept of gentrification is a highly debated one, with many scholars and critics proposing varying definitions. This debate is primarily attributed to the constant changes in association with the process, both in theory and practice.[3] Nevertheless, most researchers agree that gentrification refers to changes or improvement of working-class neighborhoods towards meeting the needs of middle-class families.[4] Thus, as part of gentrification urban planners work with middle-class families to develop residences that meet their needs. In the process, they replace the current occupants of the affected regions. As a result, the process creates significant housing and socio-economic challenges in the affected urban spaces and the country in general.
The composition of urban neighborhoods has changed steadily over the past few decades. Many white, middle-class families have relocated to new neighborhoods. However, it is essential to note that the new neighborhoods were already occupied by the time these new dwellers relocated. This mass movement of people changes the characteristics of the neighborhoods at a very rapid pace. It is transforming many of the structures that low-income families previously occupied to improve them to meet the needs and demands of middle-class professionals and their families.[5] These changes have created new realities in urban spaces across the country. Gentrification, thus, refers to the reinvesting in urban spaces and the displacement of former residents by others who have different needs and demands. This trend of middle-class families returning to urban dwellings at a rapid rate has already been witnessed in major cities around the country, such as Chicago and New York, among others.[6] As the changes occur rapidly, it has become essential to reevaluate the factors that lead to the changes and their impact on the country’s social and economic future.
Factors behind Gentrification
To understand the effect of gentrification on the working or low-income families in the United States, it is necessary to provide a background of the factors that cause the changes. Many transformations increase the demand to recreate the urban space to make room for new residents, with detrimental effects on others.
Increase in Urban Population
The United States has witnessed significant changes in the social and economic make-up of many communities, such as increase in urban dwellers. The rise in the number of people entering urban spaces to work leads to a demand for living spaces. Considering that urban spaces are already occupied, the government and urban planners are forced to look for alternatives, which include transforming popular places into new homes to meet the demand. Besides the general increase in the urban population, the country has faced a growth in the number of middle-class families. The size and concentration of service employment in the central business districts have led to an increase in the middle-class dwellers. As a result, these families are shifting to urban neighborhoods, including those spaces occupied by low-income workers and their families, leaving them without alternative settlement.[7] Some scholars note that the change in the composition of many urban spaces has led to the process of gentrification. The mediation of culture has also emerged along with the economic changes, which has led to the new classes occupying centrally-located parts of the country.
Housing Problems
Along with urbanization, many areas in the United States continue to experience housing challenges, especially for people working in urban areas. Many places have a shortage of housing to support the growing populations, a trend which leaves a huge part of the population without adequate or proper housing and other social amenities.[8] As a result, governments and other stakeholders are implementing concerted initiatives to ensure that the majority of the population has access to housing solutions. Gentrification emerges as one of the solutions to the housing problem through the identification of space to develop housing solutions for middle-class individuals, who are the leading contributors to a country’s economy.
Urbanization
The radical expansion in urbanization has caused significant changes in the lives of urban dwellers. The process has led to unimagined transformations in lifestyle and an unprecedented demand for a high quality of life. Urbanization has created new concepts, such as consumerism, which define the materialistic nature of society. It has also led to new demands such as those for tourism, cultural programs, and knowledge-based sectors, which have developed to take the place of global industrial economies. The urban political economy has thus changed and might not have room for the working class. The changes have created a demand for new market niches, which are observed in the housing sector too.[9] The freedom of choice for those individuals who have the requisite purchasing power has led to the process of gentrification.
Economic Changes
The economic landscape of the United States has been changing. One of the leading causes of economic changes is the transformation in the predominant mode of production. For example, the move from the industrial regime to the service economy is one of the changes that have increased the urban population in the United States. Such changes were first witnessed in North America in the 1970s and later consolidated in the 1980s. Besides, capitalism meant that survival depended on the ability of the people to work in the new economic reality and to function in the service economy. The economic changes led to the absorption of agriculture and towns and the creation of completely new sectors in the economy.[10] The survival and growth of capitalism has meant that society too has changed to occupy new spaces. The reorganization of the economy also led to the restructuring of the industry of space around real-estate, insurance, and finance.[11] Notably, urban spaces remain the same and cannot grow to accommodate the changes in the economy. As a result, the government and other actors are forced to restructure these spaces to accommodate the changing needs. Gentrification has been one of the methods that the government has used to restructure urban spaces.
Government Policies
In the United States, the government has been a major actor in the process of gentrification. Gentrification was carried out by the government with the aid of international agencies that pushed for the restructuring of urban spaces and supported economic changes in the countries. They were also reacting to new markets and the need for an advanced formula of urban competitiveness in the region.[12] The US government has welcomed changes in their countries to improve their economies and make them more competitive on a global scale. As a result, the recent years have witnessed a growth in state-led gentrification.[13] Gentrification is currently changing the urban reality in cities in the United States.[14] The government has launched gentrification initiatives that continue to change the way housing is provided in urban spaces.
Neoliberal Urban Policies
Significant changes have occurred in urban spaces, including the need to improve their image. ‘Revitalization’ or ‘“renewal’ of cities around the world has occurred in recent decades and continues to affect policies associated with urbanization. The policies have also been informed by the need to re-shape urban spaces to change city centers and make them more attractive for inflow of global capital. The restructuring of urban geography, which is the ‘revanchist city’, includes attempts to eliminate undesirable elements, such as slums from the urban centers, and create desirable spaces for middle-class residents.[15][16] Such efforts focus on the idea to “tame the wild city” and create some level of control by eradicating poor neighborhoods. They also focus on the need for aesthetics, cleanliness, and modern progress and on eradicating the image of “backward,” “rural,” and “dirty towns”.[17] Policy-makers are focused on purifying and sanitizing cities using the ideas and principles of gentrification. The desired end result is for the new cities to reflect an image of advancement and development.
The United States has focused on changes in various aspects of their societies, including the need to eradicate any element that appears to derail developmental efforts. The process relates to the efforts towards revanchism, which is a transparent engagement to change the face of urban spaces. The cities of Quito and Guayaquil are classic exemplifications of the neoliberal policies around blanqueamiento or ‘whitening the urban spaces.[18] Racial relations played a vital role in the achievement of neoliberal urbanism. Although such policies have not been transparent in some regions, they have played out as blatant efforts in Ecuador to change the cities and eliminate the “dirty Indians” as part of the modern view of the nation. Supporters of such changes blame the marginalized communities for any backwardness in the cities and stand behind policies to remove them from the urban centers and make room for “white” middle-class residents.[19] Although this approach may be considered insensitive, the idea is at the core of the gentrification process.
The Urban Political Ecology
Urban political ecology is another factor that has led to critical changes in the urban space, including buildings in cities. Significant innovations have emerged since the development and use of the concept in the urbanization process. The subject also relates to power relations in the urbanization process.[20] The idea also accompanies several theories, such as feminist, racialized, and queer positionalities. From a Marxist perspective, major changes have occurred in the political and economic arenas, which encourage urban planners and other actors in the urban political economy to rethink the way they provide housing and other structures to residents of cities.[21] Generally, changes such as gentrification have resulted from an intersection of economic, political, social, and ecological changes in the urban space. It also relates to the issue of uneven urban landscapes, which have limited the ability to provide adequate housing. As a result, the government started making changes in urban spaces, including the process of gentrification.
Social and Economic Impact of Gentrification
Gentrification has massive effects on the affected communities, especially people who are displaced to create room for new residents. However, the impact depends on the nature of the process. Studies have focused on the various forms of gentrification, which depend on the nature of the urban space that is undergoing the change as well as the people who have led to the change, as well as those who are affected. The initiatives aimed at gentrification include turning old downtowns into heritage destinations. Others have changed old fishing towns into tourist havens and projects meant for middle-class families. Many of the changing neighborhoods are aligned with the needs of middle-class families and have led to the displacement of previous dwellers from lower income groups, some of whom are left homeless.[22] In other places, old manufacturing plants and railway yards have also been changed to meet evolving needs. As part of the gentrification process, new gated communities have also emerged in the gentrified areas that attract the middle class. Notably, gentrifiers identify viable spaces in urban centers to transform into new, high-demand residences. The process occurs as a value addition to increase the demand for housing for middle-class families.[23] Developers are considering new ways of increasing the supply for the new kinds of housing units sought by modern urban dwellers without much consideration to the displaced dwellers, who are mostly low-income families.
One of the common case studies that reveal the effect of gentrification in the united states is the Cabrini Green: the 70 Acres in Chicago. The model involves a 1.5-billion-dollar ‘plan for transformation’ that requires demolition of public housing projects in Chicago to replace them with mixed-income facilities. The government intends to demolish the Cabrini Green Homes and replace them with condominiums for occupation by middle-class Americans. The current housing structures that are being demolished came up between 1942 and 1961 to house the working class in Chicago, which meant that the current residents would lose their homes in the process. Although they represented the reality of racial inequality in the country, they served as much-needed accommodation for the working class.[24] They were low-income housing facilities for African-American families that are no longer considered necessary in the wake of the demand for housing facilities for middle-income Americans. In this manner, real-estate developers and other gentrifiers demolish many houses and residences occupied by working-class families to accommodate occupants they consider as desirable. With the Chicago case being one example, it is important to note that gentrification has become a reality across the United States and the world.
Gentrification has numerous effects on various aspects of the life of working class and low-income residents and the socio-political and economic landscapes of the country as a whole. Decisions to remove people from their homes to create room for others considered as more deserving has more detrimental effects than benefits for the economy.[25] They are counterproductive because they address a problem by creating another. Various adverse effects are already being experienced or are anticipated in the wake of the gentrification wave across the United States.
Homelessness
Homelessness is one of the effects of gentrification on the working class in the United States. the process, a part of policies to re-shape urban spaces, has an unequal effect on different individuals and groups in society. Under the pretext of ‘revitalization’ or ‘renewal’, cities are reshaping urban areas to resuscitate city centers and make them favorable for global capital. While the language around the revitalization of urban spaces appears beneficial and is celebrated by some members of society, the process has negative impacts for various sections of the society. The process erases or rather ‘annihilates’ common spaces.[26] It makes the situation worse for street vendors, street youth, beggars, and the homeless. While these people have the right to a decent life, they lack such an opportunity because of the concerted changes in the name of improving cities. Some critics have argued that the changes are a vindictive, right-wing response against the marginalized communities. Gentrification could be viewed as the attempt by the dominant class in society to ‘tame the wild city’ and to bring things under control.[27] However, the process fails to take into account the detrimental effects on the poor and marginalized, including their homelessness.
The most crucial factor to note with regard to the idea of gentrification is that some of the areas targeted for changes to make the dwellings suitable for middle-class families are already occupied by working-class families. The detrimental effects on these people can be mitigated, depending on the manner in which the government and other actors in the process implement the gentrification. For example, they can provide alternative housing for the current dwellers. However, a failure to solve the housing problem results in major challenges in urban places, including vagrancy. The United States has a high number of homeless individuals and families. The affected communities in urban places across the country constitute a significant challenge in the last few decades. The homeless develop large-scale encampments that exist external to the scope of the legitimate homelessness management system.[28] Thus, gentrification that causes displacement of working-class individuals and families could only worsen the homelessness problem in the United States.
Cabrini Green’s gentrification provides a real-life example of the detrimental effect on the low-income earners of efforts to change urban spaces to create room for middle-income Americans. Notably, the low-income housing projects are home to many Americans, who face the risk of becoming homeless whenever the plans to demolish their homes materialize. The communities in the affected neighborhoods have their lives completely changed in the wake of the demolitions. They lose their homes, neighbors, and their livelihoods. The displacement affects families, who are plagued by a high level of hopelessness as many lack alternative homes to move to. People of color and other marginalized populations are increasingly being pushed outside of urban centers because their homes have become valuable to urban developers.[29] In general, instead of providing an economic value to affected communities, gentrification has made the situation worse for the marginalized communities who are losing their homes as real-estate developers create new residences for other sections of the American population.
Economic Effects
Gentrification could have serious economic effects on the low-income displaced families. The United States has enacted policies that had effects similar to those that gentrification could cause. Some of these policy decisions are residential segregation, which mostly affected African Americans in the country. Historically, the country isolated African Americans in housing and other areas, such as education.[30] Research has focused on the impact of such segregation in regions such as Philadelphia, which was affected in 1980.[31] The segregation makes it harder for minority groups to improve their neighborhoods as they lack economic incentives or social mobility. They face considerable hindrances to residential mobility. Instead of addressing the barriers to social and residential mobility, gentrification worsens the problem faced by working-class families by displacing them to create homes for middle-class families. The process also affirms the argument that blacks should reside in neighborhoods with few resources and amenities.[32] They are displaced by projects that, without considering their needs, pave the way for middle-class residents.
Gentrification could cause an exacerbated inferior status for working-class urban dwellers. Notably, the economic setting does not change much for many urban dwellers. Regardless of the changes in the mode of production, the urban spaces will still have jobs occupied by low-income workers, who are mostly blacks and immigrants.[33] They will still require homes to reside as they work and contribute to the economy. In the gentrification process, less concern is directed to the working class, even as the system creates neighborhoods for middle-income families. As a result, working-class individuals will continue to live in deprived and dilapidated areas compared to the middle-class.[34] They will also suffer worse economic challenges because they lose their homes and sources of living. Overall, gentrification is widening the gap between the rich and the poor and the haves and have-nots in the affected countries.
Increase in Social Issues
Gentrification is worsening the state of marginalization in the United States by changing the lives of the working class. The restructuring of urban spaces derails efforts by the government to address the issue of inequality. It is also a major source of social exclusion and informalization in the affected regions.[35] The policies are propagating the culture of poverty and unemployment because the affected persons are driven away from their sources of livelihood. For example, when members of the working class are replaced and their homes in the cities transformed, they lose their jobs, including in casual labor, because they no longer live close to their places of employment. Surveys of affected places reveal that the current restructuring is creating subjectivities for the marginalized and deinstitutionalized communities, such as street subsistence workers, casual labor, unemployed, and street families, among other individuals.[36] Many people are left without any hope and turn to crime to meet their needs when they are denied legitimate means of livelihood.
The gentrification process could worsen social issues, such as crime, poverty, dependency, and mortality, because of the displacement of people from their homes to pave the way for new residences for middle-income people. These issues have historically affected marginalized communities due to residential segregation.[37] Many of the communities affected by the gentrification process have started rebelling against such injustices. The Cabrini Green demolitions reveal a considerable level of resistance to the demolition and displacement of people from their homes.[38] The reality shows that people are against the policies that are causing homelessness. In other parts of the world, especially in developing countries, serious protests have emerged against plans to demolish urban dwellings occupied by the poor to create higher-class residences. These rebellions can lead to violent resistance or persistent crime due to the denied livelihood.[39] Therefore, gentrification appears to cause worse social issues than they are addressing housing challenges in urban centers in the United States and around the world.
Recommendations for the Gentrification Process
Gentrification is desirable because urban spaces are changing and continue to transform. Therefore, governments around the world must respond to the changes. However, the way policy-makers handle the process will have a correspondingly negative or positive impact on vulnerable individuals and the society. The government and other stakeholders could take some essential steps to make the process effective and shield the vulnerable sections from the detrimental effects of gentrification policies. Firstly, they should ensure that any displacement is handled cautiously. For example, they should ensure that they provide alternative living arrangements for the displaced to prevent homelessness and other social evils such as poverty and crime. The stakeholders could construct alternative housing facilities for the poor and marginalized families living in the targeted areas. The goal is for the government to ensure that the displaced are not left homeless and vulnerable to crime. It is also part of essential social welfare measures to protect the marginalized people from the effect of detrimental policy actions.
Secondly, the government and other stakeholders in the gentrification process can empower members of the working class to live in revitalized neighborhoods and residents. They can achieve this goal in two ways. One, they can improve their income and economic capacity to afford the newly established neighborhoods. Two, they can reduce the cost of the gentrified housing facilities to make them more affordable to a majority of the urban population. This objective could be achieved by the government through policies that subsidize the cost of constructing the new neighborhoods or contribute to the cost of maintaining them, hence making them more affordable. The goal is to ensure that the changes accommodate as many people as possible. The changes are necessary even as the urban centers strive to create better living conditions to attract global human capital. The idea can be understood from the debate around global urbanism, which informs recent changes in the global reality.[40] However, they should not address the issue of the demand for housing by creating another problem of marginalization. After all, members of all communities have the right to proper housing and other social amenities.
Conclusion
Gentrification has become a common trend in the United States. It is the process of demolishing dwellings of the working class to pave the way for the development of better residences tailored for the needs of middle-class families. Changes in the economic composition of the country, such as the development of a service economy and an increasing urban population, are some of the factors behind the restructuring of cities. While the restructuring projects are considered useful to address the presented problem in urban spaces, they have detrimental effects on marginalized communities, whose members are increasingly losing their homes. The process of gentrification is creating an unprecedented level of homelessness and the risk of exacerbated social issues. They are worsening the state of marginalization and the level of poverty among affected communities. Therefore, although gentrification is acceptable and beneficial in some cases, it should follow a proper path, such as providing alternative settlements for the displaced communities.
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