Update on "Low Income" Housing in Greenwood

Here's another article about the housing project in Greenwood.

Low Income Housing in Greenwood

Thanks to Sherron, who found an article on the Parkway Place development in the works for Greenwood. Read it here.

According to the developer, this is different from a typical Section 8:

Also, she said, the housing effort won't be a typical Section 8 development, where renters remain renters indefinitely. Under the program, homes at Parkway will be rented by qualified tenants for 15 years. Once that period is completed, the tenants will be given the opportunity to purchase the homes, she said.

But some "concerned residents" aren't buying it:

Bill Clay, another resident near the proposed development, said the fact that the Parkway homes will be geared to low-income residents means that it is bad for existing residents.
"If it looks like a duck and it quacks like a duck, it's a duck," he said.

This brings up a lot of the issues we discussed concerning class, race, upward mobility and poverty. A couple of questions:

Do the opponents have a legitimate concern? Do you know of any examples of successful projects similar to Parkway? Are there any important points that the article misses? Is there a "win-win" to be found here?

Keeping in mind what the Rev. reinforced about focusing on the solution, let's see some discussion!

Knowledge is Power

Rev. Hargrove mentioned charter schools and I wanted to share some info about the KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) school just across the river in Helena, Arkansas. Click here to check out their website and here to read a recent article about KIPP in the New York Times.


I'm not saying that this model is the only way to go, but it's a good example of what a charter school can look like in the Delta.

When I visited KIPP Helena last fall I got a tour of the school from a very poised and proud eighth grade boy. In our last meeting, we discussed empowerment-- the kids I met there come to mind as a good example of this word.

Welcome to the Mississippi Leadership Blog!

Mississippi Leaders, welcome to our blog. This is a space for all of us to contribute-- if you don't contribute, it will be stale and boring, so speak up!

For those of you who are new to blogging, there are two ways you can contribute:

1) Comment on a post: what you're reading here is a post and below you can click on comments to add your two cents.

2) Create a post: all of you should be able to make your own post (you should have gotten an email, if not email me at deltadawg@gmail.com). Click on new post on the top right of this page.

Email me if you're having trouble doing this.

Let the "lifting" begin!