Springfield City Councilor and mayoral candidate Bud Williams has seized on one of the most contentious issues to hit the city in recent months: plans to redevelop the former Longhill Gardens complex into low-income housing.
Last week, Williams called for a moratorium on low-income housing in the city, saying the city has become a dumping ground for housing for the poor. "[I]t is clear that Springfield has done its fair share of low income housing in western Massachusetts," Williams said. "It is now time for an inventory of low income housing units to be conducted in the city; and a judgment made as to how many more, if any, should be approved with use of city financial resources."
While Williams' comments focused on low-income housing in general, his specific target was the planned renovation of Forest Park's Longhill Gardens, which was condemned in 2007. WinnDevelopment of Boston—with financial support from the city and state—has bought the property and begun a $20 million renovation that will result in 109 units, roughly half the number of units in the old Longhill project. About 80 percent of the apartments will be marketed as affordable; the rest will rent at market rates.
While that plan has the backing of the Forest Park Civic Association, a group of neighbors, calling themselves Springfield Forward, has vociferously opposed it. They say the old complex brought crime, noise and other problems to the neighborhood and worry the Winn development will lead to more of the same. Now their cause has been taken up by Williams.
"[A]ll across America, housing experts … have rejected the policy of warehousing people in high density developments," he said. "Longhill Gardens is a prime example of a past project that should have been demolished and turned into open space or single family units."
Williams' rival, Mayor Domenic Sarno, has thrown his support behind the Winn project after intense pressure from both sides. Sarno's support has not been unalloyed; last spring, he floated the short-lived idea that perhaps the city should instead build a new middle school at the site. That plan went nowhere, however, and by June, Winn had begun work on the renovation.
Williams' strategy to set himself in opposition to Sarno on such a volatile issue is not without its risks. As the Council's only African-American member, in a city where poverty and other social problems are particularly concentrated in neighborhoods with large black and Latino populations, Williams is often seen as a de facto voice for the city's poorest residents. (Never mind that that assumed role is often inconsistent with Williams' actions—for instance, his flip-flop behavior on needle exchange and ward representation, two issues that have strong support in communities of color.)
Try as Williams might to focus voters on the "equity" aspect of his argument—that Springfield's better-off neighbors should take more responsibility for low-income housing—it's hard not to see it as yet another instance of a politician scapegoating the poor. Williams was quoted by the Springfield Republican equating low-income housing at Longhill Gardens with criminal behavior: "[T]here's a spike in crime, there's a spike in breaking and entering, there's drug dealing, it becomes a hub."
Sarno's office is not letting that kind of comment go unchallenged. "It's extremely unfortunate and shocking that Councilor Williams would make these types of statements," mayoral aide Tom Walsh told the Advocate. "The suggestion that because someone is poor or lives in low-income housing they are more likely to commit crime and have involvement with drugs is offensive."
Sarno, Walsh went on, "recognizes the need for affordable and quality housing for all of our city's residents," having helped start, for instance, the "Buy Springfield Now" home ownership program and an anti-foreclosure center. In addition, Walsh said, Sarno pushed to include market-rate units at Longhill.
"Non-support of this project by the City would have carried great risk," Walsh continued. "The city could not afford to have Longhill Gardens fall into the hands of an irresponsible landlord or, possibly worse, lose the opportunity to redevelop the project, laying the foundation for the buildings to remain abandoned and blighted indefinitely."
