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A CHANGE
Low-income residents face undue stigma

In a perfect world, this would work. Low-income and high-income residents could live side by side without strange stares and wounding words.

However, we don’t live in a perfect world. We live in Fort Worth, Texas, United States. It’s been said before, and it still applies — we live in a bubble.

Over the summer, the Fort Worth Housing Authority bought the Stonegate Villas on Oak Hill Circle in order to turn a portion of it into Section 8 housing. By Oct. 31, some of the displaced residents from the Ripley Arnold complex should be moved into Stonegate.

But there have been complaints. Property values will fall. Local schools will be overcrowded. And crime rates will rise. While some people have decided to stick it out, there has been a recent exodus of students from Stonegate. Reasons range from safety of selves to safety of belongings. Obviously, “low-income residents” is interchangeable with “dangerous.”

Area and Stonegate residents have jumped to conclusions about those moving from the Ripley Arnold complex. They haven’t gotten to know the people trying to get their feet back on the ground. They haven’t heard the stories of people already looked down upon by others in society. They haven’t even seen the faces of the fathers, mothers and children just looking for a chance at life.

And they haven’t noticed that projects like this work. Four years ago, the Dallas Housing Authority moved low-income residents into a high-income neighborhood. At first, there were fears. Those are now gone. The property values that fell shortly after the low-income residents moved in have risen again. And the crime rate in this Dallas neighborhood? It has stayed virtually the same.

Complaining time is up. And it’s just childish to whine, so stop. And why fight? The former Ripley Arnold residents are just trying to get through life like the rest of us, they just need a little more help than most of us at TCU need.

It’s time to give these people — these fathers, mothers and children — a chance.