Relocating the poor for the poor?

As a social worker living in Los Angeles I write this entry now in the hopes of bringing this matter to my readers attention in order for it to receive the public attention it so urgently needs.
Rosewood avenue, a street in a small section of the city of Los Angeles, houses low income, primarily first generation Latino families and has been selected for a ‘revitalization project’. The Los Angeles Housing Partnership has agreed to lease the lot from the Rosewood United Methodist Church, which owns the property, and will be building a new 54-unit complex for senior housing. Sounds great, right?
However, there are ten families that live on the lot now. Most of the residents have lived in their complex for years, one resident over thirty years, and thanks to rent control most only pay 1/3 of what the current rent amounts are. The duplexes are large upstairs downstairs turn of the century dwellings with kitchen rooms, dinning rooms, and contain much closet space. Through the relocation process these residents will lose this security. The relocation company will match bedrooms only, therefore even though these dwellings contain two levels, kitchen space, dinning room space, 2 bathrooms etc they are only guaranteed to receive a two-bedroom apartment in the move; many of these dwellings currently house families with multiple children. Worse yet, the relocation package will only cover the rent adjustment for the first 42 months.
One resident who pays $400 a month for his housing now is looking at an increase of rent about 4x that after the move. He is a senior, 77 years old, on a fixed income and relies solely on his SSI and will never be able to afford this rent increase.
In addition, there are undocumented families living here who will lose everything, as they are not eligible to receive any relocation benefits because they are not ‘citizens’.
Displacing the poor for the poor is not revitalization nor does it serve as community development for affordable housing. It is legal, but it is not ethical. I attended the relocation meeting last night and was outraged to hear about what a great thing this project will be for the community. Sharon Foster, the person working for Del Richardson and Associates, the company assigned to relocate the families, talked about what great progress this was. Their website boasts about empowerment and advocacy through helping low income families; this is not helping. The church that owns the lot boasts about helping the community, yet how is this helping the community. I probed the issue further, wanting to know why the affluent, primarily suburban parishioners of the Rosewood United Methodist Church would be so aggressive about tearing down the existing dwellings. The answer I was given, the parishioners will gain a larger parking lot for their Sunday services.
I spoke with Ryan Mendoza, the project manager from Los Angeles Housing Partnership and he agreed it’s a hard thing. I asked him how displacing, relocating, uprooting these low-income families can be a good thing? He struggled to answer. What is the answer?
Stay tuned for updates, we are not done here..