{"id":983,"date":"2010-03-06T23:00:38","date_gmt":"2010-03-06T23:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/voteforjoe.com\/wheresjoe\/?p=421"},"modified":"2010-03-06T23:00:38","modified_gmt":"2010-03-06T23:00:38","slug":"the-other-side-of-the-tracks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/?p=983","title":{"rendered":"the other side of the tracks…"},"content":{"rendered":"

Three young couples from Texas, Iowa and Ohio, respectively, have come to LaGrange, Georgia, as part of a MissionYear<\/em><\/strong> \u00a0 Project. \u00a0 They are volunteering for the Alterna Community here, which is a cluster of homes set up for immigrant families in the area. \u00a0 These couples have set up a community garden for Alterna, help with after school tutoring for immigrant family youth, help out with house repairs, etc… \u00a0 In addition, these young couples are active in the community volunteering for Habitat for Humanity, coordinating a church youth group, working at a home for single mothers… \u00a0 One of the volunteers, Dustin White, has become a vocal advocate for better housing among the low-income throughout the community. \u00a0 As part of his advocacy work, he takes people on tours of the town’s ‘other side of the tracks,’ literally. \u00a0 During a tour he gave me, White said primarly low-income Blacks and Hispanic immigrants, for generations, have lived in rough housing settlements on the south side of the tracks. \u00a0 He took me down hardscrabble street after street of small, one-story, run-down houses. \u00a0 Patches of missing roof shingles, peeling paint, single pane broken windows, clap board walls with no insulation, rusted appliances (many not working)… \u00a0 Dustin took me in one small home where the floor tile was broken up, an old rusty bath tub lay on it’s side, many of the appliances didn’t work, a window was broken… “This one is advertised as ‘ready to rent,”‘ White scoffed. \u00a0 He said while seemingly totally unsuitable to live in, a new immigrant family (because of finances) would be forced into such a dwelling — and might well live in it with another family. \u00a0 Close by this home is the rather bare bones Williams Griggs Recreational Center<\/em>. \u00a0 We took our kids there to play some hoops. \u00a0 We, it turned out, were the ‘token whites’ there this day. \u00a0 Dustin White had told me that although the “Colored” signs have been taken down on the third gas station bathrooms, and the like, here, the community was still fairly segregated. \u00a0 Note:<\/strong> \u00a0 White told me there was a non-profit organization in LaGrange called DASH, which helps renovate homes. \u00a0 White, and his wife Jamie, have recently published a book called Disguised in their Eyes<\/em>. \u00a0 It’s about the inner city poor. \u00a0 They suggest at one point in the book that those more well off convert their garages to apartments and take the rent money to fund programs like DASH, so more people can have access to adequate housing. \u00a0 Good idea.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three young couples from Texas, Iowa and Ohio, respectively, have come to LaGrange, Georgia, as part of a MissionYear \u00a0 Project. \u00a0 They are volunteering for the Alterna Community here, which is a cluster of homes set up for immigrant …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/983\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}