Letter: Public housing residents get no relief

Posted on by Letters
THE MORE THINGS CHANGE: Letter writer John Penley recalls growing up in West Asheville, where he “learned something about segregation, unequal treatment on city services and racism.” Photo by Penley

When I was growing up in West Asheville, my parents, who were both working for the Asheville City Schools, hired an African American single mother, Izola Branch, to work in our home and take care of us kids when we got home from Aycock elementary school. When my mother got home, she would drive Ms. Branch to her home at Hillcrest Apartments. I liked to go with them and learned something about segregation, unequal treatment on city services and racism. And back then, not many white people went to the “projects” often like we did.

I have seen and taken note of the same elements of discrimination over many years. Recent letters and news reports have shown clearly that for relief after the flooding, public housing residents in Asheville have more problems and got dumped on, evicted and neglected by the city again.

I contacted Mayor Esther Manheimer early on and asked her to visit public housing projects and meet and talk with the residents. I am still waiting, even though she replied by email and thanked me for the suggestion. Now I read that the director of the Asheville Housing Authority has been fired.

Mayor Manheimer, visit the public housing projects and demand that the state legislature stop evictions now.

— John Penley
Lake Havasu City, Ariz.

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