Government-supported local housing deserves more credit
by Michael Appel
This piece appeared in Other Voices in the October 1, 2007 edition of the Ann Arbor News.
Like many people who have lived in Ann Arbor for more than a few years, I occasionally spoke to, helped out or otherwise interacted with Shakey Jake. So my only problem with your editorial about his passing was the following line: “It’s true that he received government support, but what’s remarkable is the support he got from the people of this city.” That sentiment is dismissive of the support he received from the Ann Arbor Housing Commission, whose subsidized apartment you refer to as government support, and makes it sound as if government-funded support is not “from the people.” Two huge mistakes.
First, consider the value of the support provided by our local public housing commission. Year in and year out, they provided support that most likely was worth hundreds of dollars every month. I don’t know his income nor do I know the rent he paid (which would have been 30% of his income) but I’m sure that based on his social security income, his rent was significantly below what a modest one-bedroom apartment costs on the market. Neither local citizens nor merchants could or should be expected to provide that kind of ongoing, permanent support.
Second, your intimation that direct support from “the people of this city” is more remarkable than government-funded housing support is even more troubling than your fuzzy math regarding the cash value of that support. First, all of us pay the taxes that allow for subsidized housing–”of the people, by the people” not different than the people. Moreover, Ann Arbor only has public housing because some of the people fought long and hard to get a majority of the people to accept it. The presence of those units represents the same spirit of caring as the personal donations you highlight — only by making it public policy we help more people, more stably, more appropriately and to a greater extent.
Carol Lopez, owner of Peaceable Kingdom, is right when you quote her saying that the whole town did care for Shakey Jake. Moreover, the government support should really stand out as “the most telling part of Shakey Jake’s legacy” because he was one of hundreds of other less well-known tenants–equally part of our community–who can afford to live here because of the Ann Arbor Housing Commission and other providers of low-income housing.