GRAND RAPIDS, mi
my GRAND RAPIDS
Grand Rapids, MI is a mid-sized, midwestern city which has made a lot of effort to attract middle class families and young urban professionals.
As a result, property values are rising, developers are building luxury apartments and recreation facilities, and long time tenants are being forced out and put at imminent risk of homelessness.
According to development data from the City of Grand Rapids, 2016 saw the highest amount of Housing Units issued in a 7 year period, but it was also the year with the highest construction costs. Cost of construction from 2010 to 2018 has more than quadrupled, which alludes to increasing property values across the board.
This correlates to Point-in-Time count data organized by Kent County Continuum of Care which shows a steady increase in the population of homeless people in the area over the past few years.
“Hey Red!”
I stopped
mid-crosswalk, and looked
at the man on the other side.
My friend grabbed my hand
and pulled me to continue.
“Just keep going,” she muttered.
“Does the carpet match the drapes?”
The man staggered a bit toward us as we hit the sidewalk, laughing with the confidence and arrogance that older men affect so well.
He looked my body up and down and my friend directed us around and past the comment before it could turn into a situation.
New developments along the Division commercial corridor are walls of concrete and glass, flat against the street. They're adjacent to more historical buildings which are filling up with boutique restaurants and art galleries.
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However, the economic reactivation of the neighborhood has proven to be a very slow process. Many businesses are hesitant to invest in property which is so visually affected by the people (e.g. "loiterers, defecators, addicts, etc.") who are already existing there.
It’s easy to walk by differences and to look the other way from people who are external to your own life.
The services for these people (e. "humans, individuals, brothers, sisters, families, etc.") have been trying to find ways to work with the business to both increase the services they can provide toward helping these populations, and to work toward the goal of a thriving neighborhood.
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Some of the businesses (e.g. "tattoo parlors, music stores, smoke shops, party stores, galleries, etc.") are recognizing their responsibilities to give back to their community as small business owners.
I always loved going downtown when I was little.
It was large and a little magical. The library seemed ancient to me, towering thick stone high above me on the street. And I could still go inside. Anyone could go inside. And within those ancient walls the library housed more worlds inside which I and anyone could also go. It was surprising to me that something so physically large and opaque could be so open and filled with light.
This is particularly significant in the downtown Heartside neighborhood, where most services are located for people currently experiencing homelessness. This is also a neighborhood that has some of the highest poverty levels in the city.
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It is currently in the process of gentrification.
We were 14.
We might’ve been a little older or a little younger.
Would that matter?
We were downtown crossing Division.
I think my mom told me that’s where prostitutes were, but we were only passing through
on our way to a hip restaurant.
We weren’t that far south from Fulton.
It was afternoon, still very much daytime. Would it be different if we were there after dark? When the lighting isn’t quite as good? When the bars, now flourishing across the city, are in their prime hours? When the concert just got out, and we’re waiting for my parents to pick us up? Would those differences in my story change the way you felt when you began reading?
What about the man? Who was he? What were his reasons for being there at that time?
Does he need any?
What was that man's downtown?
If he was homeless, maybe he was able to stay at one of the few shelters in the area.
Alternatively, since it was Summer when this happened, maybe he was spending his nights
in the alcove at a downtown church
or in the girders under an overpass.
He seemed drunk to me, but maybe I was just scared. I'm not sure if I knew what drunk looked like outside of movies or TV.
If all of this were somehow true, maybe this man was in a constant struggle, everyday. A struggle to stay clean, to fight against your own body's adrenaline to get to sleep every night, to not feel your stomach like a bottomless pit.
This shows some collaborative effort between the private and public sectors of the downtown neighborhood toward trying to make everyone's lives a little better.
But it's really hard to know for sure if you never ask.
Images courtesy of Grand Rapids Street Photographers flickr