I Love My Slum!!!!

What is the attraction to slum dwelling? In Mumbai, India the government has offered to relocate dwellers to brand new apartments across town, so that the land they are on can be used to construct residential and commercial properties. But residents of the Dharavi slum do not want to leave.

What is interesting is that this is a common response around the world, even in America. My personal experience of this happened in St. Petersburg, Florida. When city and federal officials wanted to tear down half of the buildings in the largest low income housing projects in the region. They offered to relocate the affected residents to brand new apartments. This was done due to the rampant violence and drug trafficking that was taking place in the area. It was determined that the area was overpopulated and too difficult for police officers to patrol. In response, some residents took up a petition and attempted to get the housing projects listed as a historic site, thus protecting it from being destroyed.

I was shocked that people would work so hard to maintain an obviously dysfunctional neighborhood that was riddled with crime. This is especially the case being that no one living there had any ownership rights there. They are all renters. So what is the attachment? Some of them have had their families there for generations. But is that really something to be proud of? That your family has been living off of government assistance programs for generations?

In India, there are more realistic concerns. Many of the residents run businesses out of their homes and the apartments that are being offered are too small to continue this practice. The second thing that is very troubling is that only residents that have lived in the slum since 1995 are eligible for the new apartments. That leaves 10 years of new residents homeless. Where are all of these people supposed to go? I guess they will be relocated to another slum sitting on less valuable land.

You can read more about the slum relocation issues here.