In Santa Paula, a white minority blames poor for town’s problems
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‘For several years, there has been a tide of sentiment that Santa Paula -- whose residents are three-quarters Latino -- has missed out.’
‘That it has become a dumping ground of sagging roofs and 99-cent stores while neighbors like Moorpark and Camarillo have prospered. And some critics -- many of them members of the white minority -- have decided that the poor are the problem,’ writes the L.A. Times’ Scott Gold.
‘This summer, about 400 people signed a petition asking the City Council to approve a moratorium on ‘low-end’ housing until it represents less than 15% of the housing stock in Santa Paula. Moratorium supporters say it would take 50 years to achieve that goal -- which would mean a 50-year ban on the construction of low-income housing.’
‘ ‘What we want is a balance,’ said Larry Sagely, one of the leading voices in town calling for a moratorium. ‘Let the free market run.’ ‘
‘Of particular concern, said community activist Richard Main, 70, is government-subsidized housing. Those apartment complexes, several of which have been built in recent years, are typically not subject to property taxes.
’ ‘They’re a dead drag on the economy,’ Main said. ‘And if your revenues aren’t covering your costs, you’ve got a problem.’ ‘
‘Main and the other moratorium supporters have not been shy about introducing race and ethnicity into the debate; they have registered their offense, for instance, when some of those who have asked for additional affordable housing have needed an interpreter to speak in front of the City Council. And all sides agree that a moratorium would affect Latinos and, in particular, farmworkers and their families, more than anyone else. But those who support a moratorium say they are not racists.’
Read the rest of the dispatch from Scott Gold on Santa Paula’s problems here.
For more on immigration, click here.