Urbanities,
Vol. 4
·
No 2
·
November 2014
© 2014
Urbanities
11
Ironically, the halfway house subsidy plan was perceived by local business operators
as weakening the local economy by eventually removing a few remaining healthy investors
from the community. ‘When they opened the work-release houses, my husband said you
better think about getting a shotgun for your business . . .’, said Angela, a Caucasian 46-year-
old female and former greeting card shop owner. She added, ‘sure enough . . . two weeks later
the police caught some people trying to break into my store. There were just some local kids
but I figured between them and the ex-convicts somebody was going to eventually do it again
with me in there . . . so I decided to close shop a couple months later’. However, the problems
were brewing on Chestnut Lane long before the halfway houses arrived. Whether it is
important for residents to acknowledge and understand this is somewhat irrelevant.
Shared Symbolic Fears in the NIMBY Battle
So why do the people of Chestnut Lane recoil at the presence of the halfway house, even
when socioeconomic conditions in the area have steadily declined and brought a number of
other, arguably more pressing problems to the area? In the eyes of most residents, at the time
that the state government was subsidizing halfway houses in the neighbourhood, Chestnut
Lane went from prosperity to disrepair. While not directly contributing to the demise of the
local economy, the halfway houses serve as a constant reminder of lost prosperity. As with
most communities, on Chestnut Lane with the decline of the economy came an increase in
both instrumental crimes and crimes of opportunity. Again, as with the declining economic
value of the area, heightened crime and victimization activity was already taking root before
the placement of the halfway houses. But from our interviews, we learned that there is
perhaps no other better embodiment of increased criminal activity than a house full of ex-
offenders. The house itself becomes a symbol to lash out at.
Chestnut Lane is far from being the affluent suburb it once was, but this is not the fault
of the halfway houses or the ex-offenders in them; it is a symptom of a greater stagnant
economy. In our interviews, we noticed that residents failed to acknowledge many of the
other signs of economic hardship apparent in the neighbourhood. Graffiti mar the dreary area.
Boarded up houses or houses with broken windows were not the norm, but they were
becoming more visible at the time of our interviews. Residents clearly associate this with the
halfway houses as if they were in denial about larger events.
What is perhaps most disconcerting is that in the process of incorporating the halfway
houses into the shared NIMBY diatribe is that many neighbourhood residents have come to
devalue the human rights of people in the halfway houses. It is easy to demonize ex-convicts
and drug addicts, and the people of Chestnut Lane have taken all too readily to doing so.
There were several recurrent comments among residents we interviewed, including
(but not limited to) these common themes:
1.
people in the house ‘look different’
2.
many of them are ‘drug users’
3.
they are not ‘like others’ in the community
Many Caucasians that we interviewed highlighted the idea that people in the house ‘look
different’. Many of them were also quick to point out that most people who live in the work-
