Good afternoon, Mayor Baldwin and Members of the Raleigh City Council:

First, thank you for the honor of serving the citizens of Raleigh as a member of the Planning
Commission. It is one of the highlights of my career and my 25+ years as a resident of the Raleigh
community. I write to you today, not as a Planning Commissioner, but as a Raleigh resident. Yesterday
(June 8th) at your Council work session, there was a discussion about mixed income housing.
Councilmember Buffkin made comments about the need to mix income to cover operating costs of
housing and in that same statement, he said “another benefit of having mixed incomes….is you build a
more healthy community….Don’t build projects that house only poor people. These are places that are
devoid of hope. There are very few role models for the children….”

These statements are not only offensive and hurtful, they perpetuate the narrative that poor people
lack morals and values. That is simply not true. Poor people lack financial resources. Period. As an urban
planner, I am well aware of problems associated with concentrating low-income persons in
developments, and I am well aware of issues associated with some of the old-style public housing
developments (or “projects”). The problem is not the people. The problem is the environment. The
problem, oftentimes, is the people who live in these communities are cast aside and forgotten about.
The developments weren’t built to encourage community. They were built to cage human beings who
were deemed savages and undeserving by policies designed to marginalize poor people, especially poor
people of color. When people respond to the environments in which they have been thrust into, we
then call them poor role models and claim we fear for our safety when they try to move themselves up
and into “better” neighborhoods. These “projects” have a myriad of problems, the least of which is the
people. There is poor access to transit, poor access to healthcare and other services necessary for their
well-being, poor access to parks, open space and recreational activities. These areas often lack healthy
food and adequate infrastructure. Schools are under-resourced. Predatory businesses abound. Police
substations abound, again, treating the symptom and not the cause. My point is the issues are deep and
complex, and, yes, sometimes there are bad people in poor neighborhoods (just as there are bad people
in wealthy neighborhoods), but the environment in which they live, the layout of many of these
developments, and the areas in which they are located often create unhealthy behaviors. The people
didn’t create the environment by being bad role models. Racist policies like redlining and urban renewal
created the environments. Policies designed to hide the poor created the environment. It is concerning
and hurtful to hear a Councilor disparage hard working, poor people - many who are in the position
they’re in because of a system that’s rigged against them. To imply that simply adding people with
higher incomes will somehow help their moral character is offensive and reinforces many of the racist
undertones upon which many of our policies, programs, and procedures are centered.

To give you a bit of my perspective….I grew up in Bertie County, North Carolina. It is one of the poorest
counties in the state. It is a majority minority county and I lived in an area that, while not a dense
“project”, was definitely a concentration of lower income people. People didn’t have a lot of material
wealth but we had community. People worked hard and looked out for each other. Grandparents and
aunties and cousins provided daycare. People bought 15-passenger vans and started their own informal
vanpools as residents sought economic opportunities in neighboring counties and even Virginia. Some of
the people who have had the most positive impact on my life had very little money in the bank. Many
lived in substandard housing with no luxuries like central air and heat or even indoor plumbing. But you
know what those people taught me? The value of hard work. The necessity of faith. The beauty of
community. The steadfastness of resiliency. These “poor people” weren’t poor at all. They lacked
financial resources but they were some of the richest people I’ve ever known. They walked with their
heads held high. They refused to let a system who told them they were nobody take away their dignity.
They pushed me. They sacrificed for me. They encouraged me to fight for people like them.

So I speak for them today, whether as a Planning Commissioner or a citizen of this great city. I carry
them with me and I say ALL people have dignity regardless of their balance sheet. ALL people have
dignity regardless of their zip code or census tract demographics. All people have dignity whether they
live in a subdivision or a “project”. People are certainly accountable for their actions but stereotypes
hurt and don’t offer constructive solutions to very real problems. Stereotypes can get down on the
inside of young people and influence what they tell themselves. We can build people up or we can tear
them down. I appreciate the desire to improve the lives of low-income people but we won’t do it by
ostracizing, stigmatizing, and dehumanizing them. I would encourage you to ENGAGE them, get to know
them, review your zoning policies, comprehensive plans and development ordinances and look for ways
to spread the wealth among ALL of Raleigh’s citizens. Incentivize developers to build truly affordable
housing. Help build ladders of economic opportunity for low-income persons. There are a lot of
wonderful role models with limited incomes and there are some pretty terrible ones with millions. Let’s
attack the policies and not the people.

Respectfully submitted,

Nicole H. Bennett