There is clearly an immediate need for housing among homeless families in Baltimore County.
However, while the construction of low-income housing developments may temporarily alleviate the problem, over the long run it will only produce larger areas of concentrated poverty that ensure the majority of these families remain trapped in poverty for generations to come ("Just saying no isn't good enough," Nov. 20).
One has only to look at what happened in Baltimore City over the last 50 years, when large tracts of high-rise buildings designed exclusively for low-income housing were developed. Creating housing for homeless families, particularly near other communities of low-income families, serves only to concentrate the poverty and prevent the development of the social and economic infrastructures found in more desirable neighborhoods.
In cities across the country it has been shown that the only viable, long-term solution to concentrated poverty is incentives for developers to create substantial amounts of inclusionary, mixed-income housing.
Helene F. Perry, Baltimore
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