Fixing Up Homes Reduces Gun Violence, New Study Shows
Fixing Up Homes Reduces Gun Violence, New Study Shows
WHYY: "Replacing broken windows, picking up garbage, and pulling weeds around abandoned houses in Philadelphia could lead to a drop in gun crime in those areas."
From WHYY …
…And it’s not just abandoned homes that make a difference — an earlier study from some of the same researchers found that when homeowners make repairs on their own properties, crime rates also decline. That study looked specifically at the City of Philadelphia’s Basic Systems Repair Program, which provides free repairs for low-income households.
[B|Enote Publisher] Charles Ellison, a WURD radio host and managing editor of environmental journalism initiative ecoWURD, said the city needs to expand that program, and invest more in a “place-based” gun violence strategy.
“If we just simply made these spaces totally clean, totally green, totally resilient, totally livable, we would not have this much violence,” he said. “Philadelphia would be a near non-violent city.”
He said it’s time for the Philadelphia Department of Streets to be leveraged as an anti-violence initiative, and that he hopes mayoral candidates will bring up environmental improvement when they talk about public safety.
Ellison said this a continuation of historic disinvestment in Black neighborhoods due to structural racism.
“There’s a narrative that because we’re Black we live in bad neighborhoods that are in disrepair,” Ellison said. “I think that has to stop now. That mindset has to be eliminated.”