Thread: Crowding Concerns Hit Home (OP-ED)

http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opin ... 51806.html

Crowding concerns hit home
Neighborhoods weather crunch
Published on: 05/18/06

Illegal immigration holds challenges for every level of government. But it is at the local level — in the neighborhoods, the schools, the health clinics and emergency rooms — where the problem is felt most acutely and often gets the least attention.

Ultimately, the issue must be solved at the federal level. But unchecked illegal immigration is having a profound impact, right now, in hundreds of ways in the older suburbs surrounding Atlanta, where many of the state's 400,000 to 800,000 illegal immigrants have settled.

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(ENLARGE)
Catalina Erneston told Cobb officials last year about a home on her street where she said as many as 20 people lived. Such homes are 'what passes for low-cost housing in much of the illegal immigrant community,' Mike King writes.

In public schools, for instance, the cost of providing English instruction for immigrant children is staggering and has forced local districts to adjust budgets by diverting money from other programs. (The great irony is that some districts have stopped providing foreign language instruction for English-speaking elementary school students.)

County health clinics and emergency rooms throughout the metro area have become the first — and frequently the only — place where illegal immigrants can get the care they need. The state Medicaid program that pays for much of these services now runs about $100 million annually, but most experts believe that covers only a fraction of the cost. When hospitals aren't reimbursed for the care they provide, they try to shift the costs elsewhere — usually by passing them on to privately insured patients.

As costly as these services are, most are required by federal law. Even if local politicians wanted to shut the schoolhouse door to the children of illegal immigrants, federal courts have said they can't. It's the same with emergency medical care. Show up in an emergency room with a serious illness or life-threatening injury, and you must be treated.

But beyond that it gets more subjective. Indeed, one of the hardest issues local governments face involves what's happening in the neighborhoods where illegal immigrants have settled in large numbers.

This isn't to say that wherever illegal immigrants settle, property values decline. Not so. But in some of these neighborhoods — Fair Oaks in Cobb County and parts of Marietta, Smyrna and Roswell to name just a few — the impact has been devastating. Two- and three-bedroom homes once occupied by families of five or six have become de facto boarding houses where a dozen or more adults and children — sometimes related, often not — live in basements and garages and where everyone shares the same bathroom.

Besides being eyesores, they have become fire hazards and threats to public health. But housing inspectors feel powerless to do anything about them unless someone inside the house complains. And who would do that? Unfortunately, this is what passes for low-cost housing in much of the illegal immigrant community.

In some cases, the deterioration of these neighborhoods preceded the arrival of immigrants, as did their transition from owner-occupied houses to rental units. Absentee landlords and unkempt rental properties are a fact of life in transitional neighborhoods, regardless of how many people live in the homes.

But there is also no question that many of the homes have become routinely overcrowded, and that has exacerbated the decline of some neighborhoods. City and county governments are seeking ways to stop it.

Roswell is the latest community to try— proposing a city ordinance that would allow no more than three unrelated people to live together in a single-family home. (Cobb and Gwinnett counties and the city of Atlanta are attempting to deal with the overcrowding issue by requiring at least 50 square feet of living space per person.)

Yet to suggest that something needs to be done invites criticism that such concerns are badly motivated, even racist. "Latinos — the flavor of the month," is how one advocate dismissed the idea, suggesting that immigrants are being unfairly targeted when such rules are proposed.

We've been through this before. We should have learned.

The urban shantytowns of a century ago — where the immigrant Irish crowded —were filthy, unsafe hell holes that should never have been allowed. Immigrant advocates who reflexively resist legitimate rules and regulations on occupancy are consigning the people they are supposed to represent to living conditions that are, in some cases, worse than those they left in their native land.

On top of that, it is never wise to ignore the deterioration of our older neighborhoods, regardless of who lives in them.

• Mike King is a member of the editorial board. His column runs Thursdays.

100 million annually? Why doesnt NIGHTLINE, or 60 minutes REPORT THIS?


This is the issue we want! We need to hit the media on this issue...

CAn we get an ALIPAC ALERT on this, with instructions and phone #'s? The MEDIA needs to talk about this...!

Good post Butterbean, this is really an important issue. This is what is so different about this illegal immigration movement compared to anything we ever knew. When you see it first hand it really is shocking. I lived in Temecula California. About as nice an area as you ever want to see. Nice family homes. Then they started building new two story homes with 6 to 8 bedrooms. These homes were in normal family neighborhoods. So, you know who buys these homes with many small bedrooms...illegals of course. They pool their money and live as cheap as an apartment house. Now, just think you have a nice home and this happens next door. Your property value goes to hell and then when you move at a loss some other illegals buy your home and convert it to multiple bedrooms.

My other first hand experience is when I lived in El Paso Texas watching kids come across the border each day to go to school completely free...no questions asked.

Lets face it. Our Government is not hearing us. It is time now to break things down, and get the illegal aliens where it really hurts. We must all start by protecting our own communities. There is strength in numbers. Save your local parks, the Illegals love to hold birthday parties in them because they are free to use. Form a group in your community to patrol them, and make sure they are kept clean, or better yet.. have your childs birthday party there and don't give them the space. Do not frequent any stores that cater to illegals, and do NOT buy anything from a restaurant or taco stand that they might have set up in your community. That is a big thing for them. Do not allow them to push their grocery cart in front of yours at the store. Usually you will see about 20 screaming babies hanging off of the cart annoying the hell out of everyone, while the parents are walking around dazed and confused. Demand your Dr's office sees you before them: remind them who was there first. Write license numbers down of cars that are unfit to drive with 20 people in them. This can go on and on. Its endless what they do and try to pull off. Just report everything and don't stop. If you know of some who have moved into your neighborhood, watch them. Look for anything to call law inforcement. I can assure you that it will not be hard, nor will it take long. If everyone pushes them OUT, then eventually they will have no other choice to move on. DO NOT make them feel welcome in any way. Maybe then, they will all end up parking their asses on the Whitehouse lawn. If there was ever a time to speak out, and act out... it is now.If every community did this then our Government would get the message.