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I wondered why a great grandfather friend, who stopped by my home to chat, was paying rent when I thought his home was free and clear of its mortgage. I did not want to pry in his business, but I spoke with the puzzled look in my eyes as he gave his new address. This great grandfather shared that he had to move out of his inner city home into church owned apartments because his old neighborhood was too dangerous for senior citizens.
The great grandfather leaned forward in his chair. He looked directly into my eyes. The great grandfather made one hand appear like a gun. Then he commented that he would have to sit in his home waiting for the criminals to come in his old neighborhood.
The great grandfather said that God did not mean for him to kill any one, so he moved out. He worried about the crack heads stripping his home of valuable wiring, piping and appliances for it was fair game without him there to protect it.
I wondered whether this great grandfather just needed to vent, so his story might be an isolated case. The next day I was told of a senior citizen lady, in her eighties that also had to move into an apartment in a safe neighborhood.
This senior citizen lady owns two homes. One is too big for her because she is not able to keep it up and move around this house. The second home is a small house that would be ideal but she would be fodder for the neighborhood thugs.
As I pondered these two stories, it was obvious that any dream to allow senior citizens to age in place in America’s hoods might be a pipe dream. Homes, that in yesteryear were dreams come true in sharing in the American Dream, are today’s albatrosses because drug overlords overran inner city America making senior citizen homes today’s spoils of the drug war that the United States of America lost.
