BY MELISSA MADDOX-EVANS GUEST COLUMNIST
Celebrated PBS documentarian Ken Burns says, “ … everything in American history led
up to (the Civil War), and everything since has been a consequence of it.” As startling as
his words are, they ring true. Equally true is that public conversations about race and
race relations are complicated and fraught with strife, particularly when it comes to the
issue of housing.
Annapolis is alive with opportunities and traditions. My time here has introduced me to
wonderful people who call “Crabtown” home. While from my vantage point I am able to
see a commonality in how our local traditions guide all of us, I am also able to see,
unfortunately, how our city’s opportunities are systemically limited for some.
Census data reveal divisions in the social and economic upward mobility of our citizens,
revealing that nearly 1 in 4 Black Annapolitans live below the poverty line while only 1 in
20 whites are impoverished. Black citizens are not, and have never been, deficient nor
inherently inadequate. The systems in which we live in are failing us at an unequal rate
because the systems themselves are flawed.
I know this because I work within one of them, one that impacts generational wealth
building: housing. In his book “The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our
Government Segregated America,” bestselling author Richard Rothstein writes: “Equity
that families have in their homes is the main source of wealth for middle class
Americans. African American families today, whose parents and grandparents were
denied participation in the equity-accumulating boom of the 1950s and 1960s, have
great difficulty catching up now. As with income, there is little mobility by wealth in
America.”
For a variety of reasons, as discussed many times on these editorial pages, the housing
and economic opportunities for our city’s low-income citizens have been limited for
many years. If we are to maintain our civic integrity, we must be willing to engage in
honest and introspective conversations about the reasons for the housing inequities in
our city.
Dinner table discussions that examine our histories and ask questions like, why did our
parents or grandparents move to the neighborhoods they moved into? Were they able to
obtain bank loans to buy their home? Was any class of people excluded from the
neighborhood at the time? Are they still, as a practical matter, excluded today? What
makes a neighborhood “good” or “bad?” What makes the schools in our area “good” or
“bad?” By challenging ourselves and our families to answer honestly, we will continue to
gain the necessary insights to improve our flawed systems.
Resistance toward policy advancement is often rooted in emotion, misinformation, false
perceptions, and prejudice. Let us step into the challenge and agree to talk honestly
about what “affordable housing” really means to each of us and how the term makes us
feel. Creating and preserving more of it is difficult if it evokes viscerally negative
feelings. Those feelings can become insurmountable when more “affordable housing” is
needed in your neighborhood.
I believe Annapolis has an opportunity to embrace systemic changes to local housing
policies, to re-engineer its social contract with its citizens, and to fully live up to the full
promise of our city’s traditions and opportunities. To do so, however, we must agree to
have honest conversations that move past stigmas of the past, so that the One Annapolis
promise can come true for all citizens, Black and white.
Melissa Maddox-Evans, Esq. joined the Housing Authority of the City of Annapolis as
the Executive Director/CEO in October 2019. Ms. Maddox-Evans has more than sixteen
years of experience in the affordable housing industry and over twenty-seven years in
community development initiatives. She received her B.A. from Georgetown University
and her law degree from the University of Georgia.
HACA CONTACT INFORMATION
OFFICE ADDRESS
Housing Authority of the City of Annapolis
1217 Madison Street
Annapolis, MD 21403
PHONE NUMBERS
Main (410) 267-8000
Fax (410) 267-8290
Maintenance (410) 263-0778
TTY/TDD 711
HOURS OF OPERATION
Monday through Thursday:
9:00 am to 4:30 pm (Appointments required for HCVP clients except 9am to 4pm on Wednesdays)
Friday: Closed
After-Hours Maintenance Emergencies: (410) 263-0778
The Housing Authority of the City of Annapolis provides reasonable accommodations upon request.