Experience Over Studies

After thinking that I might have a future in politics and studying political science, I’ve learned I don’t have a full understanding of how politics even work. My internship is showing me how city government really works and why I might want to drop out of college all together in an attempt to truly impact the society.

OK, I won’t actually drop out completely, but I’ve seen that my study of political science had taught me nothing about the importance of city-level government, and how hard it is to communicate with those who have ultimate power. I was originally interested in studying political science because I felt like this was the way to truly make change. In class, we often use a metaphor where there are dead babies (horrible, I know, but bear with me) floating down a river. There are many ways to respond to this, from jumping in and trying to save each baby to running up the river bank and attacking whatever is killing and throwing the babies in the first place. To me, political science seemed like the best way to attack the baby killers. I figured that if I could fight to make systemic change I would be able to make sure no more “babies” were harmed. However, after meeting with city staff and speaking at city council meetings, I am reconsidering this major.

First day at my HECUA internship, I sat in on a staff meeting at the African Career, Education, Resource Incorporation (ACER). I couldn’t keep up with a lot that was happening. The processes that the staff were discussing were foreign to me and I had no idea why they were doing what they were doing. The head of immigration kept discussing different trips to Washington D.C. and the head of housing mentioned at least five different complexes while the others kept referencing different people and organizations that they were all working with. After all of the reports (I’m not sure how they do so much as a single organization, let alone in a week), I was told to hop in Shantal’s, ACER’s community organizer, car to go talk with residents in Brooklyn Center to follow up on a resident meeting she had help with them last week. Shantal had taken their complaints and turned them into a petition that we were going to go collect signatures for.

Not long after climbing in the car, we hopped out to meet a resident. She came with us as we knocked door to door at her townhome association. It was one of the coldest days of the year, and I was counting down the minutes until we could go back inside. This resident marched us from door to door asking her neighbors to sign the petition without a single complaint. While we did this, some residents welcomed us in so that we could see their unjust living conditions. They seemed thrilled to talk to us, and I was surprised by how easily they opened up. My supervisor later explained that they are often ignored. For years they have faced a number of issues with the property manager. There are charges for maintenance that the lease claimed would be covered by rent. Money orders to pay rent have been whited out and re-written to look as though they were addressed to a third party, and then cashed. Residents were taken to court often, charged with Unlawful Detainers (UD), and threatened with eviction frequently. At times, residents report that the management forged tenant signatures to make it look as though residents signed off on documents claiming the building is in good shape when it is not.

The resident we were door knocking with has lived here for over ten years. She explained to me that because she is a section 8 resident (the government subsidizes some of her rent) she has nowhere else to go. Landlords receive the same amount of money regardless of if a resident is on section 8 vouchers or not, but these residents are often discriminated against regardless. This was the only complex that she could trust to let her live there, but she couldn’t trust the property manager not to steal from her. So, she started taking pictures and making copies of checks, damages, text messages and letters between her and the property manager and encouraged her neighbors to do the same. She has collected a stack of papers over an inch tall of all of the injustices she and others living here could document.

We then read the petition we had collected signatures for to the Brooklyn Center city council during public open forum and asked that the city ensure the building be kept to code. Mayor Wilson was rude and brushed us off. A few weeks later, we met with the head of the Department of Inspections and he said that there was basically nothing the city could do, despite broken fire alarms, stoves, cabinets, and missing doors within the units. We talked in circles with him and the residents but never came to a reasonable solution. The city can only step in when the building is “unlivable.” All other issues are part of a private contract, so the city claimed they were not responsible for all of the illegal actions of the property manager. Residents are afraid to call maintenance however because they are frequently wrongfully charged for the service. This means they often don’t call for maintenance and the units become unlivable. The city cannot intervene in these situations because the property manager is willing to provide services. The city has no stake in whether or not unlawful charges accompany this.

When we met with the city, staff advised these residents to hire a lawyer and take the property manager to court. These are citizens who can’t afford to pay their own rent. They can’t afford an attorney. They are being told that the city can do nothing to help them, and that the police can’t help them, even with stacks of evidence.

We at ACER are still fighting for these residents and are helping guide them to next steps, but I will forever be appalled by this situation. After our meetings with the city, they voted to renew the license of the property manager so that they could continue their work. The one thing the city might have been able to do to help these citizens (not renewing the license) was not something the city considered.

I am currently a double major with political science and the sociology of law, criminology, and deviance (with a Spanish minor). I figure that regardless of what my undergraduate studies entail, I will need to continue on to some form of graduate school. However, HECUA has shown me that what I have been trying to learn after paying thousands of dollars in tuition hasn’t compared to a month at an internship where I can experience the political systems first hand. I am debating dropping this major, graduating early and getting more experience similar to the internship I am currently a part of to learn more about how the community actually interacts with politicians, how change happens, and how I want to use that to direct my graduate studies.

Thank you HECUA for this amazing experience.