Urbanities,
Vol. 4
·
No 2
·
November 2014
© 2014
Urbanities
12
release houses are of Hispanic persuasion. From this we determined that shared symbolic
fears about the halfway houses were more or less directly related to a common distaste that
local white residents had toward the Puerto Rican community. Few interviewees specifically
mentioned race as a factor, however it was apparent that some did not distinguish Puerto
Rican citizens in the community and Puerto Ricans that lived in the halfway houses.
Part of this racial tension is undoubtedly due to the history of the community when during
the 1970s an influx of Puerto Rican emigrants threatened to displace Caucasian workers from
their factory jobs. While the closing of the factories means that immigrants no longer
threatened workers in the area economically, Caucasian residents were quick to unite in their
statements against the Hispanic population. One Caucasian man, age 41, stated,
‘
The
complexion of the community changed and as far as I’m concerned, I think the biggest
problem is the melding of the cultures. Just reluctance. . . It seems to me reluctance on the
part of the Hispanic community to not integrate with the non-Hispanic community. There has
been a flight — definitely. And real estate values have plummeted and they have not come
back appreciably’.
Many of our interviewees expressed disgust at the site of halfway houses in the
neighbourhood even though some of the halfway houses were better maintained than the
homes of local residents. We heard stories about ‘the strange men who sit on the front porch
of the halfway house smoking cigarettes’ and how they mostly frightened the residents. ‘They
just stand out there eyeing up the people, looking menacing and smoking cigarettes,’ said
Hannah, a 28-year-old Caucasian female, who added, ‘They smoke them one after the other
and then ash them in rusty old coffee cans’.
Halfway house residents are mostly minorities and they look vastly out of place on
Chestnut Lane, and such appearances fit the criminal stereotype well in the minds of certain
residents. Many of them have tattoos and wear ill-fitting clothes, most of which are donations.
A local halfway house worker, John, a 35-year-old Caucasian man, said, ‘The local residents
glare at them with contentious looks. They [the halfway house residents] can’t stand that.
Sometimes local residents increase the speed at which they walk by the house . . . you can just
tell that they are scared of these guys!’
A few parents we interviewed now tell their children not to go ‘riding bikes past’ or
‘playing near’ this house, and they have a good reason as far as they are concerned. Why not?
The house is a habitat of multiple persons with criminal records. It is a halfway house. We are
aware of concerns people have about the siting of halfway houses. Kilburn and Costanza
(2011) highlight many stories of residents concerned about the presence of homes and their
inhabitants altering the character of the neighbourhood. One story they note from the
Los
Angeles Times
quotes a little girl stating ‘Daddy won’t let me play outside anymore. I don’t
want to play outside because of those crazy men’ (Bailey 1985).
While the halfway house residents may not feel welcome and frequently suffer
contentious glares, the men in this house are nevertheless grateful to be on Chestnut Lane. As
one halfway house resident stated, ‘After 28 days you start to clear up pretty much mentally
and see the true picture . . . the counsellor I had there said, “I don’t think you should go right
back home. I don’t think it’s a good idea. I don’t think you have your sober feet on the ground
