On Friday, April 4, students from Assistant Professor of Geography Madeleine Hamlin’s Geography 353/Sociology 353 course, Housing and Homelessness, visited People First, the public housing authority of Utica, New York. After learning extensively about public and affordable housing in class, students received a personalized tour of three housing authority properties, guided by the organization’s executive director and several staff members.
Students saw low-rise public housing that was built in 1937 — some of the oldest in the country — and is due to be redeveloped soon, a scattered-site townhouse development in the heart of a city neighborhood, and a brand-new (still under construction) warehouse-style apartment building that will house a mixture of low-income families and youth aged 18–24 who are transitioning directly out of homelessness. The tour concluded with a pizza dinner at People First headquarters, where students met additional staff members asked questions about People First’s housing and social service programs.
People First staff were impressed by students’ inquisitive and sophisticated questions about housing policy, which led to engaging discussions on the field trip and in class about, for example, the specific challenges of housing in Utica (an impoverished city that is also a refugee resettlement site); whether residents should be moved out of housing once their income exceeds set limits or whether housing authorities should prioritize residential stability; and how housing authorities should think about eviction policies for low-income renters.
The class is extremely grateful for the time and generosity of the hosts at People First and funding from the Beyond Colgate program, which made the trip possible. One student said this about the trip: “I really enjoyed walking the units that we have read so much about and seeing their evolution over the decades. . . [I]t brought the issue of public housing and homelessness even more to life.”