One woman said she feared who might end up walking by her house. One group had to be quieted as people openly complained about the possibility of new neighbors.
If anything was clear at a Fort Wayne Plan Commission meeting two weeks ago, it was that residents of Slocum Pointe did not want low-income residents moving close.
“I deal with fights, I deal with all kinds of things,” Kenwood Avenue resident Lowell Foster told the Plan Commission on June 11.
Foster manages a low-income apartment complex on Maysville Road, although the Slocum Pointe developers have no ties to that complex.
“I get called out at all times of day and night to come down there and talk to the police about what's going on. And they have informed me they are trying to keep this kind of trouble south of the river,” Foster said.
At least one member of the Fort Wayne City Council is sympathetic.
During last week's Plan Commission business meeting, City Councilman Paul Ensley, R-1st, who was appointed to the commission as a City Council representative this year, voiced his distaste for government-subsidized housing.
“Frankly, I don't like subsidized housing at all. I think everybody should live where they can afford to live and pay their own way,” Ensley said. “We shouldn't even have these subsidies.”
The need for affordable housing is growing in Fort Wayne, city officials say, but misinformation and stigma surrounding proposed developments often result in neighborhood backlash and failed projects.