A stronger foundation: Housing Authority takes steps to improve on its mission

We know that plans have been in place for at least a couple of years now for the Goldsboro Housing Authority to demolish some of its older, more dilapidated apartments.

It seems that process will begin this year.

The Goldsboro Housing Authority has, in fact, been working toward a number of goals that will have, it stands to reason, positive implications for its residents and the city.

The most pressing issue is deconcentrating poverty. It's no secret that Goldsboro is home to a large number of public housing projects -- squirreling away the most impoverished of its residents -- into pockets of unseen and all but forgotten territories within the city, mostly invisible to those just passing through.

Certainly that wasn't the intent when the communities were designed, some more than a half-century ago, others not long after. But it is inarguably a byproduct of their placement, as are the food deserts that surround them. Access to health care, child care and transportation hubs are also limited, making each of the respective projects an island unto itself.

It seems GHA CEO Anthony Goodson and staff are working to solve some of these issues by reducing the number of homes in these respective projects, by beautifying some of the surrounding areas, by adding high-tech security cameras to deter crime and by growing the authority's jobs and education programs offered to its residents.

Indeed, it all sounds good on paper, and we have no reason to believe any of it is lip service. Quite the opposite -- as we said, a number of these measures have been in the works for years and are now coming to fruition.

And if we have been impatient in their implementation, imagine how restless the residents -- the much larger, law abiding population and not the criminal -- must be in awaiting their arrival.

Published in Editorials on January 28, 2018 8:50 PM