The Pope and Laundry

As some of you know, the Pope generates a fair amount of laundry, but I am not going to write a long piece about the clothing care of his pink, purple, black, white, red, and green vestments. Some people are very concerned about his shoes and his Santa hat, his black sweater and his white socks, but I am writing to you today to make sure that you take time to read the MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS POPE BENEDICT XVI FOR THE CELEBRATION OF THE WORLD DAY OF PEACE, called IF YOU WANT TO CULTIVATE PEACE, PROTECT CREATION.

You do not need to agree with the Pope or accept the teachings of the Catholic Church to see the wisdom in many of his remarks. It is my hope that the year ahead will provide us all an opportunity to question the way we live. In particular, I want to draw attention to the fifth paragraph:

It should be evident that the ecological crisis cannot be viewed in isolation from other related questions, since it is closely linked to the notion of development itself and our understanding of man in his relationship to others and to the rest of creation. Prudence would thus dictate a profound, long-term review of our model of development, one which would take into consideration the meaning of the economy and its goals with an eye to correcting its malfunctions and misapplications. The ecological health of the planet calls for this, but it is also demanded by the cultural and moral crisis of humanity whose symptoms have for some time been evident in every part of the world.[8] Humanity needs a profound cultural renewal; it needs to rediscover those values which can serve as the solid basis for building a brighter future for all. Our present crises – be they economic, food-related, environmental or social – are ultimately also moral crises, and all of them are interrelated. They require us to rethink the path which we are travelling together. Specifically, they call for a lifestyle marked by sobriety and solidarity, with new rules and forms of engagement, one which focuses confidently and courageously on strategies that actually work, while decisively rejecting those that have failed. Only in this way can the current crisis become an opportunity for discernment and new strategic planning.

Public Housing Transformation and the Banning of Clotheslines

I am a professor at Georgia State University doing a study on public housing transformation in Atlanta. The Atlanta Housing Authority is in the final process of closing down and demolishing all of its traditional project-based public housing. Qualified residents are relocated with the help of a rental subsidy to private market housing. Although there are many criteria for qualifying one of them is the requirement of attending and "graduating from" the "Good Neighborhood Program".
In this program residents are 'taught' how to be 'good neighbors' in private rental housing.

Among other things, they are told not to hang their clothes out to dry. This is consider too "ghetto". However, this is a practice routinely done within the public housing communities. Mainly because drying in a drying costs money -- money these folks don't typically have.

While there are no local laws on the books banning clotheslines, many of the private rental market properties (mainly apartment complexes) won't allow this practice.

This creates something of a conflict. Because unlike public housing, the rental subsidized housing does not cover any utility payments. Or the utility allowance is very low (depending on family size). Typically, the rental housing apartments come equipt with washers and dryers so residents don't have to depend on coin-operated machines. However, in-home dryers end up increasing the utility cost to the residents and many of them have a take-home income of less than $1000 per month. Thus the inability to have clotheslines means that the relocated residents have higher monthly expenses and utilities is one of the largest. In Atlanta, landlords typically charges residents for water use as well.