Public Housing Residents Making Their Courtyard Safe From Drugs

ABSTRACT

This pilot study examines how children and their caretakers who live in public housing experience and manage drug activities that surround them. Consistent with social disorganization/collective efficacy models and defensible space theory, findings from 2 focus groups suggest that monitoring children, shared values about parenting, and screening strangers entering the community helped residents establish a safe environment with healthy principles. Residents insulated their courtyard neighborhood from outside public housing residents, presumably to minimize competition over resources and restrict what they see as negative influences. Social work community practitioners need to tap into the collective efficacy of these vital neighborhoods to help the broader public housing community.

Keywords:

• Focus group
• public housing
• drugs
• community practice
• women
• youth

This work was supported in part by a grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (#DU100A070196000) as part of the Tulane-Xavier Campus Affiliates program. The authors would like to thank Larry Hurst, Carmen Jones, and Dr. Sarah Kreutziger for their assistance.

Notes

1. The future of this project is uncertain. Resident efforts to improve their situation in this New Orleans community have been stymied due to the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina. The housing development where this study was conducted remains vacated 1.5 years after the hurricane and many of its residents are scattered throughout the country.