Wendy receives $745 a month in Social Security disability for low vision and borderline personality disorder.
She receives $79 a month in SNAP benefits. Wendy says living with violence on Quincy’s north side is like a little Chicago.
April 2017: Wendy is consoled by a friend when she tells him her girlfriend of 13 years broke up with her two days earlier.
“Before my vision got as worse at it is right now, I used to work in a factory, fast food, you name it. Then I became fully disabled, and now I'm on this,” Wendy said. “My vision's always been bad, since birth. They say that you're born with borderline personality disorder too. I’m not sure about that, but here I am now.”
Wendy says she gets health insurance benefits to help pay for her medications and doctor visits.
“I get my medicine, and that's really all I worry about,” she said. “I can go in the hospital if I need to, and I'll be covered. It's important, because I'm nothing without my medication. If I didn't take those medicines, I don't know where I would be right now.”
Wendy says she hears a fight outside every night while living on the north side of Quincy.
“One day, these guys are going to bring a gun to this fight, and it's going to go straight through our window, through the alley right there and everything,” she said. “People fighting all the time, running everywhere, going crazy for their drugs. It's just not a safe place at night, and any more, during the day either. Just move onto the north side. You'll find out. Just don't go out at night. North side of Quincy's dangerous, and there's anxiety when people start pulling out their guns and shooting each other. I guess the north side of town's basically Quincy's ghetto. Best way I can explain it.”
You see domestic violence like anything here. Just the other day, I saw some guy climb up on his girl's chest, beat the hell out of her. Nobody did anything, just sat there and watched. Isn't that crazy? So yeah, there's a lot of anxiety right there. There's not much to say about Quincy. It's become a little Chicago. At least that's what people call it.”
The Census Bureau defines a census tracts of “high poverty density” as any tract that has 20 percent or more residents living in poverty.
“The critical issue is competent and honest government to plan and attract funding for necessary infrastructure and transport. Without government integrity and commitment to long-term projects in the national interest, corrupt officials or vested interests often hijack development. Removing unnecessary red tape (e.g. simplifying building permit procedures) is fine if leaner administration can still block 'predator' development which, while it perhaps attenuates housing affordability in the short term, can lock precincts into impoverished development trajectories, accentuating risk polarization (flood, earthquake and disease). In short, the real issue is increasing the supply of sustainable housing to support productive communities. It involves leadership, governance and competent planning regimes which actually listen to and advocate for people, not just rich ones. - Simon Huston, Royal Agriculture University.