My social problem has a lot to do with the relation of power of those it affects. Gentrification disproportionately affects low income communities of color, those who are marginalized, left to feel they have no voice or advocate, usually not as educated, and sedentary careers with no projection of upward progress. When their safety net and support system and community is stripped from them, their identity and power go along with it. This is what we need to strive to save and uplift: culture and support systems.

The identity, power, and positionality of those people who have the power to enact or start the process of change is incredibly important and potentially detrimental to this social issue. If a social worker identifies as a black female who grew up impoverished and now lives in a gentrified neighborhood, her feelings around the issue could possibly go either way. On one hand, she could hold more empathy for this issue because she has lived and seen first hand the effects or she could approach this issue as a way to push the residents to do better, to be better, to dig themselves from the whole, encouraging individualism. Depending on the lawmaker she talks to, she may get them to agree with her. There are many law makers and developers who only see green and will find any study, cherry pick, and end up with confirmation bias to prevent assisting the residents with what they may need.

The voice and perspective of those influencing policy decisions are not only federal lawmakers, but local government legislators. This is something that should be solved or mediated on the local level before pushing it federally, but we rarely see the support on that or if we do, it is not consistent. The ones I see in power, besides the obvious federal and state legislators and senates, we have celebrities. Jay-Z, T.I., Queen Latifah, and Shaq are among the list of incredibly successful black people who are trying to give back to the communities by providing funding for more low income apartments and developments. I want to say people listen to them the most because they have money first and foremost, but also because they are consistent. They've consistently given back to their communities, inspired by their own lived experiences with poverty.