The Trojan Horse Effect

GUEST OPINION

USC-UVA-TMB drummajor .(Photo – commons.wikimedia.org, Bobak Ha’Eri).

I ran into my friend Mark on Wednesday. He was pulling a cart full of his belongings behind him.

By Mel Tillekeratne

“Moving?” I asked.

“Yeah, I just bought a house,” said Mark, a top executive at USC.
“Congrats,” I said. “I didn’t know you were looking to buy.”
“I wasn’t,” said Mark. “But USC put down fifty-thousand dollars towards my down payment. Couldn’t refuse to take it.”

“Is USC offering this to all employees?” “Kind of,” said Mark. “Well, as long as you buy a home within 2 miles of USC. They kind of want to clean up the neighborhood.” He said it with a smile.

This sent chills down my spine. Living in LA, USC becomes a part of your life. If you’re not a fan of their football team, then at least you have Trojans as some of your best friends like I do. This conversation woke me up to something I had never thought of before. What is the real effect of the University of Southern California on Los Angeles?

I have been in the fight against homelessness in LA for the past 6 years. In the last 2 I realized the inevitable, in this high priced rental market, we were fighting a losing battle. Angelenos, mostly working class Angelenos earning entry level wages, are becoming homeless by the droves in a housing market more and more catering only towards the rich. Coming across homeless families with kids has never been a shock to us. Coming across countless homeless families where both parents who are employed is. Mark’s statement opened my eyes. This past decade USC has been central to Downtown’s revitalization. After expanding their student body significantly, USC drew in developers like Geffrey Palmer who cater almost exclusively to USC kids.

Building ugly faux pas Italian buildings, putting in hundreds of units on top of each other, they offer things like direct shuttle service to USC, while also doing the inhumane. Palmer’s properties are known for using anti homeless devices on their grounds to stop homeless people from sitting or sleeping on them and he is also known for building bridges between his properties so that students can cross without having to encounter the homeless. Believe it or not his policies get worse. Palmer has successfully fought and won cases so that his properties don’t include Affordable Housing. Out of the over 4000 units he has built in Downtown LA, none accommodate a single Affordable Housing unit.

Usc traveler and band (Photo – commons.wikimedia.org).

Thousands of low income renters being displaced from Downtown LA due to this revitalization, thousands more are now struggling to keep up with rising rents in Boyle Heights, Highland Park, Echo Park, MacArthur Park and other surrounding areas. With USC now looking to cleanse the immediate area of locals who have called South LA home for decades, we can’t go on to ignore the effect USC is having on Los Angeles. Yes, there is violence in South LA, but what about the working class families who survive there? If they are priced out of South LA, comparatively one of the most affordable housing markets in LA, where are they supposed to go? Pomona, San Bernadino, or other areas with even less access to work and the same violence?

Some of my closest friends like Mike and Lynn went to USC, our organization Monday Night Mission owes a lot to many USC fraternities that have volunteered for years in force, and this is not their fault, or the fault of any of the students who go there, but unless USC jumps to the forefront of fighting for Affordable Housing in LA, their legacy will be of the Trojan Horse destroying Los Angeles from within.

Mel Tillekeratne organizes Monday Night Mission. Monday Night Mission goes to feed the homeless on Skid Row every weekday on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. On May 13, Mel will be at the Rents are Out of Control – Make LA Affordable Again! rally that he also organized.