How Long-Term Residents Experience Gentrification In Real Time
She Has Lived In The Same Building For Fifty-Three Years And She Is The Last Original Tenant
I moved to Shoreditch in 1971 when the neighborhood was industrial and working-class. I rented a flat with my husband. We worked locally. We knew all our neighbors. The neighborhood was a genuine community: people knew each other, supported each other, shared cultural and economic space.
The neighborhood transformed completely over fifty-three years. The factories closed. The working-class residents moved away. The neighborhood gentrified. My husband died fifteen years ago. My children moved away. My friends moved away. I remained because this is my home.
I am now the last original tenant in my building. The other flats are owned by investors who rent them to young professionals earning £60,000 to £90,000 annually. I am the oldest person in the building. I am the only person with roots in the neighborhood longer than fifteen years. I am the only person who knew the neighborhood before gentrification.
The building serves as example of gentrification timeline: a building that housed working-class families for seventy years now houses temporary tech workers for two to three year periods. The building changed entirely while I remained in it.
I cannot afford to move. My rent is controlled through pre-gentrification lease terms. If I left I could not find housing anywhere I could afford. So I stay in the building surrounded by people who do not speak my language, do not know the neighborhood’s history, do not understand what was lost when the neighborhood gentrified.
I am living document of gentrification. My presence in the building shows what was there before. My continued existence in a gentrified neighborhood is evidence of who was displaced and who remained.
SOURCE: https://prat.uk
