NIMBY Culture Comes To The Hood

The incessantly parroted mantra by certain black pressure groups that there are too many black men in America’s prisons does not appear to be shared by the black residents of Fayetteville, North Carolina.

According to the 2020 census, over 40% of the city is black, and they appear to be opposing plans to build a halfway house there to a man and woman. A halfway house is known in Britain as a probation hostel. Here, they house men (and on occasion women) who are homeless, cannot reside in their own homes for some reason, or who have been sent there by order of the court. Residents include those on bail awaiting trial or sentencing. 

In the United States, a halfway house is slightly different. It may be dedicated for the use of people who have substance abuse issues – an increasing problem in this troubled world – and also for people – again largely men – who have been discharged from prison but have nowhere to go.

A halfway house or something similar is necessary if these people are to be reintegrated into society to lead productive or at the very least non-parasitic lives. Without proper support such men can end up serving a life sentence on the instalment plan. For women there is of course an equally unpalatable alternative. Halfway houses can be run by the government or by charities and other private sector organisations, but just as nobody wants to live next door to a glue factory or a rubbish dump, nobody wants to live next door to a halfway house. And certainly nobody wants a halfway house moving in next door to them. 

In one of his regular live hangouts, AK Nation covered this issue pointing out candidly that Black America has its own NIMBY culture. All those interviewed by WRAL NEWS voiced their objection to the project. This halfway house has actually been planned for several years. The organisation behind it is Dismas. Founded in 1964, it is named after a biblical character who appears in the Apocrypha rather than the Bible proper.

A petition against the halfway house attracted only 674 signers, but it was fought against in the courts, which have now decided finally it will go ahead.

It will likely house eighty men and twenty women, which does rather suggest there will be little if any risk to concerned residents.