Dr. Nitoric Jenkins, EdD

  As traditional urban neighborhoods across the United States gentrify, ethical leaders and social justice supporters have become increasingly concerned about the displacement of residents due to unaffordable housing. The trajectory of this research study is reflective of the impacts of gentrification to urban neighborhoods while supporting Neil Smith (1979) toward a theory of gentrification a back to the city movement by capital, not people, theory. The overarching question addressed by this research study is: What are the lived experiences of gentrification for the current multigenerational residents, afforded-in residents, and pushed-out displaced residents of the Fourth Ward Midtown Houston community? The research sample examined three different perspectives that consisted of six residents’ (four males and two females) perceptions of gentrification by conducting interviews to fully understand their paradigm voices in Midtown Houston, Texas, formally known as Fourth Ward Freemen’s Town. Dr. Nitoric Jenkins, Ed.D., MBA 

 Significant findings emerged as contributing factors to understand redevelopment to an urban community: (1) the Community Development Corporation’s (CDC) role, (2) the dark underbelly of gentrification, (3) seeing both sides of gentrification, (4) property tax increases, (5) economic segregation and re-gentrification, (6) monopoly rental properties, (7) illegal redlining real estate practices resurfaced, and (8) affordable housing insecurities. The phenomenon of gentrification is described as an economic shift in urban planning infrastructure management, an occurrence that is happening in metropolitan cities across the United States. Dr. Nitoric Jenkins, Ed.D., MBA