Michael Jacobson-Hardy

Meadowbrook Apartments is just a few blocks away from where I live and work. It came to my attention in September that that complex was up for sale and that 252 subsidized apartments could be converted into market-rate units, forcing many residents to either leave the city or live in the streets. All of the tenants were worried. Some said that if they were lucky, they might be able to find a bed in a homeless shelter, but these beds are hard to come by. Many suffer from disabilities and would be hard-pressed to afford to live in Northampton.

The issue is money: Aspen Square Management bought the complex in April 2001 for $9 million with the option of converting the units to market rates. They hope to sell the housing complex for a substantial profit. The company owns 124 properties in 27 states.

I met Emma Morgan, Chairperson of the Save Our Homes Meadowbrook Tenants Association at a rally in front of City Hall. I mentioned that I was planning to make a series of photographs for an exhibition at the Smith College Museum of Art. We talked about my making photographs of some of the tenants and having them write about their concerns.

My project for the exhibition will consist of some of these tenant portraits plus excerpts from their essays. One woman asked after I told her that her portrait would be hanging at the Smith College Museum of Art, “Do I have to pay to see the exhibit?” Her question was echoed by several project participants—for many, the 34 million dollar renovated fine arts center, referred to at its grand re-opening as the jewel of Northampton, seemed a world away.

As social services are being cut across the state of Massachusetts and throughout the United States, we must examine the issue of affordable housing. Who gets to live here and what resources are made available to low income people must be made a topic of discussion and debate. Whether or not we have homes for all kinds of people, from all walks of life, is a measure of the merits or failings of our economic system.

Biography

Born in Worcester, Massachusetts, 1951. Lives in Florence, Massachusetts.

A largely self-taught photographer, Michael Jacobson-Hardy has been combining his interests in photography and social justice since 1987. In addition to numerous exhibitions of his project-based photographs focused on social, class, and race issues in the U.S., Jacobson-Hardy has authored a number of books including: In the Spirit of Peace (2004), Beyond the Razor Wire: Portrait of an American Prison System (1999), The Changing Landscape of Labor (1996), and Facing Education (1994).