Lauren

Lauren Gunther Hist: Social Change Week 4 Internship Reflection

Today was a good day. Everyone was a little late because of the ice and bad driving conditions. I started the day like I always do: filing bank statements! However I got a chance to talk to Bill and he said that MHIC would love an intern for the month of May, for the senior project. Unfortunately, I’ve decided to go the science route, but I’m hoping someone else from Beaver will be interested. I had the chance to eat lunch with Joe Flatley today, and I finally got to ask him some questions. I learned a lot about the realities of what MHIC does and what kinds of factors control their ability for success. Currently, MHIC is working on helping people to buy triple-decker homes in Boston. Due to the economic crisis and the crumbling real estate market, tons and tons of homes are being foreclosed. This is not only bad news for the people who lived in the foreclosed homes, but the foreclosures impacts the neighborhoods around them in significant ways. Triple-decker homes make up a lot of the real estate in low-income neighborhoods in Boston. I can attest to this, I think we all can: when you drive down Dorchester Avenue, Hyde Park Ave, Columbia Road, or Blue Hill Ave, the majority of the houses are triple-deckers. When these houses get foreclosed, they’re unlikely to be bought for a long time because few people can afford to buy a house given the present economic climate. The people who can afford to buy houses right now are not looking for houses in low-income neighborhoods. When the houses don’t get bought, it brings the neighborhood down. The house may fall into disrepair or may be used for illegal activities. One example of when this happened was in Dudley Square in the eighties. The empty lots and broken down houses affected property values of the occupied houses surrounding it. The foreclosed houses are dragging down the neighborhoods they’re in, making it even less likely that they’ll ever be bought again. MHIC is currently working to help people from low-income families to buy these foreclosed houses through grants, loans, and other funds. They’ll work with banks to subsidize loans and mediate so that everyone benefits. This is so much easier said than done. Joe has been working overtime constantly since the recession, and MHIC is really feeling the it, just like any other business. Hopefully, MHIC can help to sell enough foreclosed homes to prevent this sort of erosion of Boston’s neighborhoods. My talk with Joe today really helped me to start thinking about what I want to research and write about in my paper. I want to analyze poverty in an urban setting. I want to learn about the different systems, people, and organizations that prevent and provoke poverty. I think further exploring the effects that real estate has had on low-income neighborhoods would be interesting. In terms of global systems, I could try to apply the urban poverty formula to other regions of the world and see how it relates and changes.

My fifth week with MHIC went smoothly; I did nothing new. Auditors came in to do some auditing so I had to move from my usual work space. Auditors assess financial statements from the corporation and determine how efficient the company is.
 * Week 5**

My sixth week was no different than other weeks at MHIC. I copied, sorted, scanned, and emailed bank statements to Bill. I extracted bank statements and uploaded them in to the company's database. The auditors were in again this week.
 * Week 6**

My last week with MHIC went the same way the previous six had. Bill was suprised that it was my last day even though I reminded him last week. Although I wish the work I did for MHIC was more interesting and engaging, I know that bank statements are the staple of any finance company, and the work I was doing was tedious but vitally important. I am happy to have been a part of an organization that has such a positive impact on Boston and its surrounding communities.
 * Week 7**


 * Letter to Obama**

Dear Mr. President,

I am a high school senior taking a history class called Social Change. Over the past trimester, we have studied global systems and how they affect social development. One unit that we have focused on is micro-loans and their impact on communities that implement them. As you probably already know, micro-loans are small sum loans ranging from $25 to $200. Organizations such as the Micro-loan Foundation primarily target women, hoping to bolster the economic stability of small, rural, often-impoverished communities. The idea is that all these women need is a small amount of money to start their business or get out of debt, and that the micro-loan will help boost them above the poverty line. Micro-loans are thought to be sustainable since they stimulate the economy while ensuring that the women will be able to pay the modest loans back. However, many organizations handing out micro-loans fail to address the delicate gender roles and subsequent social and familial implications that empowering women with money may have on the well being of the people involved. Too often, the husband ends up with the loan and spends it contradictorily to the way the wife wanted to spend it. This undermines the idea that micro-loans boost the economy in third world villages as well as the idea that it empowers women. I think that the United States government should seriously consider employing micro-loans as a viable way to help countries in need. The success of micro-loans always brings positive and progressive change to the community. However, I think that the way in which the loans are given and monitored should not fit the social models of the West, but the social models of the various and unique communities involved. I hope that you will seriously consider and look into this important and promising humanitarian issue. Thank you,

Lauren Gunther