The story of 4 year old Rosie and her garden that was threatened with removal in a subsidized housing development in South Dakota continues to develop at a rapid pace.
According to Kitchen Gardeners International (KGI), the property management company handling the 8-unit rental property and the property owner where Rosie and her single, disabled mother Mary live have mutually agreed to build the family a new raised bed vegetable garden next spring. In addition, the garden will be available for other tenants of the complex.
While this is a wonderful victory for this family and the residents of the complex, unfortunately, it seems the USDA has been a no show in the resolution process and has yet to respond to inquiries as to whether it will establish a policy to prevent this sort of subsidized housing anti-gardening harassment in the future.
All the USDA seems able to do is deny that it had anything whatsoever to do with the problem in the first place despite the fact that the agency pays most of the rent for Mary and thousands of citizens like her around the United States.
The USDA should do the right thing and insist that property owners and managers of subsidized housing permit residents to grow their own food in well cared for gardens rather than look the other way when residents are bullied for their efforts at self sufficiency. After all, the stated mission of the USDA Rural Development Agency is to “improve the quality of life in rural America”. Gardening surely would be supportive of this important goal.
Roger Doiron, Director of KGI, had this to say about the announcement of raised gardening beds for Rosie in the spring of 2014:
“It’s a small victory, but hopefully one that will motivate local and federal decision-makers to make sure that others living in subsidized housing can enjoy the benefits of home-grown foods too.”
Let’s hope that Mr. Doiron’s optimism is not misplaced and policies are indeed put in place so this type of situation never occurs again.
Given the USDA’s washing of its hands concerning Rosie and Mary’s predicament, however, I am not at all convinced that the USDA will proactively change its ways anytime soon.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Source: Kitchen Gardeners International
(just to check to get the follow-up comments)
So is anybody actually helping this little girl now?
At first the USDA was the enemy for telling us what to do. Well, that was not true. Now they are the enemy for not telling someone else, a property owner, what to do. It seems they can’t win. Of note is that without the USDA program providing rent assistance, the 4 yo and her mother would likely have a harder life.
It seems more likely that property management either misinterpreted a USDA rule governing those accepting renting to Section 515 recipient or used them as a scapegoat. My money is on the latter.
It is a little late, but it would be instructive to see the lease. If it did not specifically allow for a garden, then management, working on behalf of the owner, has the right to remove the garden. While this is (expletive) thing to do, it is very legal and constitutional. The lease is what governs the relationship between renter and landlord.
You’re right … the USDA just can’t win as it shouldn’t even exist in the first place.
I remember ww2,We all victory gardens in a housing project we lived in . We grew everything and all shared,the work ,harvest ,putting it up. I someone got sick we made soup,bread. we went fishing,clamming you name it,We survived healthy . Grow your garden .
Is there any way that we can thank the property management company for doing this? it’s wonderful!
I’m happy that the property management company went the extra mile and is seemingly not only allowing, but encouraging gardens for their residents. That’s a huge victory. As far as the USDA, they are useless and we’d all be better off without them. They are right to stay out of this and all food freedoms.
While I certainly am glad the girl gets to keep her garden, the USDA has no Constitutional authority even to exist, let alone to promulgate regulations about property management organizations and how they handle home gardens. If we beg the USDA to claim that authority, we will hardly have standing to complain whey they try, for instance, to force a national animal identification scheme on us.
The problem with the USDA and other too-much-power extensions of the federal executive branch is that they make up “rules” when it suits them and claim “no rules” when it doesn’t. There is no oversight of these agencies other than a long, expensive court battle and they just keep getting bigger and bigger and more powerful every year bullying whomever and whatever their corporate overlords like Monsanto want as the corporations have the lobbying and financial power to pull the strings.
This is why small farms and individuals like Rosie are having a tougher time with each passing day exercising simple rights like producing their own food.