Nathalie Escobar
Professor Stafford Grègoire
English 101-0804
October 25, 2006
The Humanity of People in Public Housing
In today’s society, people still have stereotypes of people living in public housing.
However, stereotypical people state their comments through the views of bad reputation
of public housing. The residents of public housing are not all bad, many still have a
heart. Street Dreams complicates the stereotypes of public housing to show humanity of
public housing residents.
Street Dreams describes the criminal and working classes together to remind the
reader that the ghetto is a complex environment where the good and the bad live together.
“Darkness had come to the projects and with the creatures of the night.
The working class were locking themselves away within their safe lives,
preparing to bed down, while the hustlers were just rising. As the inky
blackness covered the streets, the children of the night crept from their
hiding places” (Street Dreams, p101).
This quote illustrates that the working class are mostly up in the daytime. They go
to work to do their daily shifts and that when they come home, they mind their business
off the streets and go straight to bed. When night dawns, the evil from the streets awaken
and chaos begins. The people that deal with violence and hustling hide in the daytime
and come out at night to do their duties. The ghetto is a complex place where people
mind their own business and the good and bad live together. You said that this doesn’t
really analyze the passage and that I had to use the 2x rule. I did use the 2x rule and it
was an analysis because I didn’t state the obvious and I put it in my own words.
Foye describes Rio as a person with a good heart even though he is considered a
“person of the streets.”
“By most standards Rio was a good kid. Smart, well educated, and selfspoken. He was respectful to his elders and fair when dealing with people
on the streets” (Street Dreams, p1).
Rio was displayed as a strong masculine person that dealt with the streets well.
He kept the local czar in place and he was well respected by people. He has a high
reputation in the streets, but he had compassion with people that were close to him. Even
if Rio was a “person of the streets,” he still had manners for the elderly. Rio was a wellrounded person, intelligent, handsome and talked like an educated man. He mostly, he
was weak at heart when it came to his beloved Trinity. He was in love with Trinity and
would do anything for her. He cared more about her than of the streets. No matter how
much Rio was a “person of the streets” he still had the heart for the people that were most
dear to him.
Family ties in the ghetto are strong and binding even though they have very little
communication with one another. In family relationships, they can be close but there’s
always a space between each other which secrets are hidden.
“Billy came into the kitchen and stood in the doorway. She had been
ducking her little brother’s questioning eyes for the past day or so. She
really didn’t know what she could tell him to put his mind at ease. No
matter how much she dances around the issue, she knew she would
eventually have to tell her youngest sibling that their father would not be
returning” (Street Dreams, p128).
This statement shows it was difficult for Trinity to put in words about her father’s
death. She didn’t want to put it in an offensive way that her youngest brother Billy would
be uncomfortable. She wanted to explain the situation to Billy in an easier and calm way.
Billy knew there was something wrong about Trinity, but Trinity didn’t have the strength
to tell Billy about their father’s death. Trinity loved her little brother but she was afraid
to tell him. In the ghetto family ties are strong and binding, but with little communication
secrets dwell amongst each other.
Street Dreams complicated the stereotypes of public housing to show the
humanity. It was a way to show the truth of how the criminal and working classes would
live together. Also, to show how a person as Rio was manipulated by the streets and the
hustle for money even though he was a good person. Street Dreams portrays Rio as a
person with compassion and consideration, and to show how family ties in the ghetto are
binding. Street Dreams shows that despite the bad reputation of public housing, good
people dwell there.