An Urban Psychiatrist Suggests How We Describe Urban Displacement is Not Enough to Capture the Deep Trauma It Causes

Reality Check | WURD radio Special to ecoWURD

The New School Professor of Urban Health and Policy Dr. Mindy Fullilove talked with Charles Ellison, host of WURD’s Reality Check, about how much deep psychological trauma is caused by the phenomenon known as “gentrification.”  Fullilove suggests that cities aren’t considering the significant mental health toll the trend has on communities, particularly more vulnerable low income and historically disenfranchised Black communities. Fullilove is also author of “Urban Alchemy: Restoring Joy in America’s Sorted-Out Cities.”

“We do overlook how it feels to lose your neighborhood, it’s just a very traumatic thing,” says Fullilove. “Of course the problem in American cities is that it’s not a one-time thing. We’ve been having urban renewal and disinvestment and destruction of our neighborhoods for over 70 years now. For example, North Philadelphia as one neighborhood really, really suffered from disinvestment where blocks of housing were destroyed and that displaced a lot of people. How do we end this whole thing?  This displacement of neighborhoods. Losing that is profound.”