Rally shows support for Kent’s elders
SAM VERBULECZ
Although most of the Silver Oaks residents have moved elsewhere, the fight isn’t over yet, according to neighborhood activists.
Resident at the Respect Your Elders Rally
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Video by Megan Moore
A crowd of more than 80 people attended the Respect Your Elders Rally at the Home Savings Plaza in downtown Kent Friday evening to support the residents’ fight against eviction.
In late July, 250 residents of the 55 and older housing complex were informed they have until Oct. 1 — 60 days — to move out before Capstone Development Corporation, a Birmingham, Ala. company, repurposes the property for student housing.
“I think they’re being — for a lack of a better word — screwed,” said Tim Thompson. “People have been living there for 25 to 30 years and I don’t see the problem with continuing to let them live there.”
On Thursday, Capstone Development, who won’t officially own the property until the end of the year, stated on its website that less than 20 Silver Oaks Place residents remain at the complex without a scheduled move-out date.
“I think Capstone is making up the numbers,” said Avery Friedman, a legal counselor for the residents. “Not only is that statement to the media not true, my fear is that it’s going to be printed as if it were true.”
Students at the Respect Your Elders Rally
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Video by Loren Thomas
Speakers at the rally included Kent City Council members Robin Turner and Tracy Wallach; Chris Yambar, an activist and writer for the Simpsons comic books; Arlyne Habeeb, a community organizer for the Community Action Council of Portage County; and Maj Ragain, a poet and son of a Silver Oaks resident.
Not everyone at the Respect Your Elders Rally had a personal or professional connection to Silver Oaks residents, including the two major organizers who came up with the idea for the five-hour event.
Ramone, a freshman at Theodore Roosevelt High School, said she and her sister Midge, a fifth grader, came up with the idea for the rally after hearing about the situation through their father.
“This is something happening in my community and I don’t want Kent to have a bad name for it,” Ramone said.
The sisters performed during the event under their band name ShiSho.
On Thursday, Ramone sent an open letter to the leaders of Capstone Development, encouraging the company to reverse its eviction plans and convert Silver Oaks Place to a “mixed generational housing complex,” which would allow current residents to stay and welcome students to fill the complex’s vacancies.
“Capstone would still make their profit,” Ramone wrote in her open letter posted on the Facebook pages for Respect Your Elders Rally and ShiSho.
“The City of Kent would still get increased tax money. Kent State University would still get extra housing while setting an example for campus generational diversity. And Capstone would generate goodwill for being a considerate new member of Kent, Ohio.”
Molly Taggart, a communication studies graduate, said she thinks the eviction was harsher than it needed to be.
“It could’ve been a phased-in, phased-out project,” she said. “Chances are if you did this over multiple years you’d find students who would want to live there and you’d also find some of our elderly people who would not want to live there in the end. But it can be a more gradual, calm process.”
Contact Simon Husted at [email protected].