Some residents at 27th and T streets are having problems that range from harassment to physical violence. It’s been going on for some time and residents want it to stop.
Southside Terrace is one of the last and largest housing projects in the city and there is trouble there. Somali residents are protesting, saying the violence they have to deal with has just become too much.
"People getting beat up every day right in front of their house when they didn't do anything to nobody while they try to go to work, they're having problems going to work,” said one resident. “I think this is something like a hate crime, something like that.”
“We having a lot of problems about gangs, people here, they're in a gang and stuff and they keep on beating us,” said resident Makai Adan.
City Councilman Ben Gray is also an OHA commissioner and is helping to solve the problem. He says the Somalis have called authorities, but there is a problem with communication.
“The language problem and understanding how things work were the problems with authority,” said Gray. “The harassment, that's just people being mean spirited.”
Gray understands why people are protesting. He called a meeting Tuesday and explained that the problems will be solved though dialogue and better understanding.
"If we have residents within our property having confusion, we know what to do with that and we will do that post haste if they live in District 2. We will enforce the nuisance ordinance and we will get after those people making things difficult. If there are misunderstandings, we will try to fix them.”
Gray said these things will take time to fix, but he adds there will be peace at Southside Terrace. Gray said there will be another meeting with the OHA residents on Wednesday. Members of the Omaha Police Department and City Council will be there.
Source: WOWT.com
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