At the February 1976 housing protest in front of Harry Truman College, Uptown residents passed out literature describing the horrific housing conditions they endured at the hands of slumlords. The protest was aimed at slumlords who bought up housing on the cheap, then failed to maintain the property. Allegedly, they knew it would be years before their cases made their way through housing court. In the meantime, by skipping maintenance, they would be maximizing their profit. I collected a handful of personal testimonies that day, including one from this man. I still have them paper-clipped to my contact sheet. They document leaky plumbing, holes in walls, backed up sewage, garbage littering property, lack of heat, rodents and more. Hundreds of people attended this rally. The conditions they complained about were common in Uptown.
