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I am a resident of Oxon Hill. In the last year, there has been an unmistakable tide of lower income residents moving into Prince George's County, especially in those neighborhoods, like mine, that hug the southeast border of the county. With that tide has come the rumblings of Prince George's County homeowners and residents who are dismayed by the increase in Section 8 residences and, let's be honest, poor neighbors. The tension is rising, but it is our responsibility to create a situation that does not end in conflict or flight. Let's re-create our community.

I live in a medium-sized, three-bedroom home with a nice lawn and well-manicured bushes out front. Our neighborhood has an unspoken agreement that we take care of our properties. This is important for two reasons. First, quite simply, it is nice to drive down your street at the end of a long day at work and see clean streets, yards free of fallen leaves, and yes, I admit, even the parallel streaks of freshly cut grass. Second, many of us hold the belief that one's surroundings invade one's sensibilities and may even inform the interactions between community members.

The Broken Windows Theory hypothesizes that communities that pay attention to small things like trash pickup, lawn care, abandon cars and broken windows are more likely to foster a sense of pride and thus, more likely to ward off the negative feelings that come with poverty: hopelessness and nihilism. So I am assuming it is not simply an aesthetic luxury that leads Timothy Lee of Upper Marlboro ["Concerned about Section 8 residents," Letters to the Editor, Oct. 22] to complain about his desire to keep his community the way it is.

To say, "I do not want drugs in my community," however, is distinctively different than, "I do not want Section 8 in my community," though we may fall into the trap of interchanging the two. African-American and Latino communities have long struggled with economic hardship and the variables that are often correlated with poverty, like high-crime rates, poor schools and a reliance on the black market to pay bills. African-Americans, as a people, have dealt with the effects of poverty since slavery, and those of us who were able to "make it out" were able to do so because of our community.

It's the little things that matter. I was on the P12 bus from Addison Road the other day when a mother with three toddlers and just as many grocery bags stepped onto the bus, immediately two elderly ladies grabbed two of the runaway toddlers and put them on their lap. We all benefit from this extended family we call our neighbors.

We must be careful not to use our declining property values as an excuse to scapegoat the poor for problems created by a history of political neglect and an international recession. Prince George's County has one of the worst foreclosure rates in the nation so there is a possibility that some of the people we refer to so coldly as "Section 8 residents" were once homeowners like ourselves. Even if our new neighbors are total strangers, there is no excuse to keep it that way.

A strong community is one that meets regularly and decides its long-term and short-term goals through consensus. This is why we elect council members and have civic associations. Let us, together, meet with our new neighbors and decide how to confront our mutual ambition: a safe, clean community. Once we have done this, I think homeowners and renters alike will find that our dreams for the community, large or small, are probably aligned. Who knows? We might even find some friends.

Desmond H. Serrette, Oxon Hill