Background
Public housing in the United States has been administered by federal, state, and local agencies to provide subsidized assistance for low-income people and those living in poverty. Now increasingly provided in a variety of settings and formats, originally public housing in the U.S. consisted of one or more blocks of low-rise and/or high-rise apartment buildings operated by a government agency. Subsidized apartment buildings in the U.S. are usually called housing projects, and the slang term for a group of these buildings is "the projects".
Public Housing
In 1937, the Wagner-Stegall Housing Act established the United States Housing Authority Housing Act (USHA) of 1937. Building on the Housing Division's organizational and architectural precedent, the USHA built housing in the build-up to World War II, supported war-production efforts, and battled the housing shortage that occurred after the end of the war. In the 1960s, across the nation, housing authorities became key partners in urban renewal efforts, constructing new homes for those displaced by highway, hospital, and other public efforts.
One of the most unique U.S. public housing initiatives was the development of subsidized middle-class housing during the late New Deal (1940–42) under the auspices of the Mutual Ownership Defense Housing Division of the Federal Works Agency under the direction of Colonel Lawrence Westbrook. The residents purchased these eight projects after the Second World War and as of 2009 seven of the projects continue to operate as mutual housing corporations owned by their residents. These projects are among the very few definitive success stories in the history of the U.S. public housing effort.
Public housing in its earliest decades was usually much more working-class and middle-class and white than it was by the 1970s. Many Americans associate large, multi-story towers with public housing, but early projects, like the Ida B. Wells projects in Chicago, were actually low-rise towers. Le Corbusier superblocks caught on before World War II, as seen in the (union built) Penn South houses in New York.
Hylan Houses Bushwick, Brooklyn NY
The 20-story John F. Hylan Houses in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn, New York City.
The Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 created the Section 8 Housing Program to encourage the private sector to construct affordable homes. This kind of housing assistance helps poor tenants by giving a monthly subsidy to their landlords. This assistance can be 'project based,' which applies to specific properties, or 'tenant based,' which provides tenants with a voucher they can use anywhere vouchers are accepted. Virtually no new project based Section 8 housing has been produced since 1983. Effective October 1, 1999, existing tenant based voucher programs were merged into the Housing Choice Voucher Program, which is today the primary means of providing subsidies to low-income renters.
Public Policy and Implications
The city housing authorities or local governments generally run scattered-site housing programs. They are intended to increase the availability of affordable housing and improve the quality of low-income housing, while avoiding problems associated with concentrated subsidized housing. Many scattered-site units are built to be similar in appearance to other homes in the neighborhood to somewhat mask the financial stature of tenants and reduce the stigma associated with public housing.
Where to construct these housing units and how to gain the support of the community are issues of concern when it comes to public housing. Frequent concerns of community members include potential decreases in the retail price of their home, and a decline in neighborhood safety due to elevated levels of crime. Thus, one of the major concerns with the relocation of scattered-site tenants into white, middle-class neighborhoods is that residents will move elsewhere – a phenomenon known as white flight. To counter this phenomenon, some programs place tenants in private apartments that do not appear outwardly different. Despite these efforts, many members of middle-class, predominantly white neighborhoods have fought hard to keep public housing out of their communities.
There are also concerns associated with the financial burden that these programs have on the state. Scattered-site housing provides no better living conditions for its tenants than traditional concentrated housing if the units are not properly maintained. There are questions as to whether or not scattered-site public facilities are more expensive to manage because dispersal throughout the city makes maintenance more difficult.