History of Public Housing in America
For most of America's history, when government accepted responsibility for providing low-income housing, it was at the local level, particularly by county government. Orphanages, poor farms, and veteran's homes were occasionally supported by the state, but most often they were financed, owned, and operated strictly by county government. County homes (usually county farms) remained the typical methods used to provide housing for the homeless and needy until 1935.
In the United States, government-assisted affordable housing was first proposed in the first half of the 20th century to address concerns about the growth of slums in the nation's cities, where overcrowding and deterioration of properties were occurring. During the Great Depression the condition of the cities worsened. More and more families had to resort to living in makeshift shelters in slums. The Federal government began to play a permanent role in housing policy during the 1920's; formerly, housing issues in America were handled mostly by local governments. The Federal government's involvement in housing began shortly before the Great Depression.
During his two terms as Secretary of Commerce in the administration of Presidents Coolidge and Harding, Herbert Hoover rallied for homeownership. He believed in policies that did not involve direct assistance; this was a prevalent way of thinking in American society at the time. As Secretary of Commerce, Hoover created an organization called Better Homes in America, which helped to lower the costs of new homes, increase construction of homes, enforce new building codes, publish manuals for homebuyers on financing, and create zoning laws for residential neighborhoods.
In an effort to bring the economy out of bad times and house millions of homeless during the Great Depression, Herbert Hoover as President instituted the use of home loan discount band; in 1932, the Federal Home Loan Bank Act created the Federal Home Loan Banking System. These new banks created a new supply of loans that would be used specifically to buy homes and refinance mortgages. Since the banking industry had collapsed and credit was virtually nonexistent at the time, Hoover thought the discount banks would "relieve home and farm property owners" by creating a new source of credit and mortgages other than failing banks. As the economy worsened, many critics called for direct assistance to families to aid in finding adequate housing and employment. However, Hoover held to his early philosophy of self-reliance.
After Hoover, the Roosevelt Administration ushered in New Deal policies that would revive the economy. Housing reformer of the New Deal era firmly believed that by providing affordable and adequate housing (thereby improving one's environment), the ills of the slums created from the Great Depression would be cured.
Early New Deal housing programs came as a part of employment packages that called for the removal of slums and made provisions for low-income housing. Those who were previously unemployed were now put to work constructing government-owned rental units. The Housing Act of 1934 created the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), which served as a review committee for banks and other loan institutions to make loans to low-income families. The Wagner-Steagle Housing Act of 1937 provided for the establishment of the United States Housing Administration, an agency that would be responsible for providing funding for low-income housing initiatives to the individual states. The Act provided that the initiative for providing the ownership and operation of the housing would be the responsibility of a local entity known as a public housing authority, an agency appointed by local elected officials. The 1937 Housing Act required the demolition of slum housing before public housing could be built.
After World War II, there was an increased demand for new housing. One consequence of this was the Housing Act of 1949, which shifted housing policy farther towards slum clearance. Title 1 of this Act focused on urban redevelopment, including the use of large amounts of federal money for the clearance of slums at a neighborhood level. Entire neighborhoods were demolished, and in their place highways were built. Families and businesses were displaced in order to open up land for the development of industries.
Title2 of the Housing Act of 1949 guaranteed loans for mortgages through government underwriting. However, there were restrictions on what type of loans the government would underwrite; the loans had to be for new housing for a single owner. Most lenders also practiced relining' certain areas of towns were not eligible to receive loans. FHA appraisal manuals instructed loan originators to steer clear of areas with "inharmonious racial groups" and recommended that municipalities enact racially restrictive zoning ordinances as well as covenants prohibiting black owners. As a result, discrimination in the housing market was prevalent and property values began to plummet in minority neighborhoods.
During this time period, the architectural style of public housing changed as well. Early public housing units were built in garden style apartments. In the 1930's, many public housing architects incorporated the low-rise Zeilenbau style, "in which parallel rows of two- to four-story apartment buildings were aligned along an east-west orientation and situated in superblocks. However, the 1950's ushered in the modernist movement, which relied heavily upon famous French architect Le Corbusier's idea of future cities. Le Corbusier envisioned cities where high-rises dominated the skyline; unfortunately, high-rises would prove to be housing disasters due to alienation from surrounding neighborhood and the lack of public space.
By the 1950's and 1960's, inner city neighborhoods were beginning to be termed "ghettos" and carried a negative stigma. Ghettos had once been seen as transitional neighborhoods housing immigrants who would eventually assimilate with mainstream society and move out of the inner city. However, most ghettos at that time remained in cycles of poverty that sprang for lack of formal education, lack of stable economic stability and inadequate housing.
Around the same time, housing authorities began skimping on construction expenses because of high project costs and decreased funding from federal authorities. People were often crowded into ever smaller spaces. Many public housing projects encountered social problems such as concentrated poverty and increased crime; yet even with the myriad of problems associated with high-rise public housing units, public housing authorities continued to build more.
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