Public Housing’s Failure: Sabotage, Not Inherent Flaws
The American experiment with public housing, initiated during the New Deal, has been widely considered a failure, marked by deteriorating conditions and concentrated poverty in many projects. However, this outcome wasn’t inevitable; other nations have successfully implemented mixed-income public housing models. From its inception, US public housing faced deliberate undermining through legislation such as the George-Healey Act and the Faircloth Amendment, restricting funding and fostering segregation. Ultimately, decades of underfunding and policy failures led to the current state of disrepair, despite the positive impact public housing has had on millions of residents.
John Q. Hosedrinker