Depression-Era Planners Thought They’d End Poverty with Public Housing. Instead, They Created the Projects
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In the 1930s, New Deal-era technocrats devised a solution to homelessness and poverty itself. They believed that providing free or low-cost urban housing projects could completely eliminate housing scarcity. Planners envisioned urban communities that would propel their residents into the middle class, creating a flywheel of abundance where poverty was eradicated. However, once construction began after World War II, these projects quickly became dangerous, poorly maintained slums, serving as breeding grounds for crime and decay. By the 1970s, crime rates were so high that levels of violence rivaled those of war zones in Sub-Saharan Africa.
What happened? Why did so many of the best and brightest who promoted housing projects—like First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt or city planner Robert Moses—create one of the worst government debacles of the 20th century? Why didn’t they foresee that housing projects would become hotbeds of crime, completely destroying the social fabric of the neighborhoods they aimed to help? Today’s guest is Howard Husock, author of “The Projects: A New History of Public Housing.” He explains how we got here, detailing the tragic rise and fall of public housing and the pitfalls of other subsidy programs. He takes us inside a progressive movement led by a group of New York City philanthropists, politicians, and business magnates who first championed public housing as a solution to urban blight. We explore everything that went wrong and what can be done to avoid these same mistakes in the future.
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