The New Deal era defeat of proposals for a more expansive social housing system. Instead, the United States got this two tier housing system that provided massive but politically less visible subsidies to white middle and working class people. Public housing was meant to be a way station for people who were temporarily poor because of the effects of the Great Depression. The fact that public housing was oriented towards lowest income members of society wasn't actually intended at the beginning.
Featuring Edward Goetz on his book New Deal Ruins: Race, Economic Justice, and Public Housing Policy. Goetz tells the story of American public housing and then its destruction and dismantling, which took off in the 1980s and accelerated during the 90s under the Clinton Administration’s Hope VI program.
Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig and get our weekly newsletter by email plus swag.
Check out Light in Gaza: Writings Born of Fire haymarketbooks.org/books/1861-light-in-gaza