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Can Public Housing Help?

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Conserving America’s Neighborhoods

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Abstract

Public housing is the oldest subsidized housing program in the United States, having been established by the Housing Act of 1937. In the program, federal funds are administered by a local housing authority, which acquires a site, prepares plans, and supervises the construction of new housing units. The units are intended to provide low-rent housing for low-income families. In most cities, public housing has been a controversial program (Bauer, 1957; Bellush and Hausknecht,1967). Proponents argue that the housing is needed by low-income families and compares favorably to the alternative housing units usually available to those families. Opponents point out that public housing projects often become centers of dangerous and unhealthy living conditions, and that these conditions also adversely affect the surrounding neighborhood.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Case Study Institute, Washington, D.C., USA

    Robert K. Yin

  2. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

    Robert K. Yin

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  1. Robert K. Yin
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© 1982 Plenum Press, New York

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Yin, R.K. (1982). Can Public Housing Help?. In: Conserving America’s Neighborhoods. Environment, Development, and Public Policy: Cities and Development. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-4031-7_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-4031-7_7

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4684-4033-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4684-4031-7

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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