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1 Introduction

Public housing agencies across the US are responsible for providing safe, affordable homes for vulnerable populations, yet are burdened by aging infrastructure, widening budget deficits, and diminishing federal support. In light of these seemingly insurmountable challenges, the urban gardening and farming programs in many public housing developments can seem like marginal quality of life improvements for a small number of residents that do not address the root problems facing public housing. Given the difficulty of allocating scarce housing resources, competing demands for space within developments, and conflicting views of the value of urban food production by residents and housing agency staff, planners face important ethical choices in designing and implementing urban agriculture programs in public housing developments.

This chapter discusses the ethical dimensions of urban agriculture planning by presenting two cases of housing authority-led farming and gardening projects initiated by agencies in New York City and Denver, Colorado. Though different in design, operation, and scale, both cases involved normative planning decisions that required ethical choices. The most basic was the decision to consider urban agriculture as a means to address complex social and economic problems, from youth unemployment to crime to the lack of social cohesion. Public housing’s existential challenges (e.g., opposition to public housing, aging physical plants, financial deficits, increasingly underserved populations) require strategic, boundary-spanning interventions that address critical needs of residents (e.g., economic opportunities, improved health, and social support) while also improving the perception of public housing to non-residents. Both cases show that urban agriculture can address these needs by building skills, fostering community cohesion, educating residents, encouraging healthy eating and physical activity, and generally improving the day-to-day experiences of those living in public housing developments. While these multidimensional benefits to residents do not address repair backlogs and financial woes, they improve quality of life and potentially the perception of public housing among residents and the general public.

Beyond the initial project aims, professionals in both cities had to make specific ethical choices about the physical design of the projects, related public programming, and engagement with diverse stakeholders, from ensuring resident participation to involving relevant community organizations. The cases illustrate several lessons about applied planning ethics and suggest necessary steps to make such projects successful. An important role for urban planners is to ensure that urban agriculture projects meet the goals of housing authorities, other relevant city agencies, NGOs, and funders working to improve public housing. Planners also need to measure and communicate the benefits and costs of these projects and strategically connect their outcomes to larger urban planning issues.

In short, neither urban agriculture specifically nor spatial interventions to address social and economic problems generally are new to public housing. Since the start of federal public housing, authorities have either tolerated or actively fostered various urban greening projects, developing diverse interventions to build community cohesion and provide job training, nutrition support, child care, senior services, and other forms of support to improve the health and wellbeing of residents and to ensure development integrity. We turn now to reviewing recent developments at the intersection of public housing and urban agriculture.

2 Public Housing and Urban Agriculture

For low-income urban populations, including those in public housing, maintaining health can be difficult because of the direct and indirect costs (Hendrickson et al. 2006). One of the biggest factors affecting public health outcomes is nutritious food access and food security. Healthy foods tend to cost more, and insufficient financial resources present a barrier to acquiring healthy foods. In addition to costs of healthy foods, food insecurity, affecting about 49 million Americans, stems from inadequate distribution of food and the poor quality of the food distributed within low-income areas (Coleman-Jensen et al. 2014; Hendrickson et al. 2006). The rates of food insecurity are substantially higher in low-income communities than the national average for households with incomes at or above the federal poverty line (Coleman-Jensen et al. 2014). Food insecurity develops because of economic limitations and limited access to food (Larson et al. 2009). Food insecurity in the United States takes many forms, including lack of enough food to eat, lack of resources to purchase food, and lack of access to nutritional, safe foods (Adams et al. 2003). Food insecurity can exist with or without hunger (Bickel et al. 2000).

Physical and social infrastructures of urban environments play significant roles in shaping communities and can exacerbate poverty and food insecurity. The designated use, layout, and design of urban physical structures, including its housing, businesses, transportation, food system, and recreational resources, impact the local environment and influence community health. Municipalities control and manipulate the built environment through land use decisions, zoning, and community design decisions. Social, political, legal, and economic forces also exert significant influence on urban communities and their constituencies. These elements collectively play a critical role in determining the quality of low-income residents’ health (Walker et al. 2010).

By the 1990s many urban housing facilities, especially isolated and segregated high-rises in large cities, were deemed failed projects. Embracing change and new policies, The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) provided funding to housing authorities to redevelop and revitalize public housing. (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development 2012) Through HUD’s 1992, $6 billion HOPE VI Program, local housing authorities were provided with funds to demolish failing inner-city housing projects and replace them with new or refurbished mixed-income communities (Popkin et al. 2012). Based on the ideas of new urbanism, the renovations of inner-city public housing were meant to socially and economically benefit residents and neighborhoods by developing more diverse neighborhoods of opportunity (Joseph et al. 2007). Many of the HOPE VI renovations incorporated food system initiatives, in the form of community gardens, into their planning. These gardens aimed to reconnect public housing communities with surrounding neighborhoods, reduce crime by creating visible and usable public green spaces, and foster a sense of togetherness, in addition to growing fresh produce. Gardens were created through innovative architectural design, site planning, and social services with public housing communities.

Overall, urban community food system initiatives have been successful in improving health and food access in food insecure areas, including public housing communities (Dawson and Morales 2016; Larsen and Gilliland 2009; Morales 2009). While many community food systems cannot meet the nutritional needs of an entire urban area, they promote nutrition and increased social and community engagement, which have been found to reduce consumption of unhealthy foods (Ober Allen et al. 2008; Teig et al. 2009). In general, people engaged with local sustainable food system initiatives consume a more balanced diet (Wooten and Ackerman 2011), and participants in community gardens or community supported agriculture often increase their consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables (Litt et al. 2011). Besides improved consumption patterns, participation in local food systems is associated with changed perceptions and understanding of the benefits of healthy eating (Ober Allen et al. 2008). In addition to physical health, individuals and communities that participate in various food system activities can exhibit increased psychosocial wellbeing (Bradley and Galt 2014). The act of growing food helps improve mental and emotional health, as gardeners benefit from relaxation, socialization, and satisfaction from growing their own food (Bellows et al. 2003). Many project participants experience improved self-esteem and pride in their accomplishments (Bradley and Galt 2014).

Local food system activities can also serve as catalysts for revitalizing and uniting urban communities. Local laws and ordinances legitimize growing food in the urban core (Kaufman and Bailkey 2000). Bolstering the local food system can increase community connections and foster local economic activity (Brown and Bailkey 2002). Community gardens, for example, encourage neighbors from diverse cultures and generations to interact and collaborate with one another (Schukoske 1999). Gardens can also provide spaces for residents to meet, plan, and improve an area together, interactions that involve decision-making, planning, and sustained engagement (Teig et al. 2009; Travaline and Hunold 2010). These social interactions can improve quality of life. Self-determination, self-reliance, and community activism are often needed to overcome barriers within urban agriculture, and advocacy and coalition building to foster urban agriculture enables communities to develop new generations of active and engaged citizens (Bradley and Galt 2014; White 2010). These types of food system projects provide marginalized, isolated communities with opportunities to network, interact, and create shared opportunities through growing and distributing food (Beckie and Bogdan 2010).

In addition to building communities, urban food system initiatives can provide new economic opportunities for entrepreneurs and commercial enterprises. For example, farmers’ markets can generate income for local residents and keep money rotating within the community (Berg 2014). Urban agriculture programs enable community members to learn skills in planning, project management, agriculture, horticulture, and environmental science. Growing food for local markets can also teach business skills and provide additional income. The communal and socio-economic benefits of urban farming are wide-ranging and have the potential to directly improve community life.

Many urban food system initiatives provide skills training and job opportunities. In data collected on community food projects funded by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), urban food system initiatives provided an estimated 2300 jobs and incubated over 3600 microbusinesses (Kobayashi et al. 2010). The same community food projects were also responsible for training an estimated 35,000 farmers and gardeners in farming, sustainable agriculture, business management, and marketing (Kobayashi et al. 2010). These serve as viable employment opportunities, catalysts for entrepreneurial endeavors, and bolster neighborhood economies (Bradley and Galt 2014). Additionally, urban food system initiatives often engage with urban youth, providing them with tangible job training and other benefits such as fresh food and fair wages (Metcalf and Widener 2011). Participating in various aspects of food system initiatives can develop significant job related skills and experiences (Holland 2004).

The multidimensional outcomes of urban agriculture and related food system initiatives address several root causes of public housing challenges: under- and unemployment; health disparities; public safety and anomie; inadequate civic spaces. With proper planning, design, and implementation, urban agriculture projects in housing developments can benefit residents and build support for public housing that will have long-term impacts.

3 Case 1: Farms at NYCHA

The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) launched the Farms at the NYCHA (FAN) initiative to achieve four outcomes: (1) youth development and workforce training; (2) landscape transformation to improve public safety and environmental conditions; (3) increased community engagement and cohesion; and (4) improved diets and health. FAN consists of large urban farms that have been built and operated in the center of six New York City public housing developments. The first farm was built in 2013, followed by the construction of three additional farms in 2016 and two more farms in 2018. The farms were built and are farmed by young adults who live in NYCHA developments who are trained and supervised by the non-profit organization Green City Force (GCF) and supported by funds from AmeriCorps.

An ethical dimension of planning involves evaluating interventions to ensure they are producing expected outcomes, communicating benefits and costs, and assessing whether and to what extent programs address broader planning dilemmas, from social cohesion to stormwater management. The following data come from a three-year evaluation that included resident surveys, focus groups with residents and farmers, and the analysis of farm operations data (CUNY Urban Food Policy Institute 2019).

3.1 Urban Agriculture as a Response to NYCHA Challenges

The multi-dimensional benefits of urban agriculture are particularly relevant to public housing developments whose residents face inter-connected economic, health, and social challenges. For example, the six FAN developments have 8024 apartments housing more than 18,000 residents, which is 4.5% of NYCHA’s total population. The median household income is $22,718, less than half the NYC median household income (Ibid). More than 80% of the households in the six developments are headed by a single adult, and one-third of residents are younger than 19. Households depend to a large extent on public benefits, like SNAP and public assistance, with nearly 40% of those surveyed noting that they have been concerned about having enough food to feed their family in the previous 30 days, a rate more than twice the 2014 NYC food insecurity rate of 16.4% (Stampas and Koible 2016). Data from the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) on specific health conditions of public housing residents overall indicates consistently poorer health outcomes than those who do not live in public housing, with 19.0% of public housing residents reporting ever having had diabetes and 37.4% reporting ever having high blood pressure versus 11.8% and 27.2%, respectively, for NYC residents not residing in public housing. More than 65% of public housing residents report being overweight or obese, while the rate among residents not residing in public housing is 57.4%. In general, public housing residents report consuming fewer fruits and vegetables and more sugar-sweetened beverages than people not living in public housing (CUNY Urban Food Policy Institute 2019).

An ethical approach to urban agriculture design involves addressing the goals of different entities that can benefit from these projects: public agencies; NGOs supporting housing development residents; and philanthropies. FAN is a partnership among several agencies and nonprofit organizations. It was the initiative of Building Healthy Communities (BHC), a citywide partnership to improve health outcomes in twelve NYC neighborhoods led by the NYC Mayor’s Office of Strategic Partnerships and the Fund for Public Health NYC (FPHNYC). The project also involves NYCHA, the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice, Green City Force (GCF), and community organizations specializing in urban agriculture that provide technical assistance and farming support. FAN also relies on the involvement of NYCHA residents and staff and local police precincts, public libraries, and other agencies and groups operating near each development.

3.2 Youth Development and Workforce Training

The engagement and training of NYCHA youth through the GCF Farm Corps program is a major objective. GCF hires, trains, and supervises Service Corps Members (CMs) to build and farm the sites, provide public programming, and manage weekly farm-stands that distribute the harvested produce free to residents in exchange for kitchen scraps for composting or volunteering. Corps Members (CMs) also provide nutrition education programs, host school groups, deliver cooking demonstrations, and informally interact with residents during their shifts. The aims are not only for the CMs to become activated members of their communities, educating their peers, families, and neighbors, but also to gain leadership and workforce skills. In the three years of evaluation, GCF enrolled 111 Corps Members, with 96% of the 2017 cohort (the latest data available) transitioning into full time work or school within 6 months of completing the training program (CUNY Urban Food Policy Institute 2019). Interview and focus group data also indicate that the FAN has supported the social-emotional development and leadership capacity of young NYCHA residents serving as CMs (Ibid).

3.3 Landscape Transformation

An important ethical dimension of planning is the allocation of public space to achieve community goals. FAN was designed to transform the landscape of the six FAN developments by turning underused land into working farms that serve as active community spaces for NYCHA residents that decrease vandalism and crime, increase perceived safety, improve quality of life by greening spaces and producing environmental co-benefits such as organic waste diversion and stormwater absorption. A convenience sample survey of residents and focus group data showed that residents consider the farms and surrounding spaces safer than other parts of their development. All FAN sites, except one, experienced decreases in total violations and misdemeanors, with reductions at three farms significantly greater than the reduction in misdemeanors and violations within NYCHA developments overall. In terms of environmental change, between 2016 and 2018 the farms turned 13,816 pounds of organic waste into compost, saving more than $3,000 in refuse collection and disposal costs, and absorbed an estimated 513,500 gallons of rainwater, a stormwater diversion benefit that the city has valued at more than $300,000 (Ibid).

3.4 Community Engagement

The socioeconomic challenges of NYCHA residents, combined with the high rise, high-density design of most NYCHA developments, makes community cohesion difficult. FAN activities have been successful in promoting community engagement and cohesion by engaging residents and serving as places for community interactions. The six sites had more than 14,000 farm stand visitors, engaged 2,490 students in farm-based learning activities, and held 411 community events (Ibid). Resident surveys indicated that FAN farm activities had inspired residents to get involved in other kinds of activities in the development, providing a possible link for ongoing community engagement and cohesion. An important role of the CMs is to engage residents in farm activities, which they accomplish by attending development events or by knocking on apartment doors to tell people about the farm activities. Focus groups revealed that residents and CMs alike considered the farms as hubs for community building and as places to gather with neighbors and meet new people.

3.5 Diet and Health

The farms produced and distributed more than 56,000 pounds of produce from 2016–2018 with a retail value of nearly $119,000. This estimate is conservative because residents have harvested some produce themselves and some produce gets distributed without being weighed and recorded. On average, residents received 3.7 pounds of produce per farm-stand visit (Ibid).

The farm output only supplies an estimated 1.2% of the recommended daily vegetable servings to residents, though the program does not aim for the farms to produce sufficient produce to feed each development. Instead, FAN aims to encourage vegetable consumption, and nearly half the residents surveyed reported that getting vegetables from the farm has meant that they eat more vegetables, and 74% of farm-stand survey respondents reported that the farm has encouraged them to eat more vegetables (Ibid). These data are consistent with focus group data that suggest that exposure to new varieties of vegetables and cooking demonstrations at the farms led to increased and more varied vegetable consumption.

4 Case 2: Food System Initiatives at the Denver Housing Authority

4.1 Denver: Opportunities and Growth

The local food revolution is prevalent throughout the Denver area, as evident by the popularity of local farmers markets, the growing number of restaurants and grocery stores providing local foods, burgeoning farm-to-institution programs, and growing community supported agriculture networks (Shuman 2013). Food, loosely defined, is responsible for 5–10% of the Denver economy (Shuman 2013). Of the roughly 48,300 food systems jobs in the city, three quarters are in the restaurants and food service trades and the remainder are split evenly between food retail and food manufacturing (Shuman 2013). Currently, less than 1% of food that is consumed in the Denver metro-region is produced in Colorado. More robust local and regional food system programs would allow Denver to capture a larger portion of the $5.7 billion in economic activity associated with the city’s food system.

In Denver, local food system initiatives can become part of a powerful economic development and revitalization strategy. Supporting local food systems offers a variety of benefits that include bolstering the local economy, creating jobs, providing ecological protection, as well as advancing improved nutrition, public health, and civic engagement. The Denver Housing Authority (DHA) is leading the way in utilizing food system initiatives to increase food access, and help create strong, sustainable, inclusive communities. Engaging with the City of Denver and various community partners, the DHA has been successful in developing food system initiatives aimed at strengthening health, economic opportunities, and social well-being of the community.

The DHA has been a leader within the community and the nation in promoting public and community health through investments in new urbanist infrastructure. A quasi-municipal corporation, DHA currently administers nearly 6,000 tenant-based vouchers and 4,500 public housing units in 32 properties throughout the Denver area. Through collective efforts with numerous local, state and national agencies, as well as with local residents, businesses, and community-based organizations, the DHA aims to address community and public health issues, including improved resident mobility, access to healthy food, increased energy-efficient residences, and neighborhood social cohesion (Christensen et al. 2012). Overall the DHA is in the process of revitalizing and redeveloping housing facilities that create holistic healthy neighborhoods. Their projects include pedestrian-friendly landscaped areas, greenspace enhancements, community gardens, food hubs to bring fruits and vegetables into the neighborhood through existing local markets, new stores, and farmers’ markets (Ibid). The DHA’s commitment to fostering development of local food systems could revolutionize Denver’s urban public housing communities. However, many of the DHA food system initiatives would not have been possible without local laws and policies that enabled the development of urban food system initiatives within the city, along with federal housing policies that promoted sustainable public housing revitalization and redevelopment.

4.2 Denver Housing Authority Theory of Change

As part of its redevelopment programs, the DHA sets out to do more than change the physical structure of the community. They seek to operationalize three community related goals, each nested in distinct ethical impulses, that the DHA seeks to reconcile in the course of developing relationships and implementing initiatives:

  • Enhance the Neighborhood

    • Replace the concentration of poverty with mixed-income housing, and help develop a mixed-income neighborhood

    • Restore community connections and create a pedestrian-friendly environment

    • Create desirable and affordable housing in the city of Denver

    • Bring new resources and beautification to the neighborhood

  • Spur Outside Investment into the Surrounding Community

    • Increase property values

    • Re-define and revitalize the neighborhood

  • Revitalize the Community

    • Remove major sources of community blight

    • Build upon previous successful revitalization

Building upon these principles, DHA has incorporated them into a Healthy Living Initiatives toolkit (HLI) (Christensen et al. 2012). The HLI is a place-based revitalization that incorporates the built environment as a determinant of health outcomes for DHA residents. In doing so, the HLI establishes physical, mental, and community health as factors necessary to understand how community redevelopment actions impact the quality of life for public housing residents. The Healthy Living Initiative addresses environmental and social determinants of health, which include healthy housing, environmental stewardship, sustainable and safe transportation, social cohesion, public infrastructure, and healthy economy. While taking these factors into consideration, the Healthy Living Initiative is not a stagnant idea, but a flexible and adaptable tool for revitalization of DHA public housing. The Initiative’s framework is intended to be a living implementation tool for designers, developers, and practitioners (Ibid).

As a major part of its redevelopment strategy, the DHA is facilitating a variety of food system initiatives that encourage healthy food access, healthy living, and community building. Overall, the DHA food system projects aim to improve access to healthy locally grown food, promote physical activity and wellbeing, and foster community development. The various projects have also increased community connections, improved the local environment, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, and bolstered local economic activity.

Throughout its redevelopment projects, the DHA has utilized many cutting edge environmental and sustainable practices in order to create a culture of health and sustainability and incorporate individualized “Healthy Living Initiatives” (HLI). Each HLI category, except transportation, addresses issues that directly or indirectly impact food system initiatives. Food system initiatives help the DHA meet all of its environmental stewardship requirements, increase social cohesion, develop public infrastructure, promote a healthy economy, and create vibrant housing communities. Moreover, DHA food system initiatives promote sustainable agriculture and increased access to quality foods.

4.3 Ethics of Agriculture Initiatives at the Denver Housing Authority

As with any community engagement project within public housing, there exist both sociological and ethical dimensions that involve assessment and evaluating of interventions to ensure they are producing expected outcomes, do not create unexpected challenges or negative consequences, and how the interventions address larger issues. One of the main issues with food system initiatives stem from equity issues and ecological challenges. Oftentimes food system initiatives aimed at low-income communities can be perceived as paternalistic, harkening back to eighteenth and nineteenth century Americanization practices (Pollans and Roberts 2014). “If they only knew…” how their food choices, eating habits, and urban environments impact them and their families, they would be willing to change their eating habits and make the extra effort to produce or purchase local and organic produce. Many proponents of urban agriculture, especially programs aimed at communities of color, immigrant communities, and lower-income communities, often tout these ideas directly or indirectly (Guthman 2008a).

This idea of accountability and self-help, facilitated by the DHA, can reflect a neoliberal mentality that has permeated the health and environmental movements. This mentality suggests food insecure residents should educate themselves and take food access and health matters into their own hands (Guthman 2008b). The DHA food system initiatives must assure residents that while they are touting personal responsibility, it is not premised on the belief that there is a single correct manner of living and eating that will lead to good health, cultural assimilation, and community acceptance into mainstream American culture (Pollans and Roberts 2014).

The ethical issues of planning and community development arise in the use of land and resources, and the questions around the investment and expected outcomes. Could the investment into local food system initiatives be utilized more effectively and achieve more substantial outcomes? Often the community and social benefits advertised by food system initiatives (increased public health, social cohesion, community building, food access, etc.) can be accomplished just as well through other means. Devoting land and resources to food system initiatives involves tradeoffs, such as putting in gardens instead of a health clinic, grocery store, or community center. While devoting land and resources to urban food system initiatives can be beneficial, it can also raise concerns about the process for decision-making and the identity of the decision makers (Pollans and Roberts 2014).

Decisions about food systems must be context specific depending on land use, public policy, and community determination. That is why the DHA incorporates Healthy Living Initiatives into its programing, and collaborates with community groups and residents, while seeking to leverage connections in order to ensure the most effective and equitable food system initiatives.

4.4 Denver Housing Authority Redevelopment

DHA incorporates food system initiatives into these redevelopment goals, integrating community gardens and urban agriculture throughout public housing communities. Starting in 1994, the DHA began redevelopment of Denver’s largest public housing residence, Quigg Newton Homes (Buron et al. 2002). Part of the renovations included the construction of an on-site food bank and health clinic. Survey studies of Quigg Newton Homes residents indicated few reported issues of hunger or food insecurity (Stewart 2000).

Within the Curtis Park neighborhood, DHA worked on the revitalization and rebranding of the “Villages at Curtis Park”, a neighborhood which consists of a patchwork of DHA-acquired properties (McCormick 2009). Within an undeveloped site in the Curtis Park neighborhood is the DHA’s Sustainability Park, an active green space that showcases urban agriculture and sustainable development. The 2.7 acre park featured pilot projects, including LED streetlights, sidewalks made of recycled materials, solar lighting, a bike share station, and several urban agriculture ventures that include an urban farm, as well as education and training programs for Denver youth. The Sustainability Park also hosted a local festival “The Big Wonderful,” which featured a weekly outdoor craft fair and food market (The Big Wonderful n.d.). The DHA’s revitalization efforts improved the character and quality of living in the historic Curtis Park neighborhood, increasing the property values, and investment of its surrounding communities. The Sustainability Park, rebranded S*Park has been impacted by additional development, but efforts have been made to retain the commitment to supporting urban agriculture ventures. These revitalized properties have both helped transform the Curtis Park neighborhood into a thriving mixed community and worked to combat overwhelming displacement concerns (McCormick 2009).

The Park Avenue neighborhood exemplifies the DHA approach, incorporating food system initiatives into their redevelopment goal, by weaving community gardens and urban farms throughout the community. Recognizing that these types of initiatives require additional support, DHA partners with Denver Urban Gardens (DUG) to establish urban gardens on the site that serve local residents as well as connect the Ebert Elementary School and senior living Bean Tower communities (Denver Housing Authority 2015). These sites have become places of education and enrichment, as well as food production. Overall, DHA’s redevelopment of Park Avenue revitalized the surrounding neighborhood, connected residents to the community, and helped them gain access to healthy foods.

DHA also redeveloped the La Alma/Lincoln Park neighborhood housing communities. Called Mariposa, this area has instituted advanced programming to support health throughout the community. A Healthy Living Coordinator, Patient Navigator, and Service Coordinator on-site organize walking groups, health classes, and other services for residents. Mariposa also boasts multiple community gardens for residents to grow produce, as well as a more advanced urban farming program. The site also hosts the Osage Café which offers healthy eating options and food system job training, in a neighborhood once beset with food insecurity issues. The capstone phase of the Mariposa redevelopment will include 1035 Osage, a collaborative resource facility designed to meet the needs of the Mariposa Community. Housed on the first floor of 1035 will be a local Mercado, Choice Market, which will provide healthy grab and go food options for residents and local businesses. Choice Market will work directly with DHA’s Youth Employment Academy (YEA) to provide onsite job training for youth.

DHA is also in the process of revitalizing the Sun Valley public housing community. Currently the most isolated and distressed public housing community in the Denver area, Sun Valley is being redesigned to foster healthy residents, a healthy environment, and a healthy economy. Working in collaboration with the Denver Botanic Gardens, DHA recently completed the temporary installment of the Grow Garden, a 2,000 sq. ft. of raised large scale plots to foster urban farming efforts. The Grow Garden is an ongoing effort to support seasonal produce production, infuse healthy food options into the existing Sun Valley food desert, and establish a food system incubation space. Ultimately, the Grow Garden will provide fresh produce to the Grow Market, a food hub housed in the first phase of the Sun Valley transformation plan.

5 Food System Initiatives within the Denver Housing Authority

5.1 Community Gardens

Recognizing the social, emotional, and physical health of gardening, the DHA has made it a priority to incorporate garden plots in both existing and new developments. Partnering with Denver Urban Gardens (DUG), a Denver based non-profit that works to cultivate community through gardening, DHA has constructed 11 community gardens across the city. Over the past few years, the DHA gardens have helped foster community and improve health outcomes by bridging cultural divides and putting fresh vegetables on the table.

The DHA community gardens are a collaboration between the resident gardeners, Local Resident Councils (LRC), property management, and service coordinators. The 11 community gardens provide approximately 8,800 sq. ft. of gardening space available to residents in 13 of the 20 developments. The majority are small raised bed plots, but they vary widely in terms of size and numbers. The popularity of gardening has increased considerably across the DHA properties over the past few years that gardeners are subdividing plots and property managers are working to build additional gardening space. Of the 202 plots, 95% are occupied every summer. Any plots not being planted by resident gardeners are used by local community organizations such as the Bridge Project, Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, or early childhood educational programs as educational tools. Using a measurement tool developed in 2017, DHA grew an estimated 4,000 lbs. of produce across the 11 gardens. The measurement tool combines row length, standard seed distance, and approximate annual plant yield to estimate garden productivity. This tool allows service coordinators to assess yield throughout the summer instead of relying on hundreds of residents to weigh and document produce.

Apart from the high annual vegetable yield and influx of fresh food into the urban fabric, the gardens are an important tool to combat social isolation, improve physical, emotional, and mental health outcomes, and bring communities together. The gardens work as a programmatic intervention that combines community and education and shifts the responsibility of growing, maintaining, and harvesting back on the resident. At the start of the gardening season, residents, service coordinators and community volunteers come together to complete an annual clean up where they prep beds, put down new soil and compost, and weed around the plots. Throughout the year, gardeners gather for trainings and harvest parties where they can learn new skills and share their harvest. Gardening also helps bring the residents outside and work with their hands. The physical health benefits of working in the garden are integral to maintaining positive health outcomes in the community.

5.2 Urban Farms

More intensive than community gardening, the majority of urban farming at the DHA is managed by the Denver Botanic Gardens. Currently there are two intensive urban farms located at the Mariposa development, which combined create 2,100 sq. ft. of growing space and a new urban farm in Sun Valley with an additional 2,000 sq. ft. of growing space. While not enormous, these plots produce roughly 2,000 lbs. of produce that is distributed to DHA residents. The Denver Botanic Gardens has also developed an urban farming program and curriculum that provides DHA with training.

5.3 Food Distribution

While the DHA doesn’t engage directly in food distribution, a number of their sites serve as access points where residents and surrounding community members can come together to engage in their local food system. The Mariposa Community plays host to weekly farmers’ markets throughout the summer. These markets allow people to utilize SNAP/EBT benefits to purchase locally produced foods. The subsidized farmers’ market stands provide residents affordable access to healthy local fruits and vegetables in addition to bringing together both DHA residents and surrounding community members.

The majority of the residents living at the senior/disabled properties and family row type developments are eligible for the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP). The CSFP works to improve the health of low-income elderly persons at least 60 years of age by supplementing their diets with nutritious USDA Foods. In order to improve food accessibility, the DHA facilitates USDA commodity food drop off points at 16 of the public housing developments.

There are many instances of food distribution facilitated by the DHA and various partner organizations. These primarily include produce delivery and distribution efforts from a variety of partners, including local churches, food pantries, community organizations, etc. These distribution programs increase residents’ access to healthy locally produced fruits and vegetables and provide much needed food assistance to community members that cannot obtain food on a regular basis.

The DHA is working to further increase access to healthy food options through collaborations with other city entities, including the Department of Human Services (DHS) and Denver Public Schools. Through a unique collaboration with DHS and Hunger Free Colorado, a Colorado based nonprofit combating food insecurities, DHA is working to improve access to benefit programs, such as SNAP. DHA has also partnered with DPS and the State of Colorado to act as host sites for the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP). The SFSP helps DHA youth access free and healthy summer meals, combating food scarcity and building community.

5.4 Education and Job Training

Education and outreach regarding healthy fresh foods are important aspects of increasing food access for low-income residents. In many of the DHA food distribution and community garden programs, the DHA and community partners provide healthy eating, nutrition, fresh foods, and local food systems training. The DHA noticed that oftentimes residents lacked understanding regarding the proper preparation and use of fresh products from farmers markets, especially foods that were not part of the DHA residents’ culinary cultures and traditions. In response, recipe cards, cooking demonstrations, and healthy eating classes were incorporated into the DHA’s food system initiatives. This education increased access and awareness of healthy fresh products and resources that are available to members of the DHA community.

Recently, the DHA built a small outdoor kitchen at Hirschfeld Towers, one of its senior/disabled facilities. Adjacent to a small community garden, the outdoor kitchen is used as a teaching space. Cooking and canning classes are taught by volunteers, some of whom are themselves DHA residents. The outdoor kitchen illustrates how community gardening can be combined with education initiatives to increase the impact of the DHA’s food system initiatives.

In addition to resident education and enrichment programs, the DHA also runs the Youth Employment Academy (YEA). The YEA provides mentoring, education, employment and training services that assist in addressing the educational, job readiness, and career exploration goals of low-income youth in the Denver area. Available to both DHA residents and members of the greater Denver community, the classes offered by YEA include reading, writing, math, technology/computer software basics, job readiness, occupational skill training, career exploration, and leadership development.

The YEA Culinary Academy provides community youth with job training in culinary arts and hospitality management. Students attend culinary arts classes and receive hands-on experience at Osage Café, a full-service café and catering business located on a DHA property. The Culinary Academy also manages its own garden plot and utilizes produce and ingredients produced by the DHA’s urban gardens. The DHA Culinary Academy is a locally respected resource for healthy cooking and eating education. Even DHA residents not interested in food service employment take classes at the Culinary Academy to learn the basics of healthy food preparation. In providing this service, the DHA affords residents the opportunity to improve their understanding of healthy food choices.

5.5 Food Hubs

A place to link food and agricultural enterprises with the larger community, the Horse Barn is a large DHA owned building located in Denver’s Five Points neighborhood. The building space helps link nearby urban farms to global agriculture technology by acting as a hub for thirty international-development nonprofits located in the building. In addition to housing enterprises, Horse Barn also comprises a large commercial kitchen for healthy-cooking demonstrations and nutrition classes, a demonstration garden with horticultural training, and a seasonal farmers’ market that sells low-cost organic produce and accepts SNAP/EBT benefits. These programs, while not run by the DHA, support the broader community food system and have significant environmental, community, and public health impact in the surrounding neighborhood.

The DHA has also discussed incorporating a food hub into its proposed Sun Valley redevelopment. This food hub could include infrastructure that supports seasonal produce production and markets, as well as provide space and equipment for the development of co-ops and food distribution outlets. A food hub located within a DHA site could expand farmer access to urban markets with DHA residents and beyond, and increase access to healthy fruits and vegetables for low-income consumers (Cohen and Derryck 2011). A food hub would also likely increase economic opportunities and viability within low-income neighborhoods (Schmit et al. 2013).

Overall, many of the food system initiatives undertaken by the DHA have helped to revitalize neighborhoods and unify communities. In many places they have become seasonal events where people gather to purchase food and socialize. The DHA sees sustainable development and food system initiatives as vital components of increased health and community building.

5.6 Challenges and Opportunities

Finding space and resources in cities for food system initiatives can be one of the most challenging tasks. Community gardens and urban agriculture need land and water. Food hubs, distribution, and education take space and resources. In most urban areas, local and state governments have primary control over land use, which can significantly impact the formation of urban agriculture programing (Pollans and Roberts 2014). As a result, land in urban areas for agriculture can be at a premium. Municipalities and urban producers often have to be creative when it comes to land access for urban agriculture. A number of cities are creating space for urban farms by making publicly owned land such as parks available to urban agricultural programs, endorsing land trusts, leasing public lands to gardening projects, and repurposing vacant lots (Berg 2014).

With a significant amount of land, high demand for local foods, and numerous community and health benefits, the DHA plans to continue fostering and developing urban agricultural programing within its properties. Nevertheless, the DHA is not in the business of farming, and requires other community partners to help facilitate food system administration and programming.

Community food systems innovations are nothing new, and they are not without challenges. The success of community food system initiatives depends on the community, the municipality, the support structure, the law, and the urban planning decisions. As part of revitalization and redevelopment programs food system initiatives can bring health, economic, social, and environmental benefits to low-income urban neighborhoods. The city of Denver and the DHA have been committed to the development and success of urban food system initiatives as part of its platform for redevelopment and revitalization. The municipality has changed and augmented laws to be more favorable to urban food system development, and the people within the city of Denver have grasped and championed local food system development. By embracing sustainable development goals and building local partnerships, the DHA has incorporated innovative food system initiatives that are creating healthy and sustainable communities. DHA residents, the surrounding community, and the city of Denver have embraced the various food system initiatives and are starting to see the benefits, including safer neighborhoods, healthier residents, cleaner environments, and closer connections to the land and the community.

As shown by the DHA, food system initiatives within the public housing context can have profound impacts on health and improve access to healthy locally grown food, promote physical activity and wellbeing. This helps facilitate substantial and meaningful change within marginalized low-income urban communities.

5.7 Outcomes and Next Steps in Denver

There are many challenges to successful implementation of food system initiatives. The DHA food system initiatives are a work in progress. However, walking through the DHA sites and engaging with members of the communities, it is clear that there are positive impacts of these programs. Sites that were once vacant parcels of land are now full of families enjoying the flowers, plants, and butterflies that inhabit a local community garden. Areas that were once considered food deserts have weekly farmers markets, cooking classes, and even a full-service farm-to-table café.

The study of local food system initiatives is a new and evolving field of study. Food system initiatives and their impact on public health and community health are difficult to directly evaluate due to numerous external factors that could potentially influence the outcomes. A full impact analysis of food system initiatives is a complex undertaking. However, understanding the various impacts will shed light on the feasibility and sustainability of food system initiatives. If proven environmentally and economically sustainable, as well as successful in increasing the health, economic, and social outcomes of residents, public housing investment into sustainable development and food system initiatives similar to DHA, could act as a model for public housing redevelopment across the country.

6 Conclusion

Howe and Kaufman (1979) observed that in urban planning the process (means) and the final result (ends) both present important ethical challenges that planners should consider. Their work shows how practicing planners may not attend to ethics as much as more practical issues. This experience is only a guide. We show in this chapter how the ethics of UA means and ends relationships requires consideration of not only the stated goal of urban agriculture projects, but the implicit goals manifested in process and process-oriented tools deployed in project/program implementation. Thus, we recognize the complicated circumstances in which urban agriculture unfolds by showing how UA projects often have multiple goals, particularly in public housing contexts.

The DHA and NYCHA are both land rich, owning many properties and vacant lots in various stages of development. By partnering with food system organizations in the area, both organizations have been able to make productive use of vacant land, while providing residents and the surrounding community with access to food and other benefits of local food system production. Often the organizations provide access to their land at little to no cost to their partner organizations, and in many cases they both also subsidize the water and energy needs of the partner organizations that use authority land for food production and distribution. This support is often the only way that small food system organizations are able to begin and sustain operations. We might also argue it is the best way, and that such public / private partnerships using community, shared-use agreements, or other types of agreements actually realize mutual purposes and are thus examples of pro-social ethics in application. Allowing food system organizations to use land and resources for little to no cost helps the organizations fulfill their commitments to residents and housing communities. Providing land and resources to facilitate food system initiatives also allows the organizations to fulfill the policies of their own programs, the Healthy Living Initiative program in Denver and the GCF Food Corps in New York.

In summary, it is the orientation to process found in both organizations (as well as good scholarship) that acknowledges that each new situation has new requirements for interaction. We demonstrate in these two examples how such situations unfolded and produced new interactions. We recognize that social problems will always exist; so too, will opportunities. Even if ideals may not be realized, we show here how attempts to harmonize competing claims is at the root of UA practices. Process, practice, and results are what matter, and these are realized in particular relational contexts. Thus, in short, we hope readers understand our demonstration of ethics-in-interaction in the two cases. First, by recognizing both successes and failures in advancing ethical considerations in the face of difficulties with financing, partners, and/or changes in project goals. And second, by showing how circumstances may have constrained or enabled UA practitioners and organizational partners to advance their various goals.