A brew of advocacy and agency concocted the US public housing system that we know today

The US public housing system evolved in various iterations, inspired by advocacy movements and dictated by governmental oversight.

It first emerged amidst a dire need for sanitary housing as cities began to attract more people in search of employment. But an early housing reform movement was thwarted by the country’s financial woes in the 1920s. In the decade following, a new presidential administration put in place social safety nets that included experiments in public housing.

The public housing system was eventually formalized and restructured, targeting various people including low- and moderate-income citizens and vulnerable populations. But as the federal government divested funding from public housing, local jurisdictions struggled, leaving many cities with the dilapidated developments we’ve come to know in the 21st century.

How early ideas of public housing rose and fell

In the early 19th century, there was a glaring need for sanitary housing in the US, particularly as indoor plumbing was not yet standard and building codes were not consistently enforced. Industrialization encouraged people to migrate to cities for work, and it was not unusual for families to live in close quarters.

Critics derided these densely-packed neighborhoods as unhygienic and unhealthy as conditions were ripe for crime, disease, fire, and other hazards.

In response, a housing reform movement emerged in which activists presented the idea of creating public housing as a more substantial way to improve homes rather than make patchwork repairs to get buildings up to code.

This idea evolved by the 1920s when New York City social workers, in particular, mobilized around the concept of “municipal housing,” either built by the government or by non-profits. But these efforts were cut short by the stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression that followed.

Experiments in public housing kick off under Roosevelt administration

The opportunity for federal housing reform presented itself again with the 1933 presidential inauguration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who leveraged a Democrat majority in Congress to push a series of New Deal legislation that established much of the country’s social safety net.

During the first year of Roosevelt’s administration, the housing division of the newly-created Public Works Administration (PWA) partnered with local governments to initiate some of the earliest experiments in public housing. The PWA constructed 52 public housing communities, starting with the whites-only Techwood Homes in Atlanta, Georgia which was completed in 1936.

The second public housing community nationwide was Langston Terrace Dwellings in Northeast DC, whose 274 units were built from 1935 to 1938. Designed by Black architect and native-born Washingtonian Hilyard Robinson, the all-Black community was considered innovative at the time for its architecture and amenities. It was added to the DC Inventory of Historic Sites in 1986 and to the National Register of Historic Places the year after.

While these early public housing communities perpetuated segregation, it was further entrenched by the establishment of the Federal Housing Administration in 1934, which gave white households broad access to federally-backed home loans. The program was so successful in creating the white middle class that some public housing communities initially built for white families inevitably became housing for Black families.

New legislation restructures public housing for the lowest-income households

The Housing Act of 1937, also known as the Wagner-Steagall Act, restructured the nascent public housing system by establishing the US Housing Authority (USHA). This also formalized the process of how public housing was funded and developed as federal authorities committed to financially support construction and maintenance but yielded most other decisions to local governments.

The bill described this housing as a source of stability for households in the “lowest income group,”—those who could not afford housing on the private market where they lived. The new units were supposed to replace “slums,” defined as a concentration of dilapidated, overcrowded, unsanitary, and unsafe dwellings.

This “slum clearance” was supposed to, at minimum, replace each demolished unit, or where possible, substantially repair existing construction. The concept of slum clearance was also integral to the process of Urban Renewal, which transformed Southwest and led to the construction of Greenleaf Gardens.

Local jurisdictional housing authorities would select sites and put together development deals for public housing. The federal government planned to finance the construction by providing a set annual payment to maintain low-cost housing for 60 years. The rental rates were supposed to be no more than 20% of each household’s income, including utilities.

HUD is established with housing goals catered to more people

The USHA changed names and structure a few more times before it was dismantled in 1947; then, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) was established in 1965 as an agency of the president’s cabinet. HUD’s mission was more expansive, including moderate-income households and vulnerable individuals. The agency also assumed oversight of the FHA and other housing programs.

The first HUD director was Robert Weaver, a native of the DC-area. As an economist and a Black man, he was a vocal critic of segregationist federal housing policies since the public housing system was established.

After several decades, the original funding mechanisms for the public housing system expired. The government then shifted priorities away from federal investments in housing production and maintenance, leaving public housing authorities struggling to maintain and manage livable housing for its residents. The result is a public housing system that no longer stands as an example of providing safe living conditions for those who need help to afford a place to live, but retains some remnants of segregation.