Jul 04 2011 05:50 pm
Posted by under ADMIN ONLY - featured,July 5 Assignment
Public Housing in New York and Chicago
An aerial shot of Manhattan that spotlights the newly constructed wall of public housing on the East River -- Lillian Wald and Jacob Riis -- and the middle-class private city at the right, Stuyvesant Town. Original Source: New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), circa 1949.
In the twentieth century, public housing was one aspect of the development in cities in the United States. Public housing in the United States was dedicated for the poor, low-income people, and for slum clearance. In New York City, the first public housing project was built in 1935.
At the beginning, the public housing projects in the United States were welcomed by many working-class whites as well as blacks. Public housing was highly demanded and was not only provided for blacks. In some cities, such as Chicago, the government allocated the poor of different races carefully into different apartments whose location matched the racial composition of that area. For black, there were projects in black communities, and for white, there were projects in white communities. There were also areas there racial composition was mixed.
However, in the late 1940s, this racial allocation seemed to be hard to maintain. As more and more blacks applied to public housing and more and more white looked for alternatives in private market, the government had to fill the public housing units with increasing amount of blacks, rather than let the units vacant. In Chicago, the black population of the Frances Cabrini Homes had reached 40 percent by 1949, the double of the original 20 percent limit. The percentage of blacks continued to increase and reached 85 percent by 1959. This was the same in New York City. The white population of public housing in New York City dropped from 66 percent to 25 percent during the 1950s. Since then, public housing became as a label of impoverished black residents, and even became a way of segregation. (Chudacoff, 233)
6 Responses to “Public Housing in New York and Chicago”
ff122986 on 05 Jul 2011 at 8:54 pm #
I wonder why there was such sharp percent increase in African Americans acquisition of project housing during the 1950s? It is no secret that during the 1950s was a horrible time in our countries history. One of the biggest problems was segregation, and as you know our school system was not opened to African Americans in many states. Even after those problems were addressed there were other subtle living arguments that keep the races very segregated. One problem was just the simple fact of eduction. Think about it! If there are people who are not educated in your area there will be an increase in crime and a lack of community development, however, if the citizens of a community is educated they are more like to be constructive and involved in the community. In other words segregation play a major role in the sharp increase in African Americans government housing and the labels the came with it.
jiada.chen on 06 Jul 2011 at 8:36 pm #
Yes, I strongly agree with your comment. And I also believe that the increase in African Americans’ occupation of public housing and the racial segregation during the 1950s are a two-way problem, influencing each other in both directions. When more low-income blacks looked for public housing due to slum clearance, along with the fact that higher incomes and more residential options limited the numbers of eligible white applicants, the government reluctantly allowed the black to occupy public housing. As public housing associated with higher percentage of black population, it became more politically controversial to build public housing in a white community, which then became a way of segregation. Then, the segregation of housing itself, along with the segregation of education and many other aspects, further distinguished public housing communities and private housing communities. This again led to the consequence of the sharp increase in African Americans government housing.
yutik.lam on 06 Jul 2011 at 11:48 pm #
Further I believed that the increase in African Americans’ occupation of public housing during the 1950s is partly because of the urban renewal projects. Through Robert Moses’s urban renewal projects in the 1950s and 1960s, Cross-Bronx expressway and the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts were built, involved with slum clearance in New York City. Thousands of low-income, inner-city housing units were displaced with middle-income apartment projects, for example the Stuyvesant Town. No provisions were made for the poor from the demolished neighborhood to make their way for Stuyvesant Town. Everyone who applied to live there was screened for acceptability and turned out everyone moved in was white. The displaced black poor were not able to afford living in the middle-class housing developments. Instead they were forced to apply for public housing.
raymond.yu1 on 06 Jul 2011 at 5:58 pm #
Initially, the public housing projects were affordable housing provided by the government for the working and middle class. By the 1970s, the whites relocated and found new homes while the public housing came to be associated with segregated races- mostly blacks. The concentration of poor in one area means the projects became associated with poverty, drugs, violence, and crime. The government has taken action by creating programs to evict tenants who abuse their rights and to allow a variety of people of different income levels to live in the public housing.
ashleigh.baker on 06 Jul 2011 at 6:11 pm #
I found this piece very interesting. Initially i assumed that the reason why there were so many African-Americans bound to public housing was because of their recent history with enslavement. It is important to remember that after blacks were freed they had no sort of savings or money to begin their foundation of life on compared to their white counterparts who were able to make, save and inherit money. With this being true, it is also important to remember that the white immigrants (Irish, Italian etc.)who lived in the public houses as well, came to this country with no money and stayed poverty stricken for some time. I cant seem to find an explanation behind the reasons as to how the majority of white immigrants were able to see there way out of having to depend on the public housing system and accumulate wealth as the years progressed leaving behind a growing black population of poverty stricken?
jiada.chen on 06 Jul 2011 at 8:53 pm #
Actually I am also wondering your question of why white immigrants, such as Irish immigrants, were able to accumulate wealth to get their way out of depending on public housings. However, there are some points that are worth paying attention to. First, even though public housing became associated with impoverished black residents, there were still some poor white living in there. In Chicago, the percentage of white residents in public housing was 15 percent in 1959 and in New York City, the number was 25 percent. Moreover, just as the comments above, racial segregation did play a role in the increasing percentage of African Americans occupying public housing. Because of the segregation of the build of public housing communities and the segregation of school, it would be hard to develop a public housing community where white and black could mix. What’s more, the white did have greater residential options because of the increase in their incomes and the segregation of housing sales, in which African Americans were prevented from purchasing specific housing in private market.