Tolerance for the Intolerable

Abstract

In the late 1960s, political scientist Harold Wolman addressed a series of questions about housing policy to people in the housing field whom he called the “decision-making elite.” Their answers led Wolman to conclude that “the possibility that the federal government might take the initiative, select sites, and build housing itself is simply outside the realm of discussion in the United States at the present time.” No decision maker and only one group outside the official decision-making process (the NAACP) suggested moving toward a “federal approach” to housing. There seemed to be an unspoken consensus, Wolman wrote, that whatever changes might be made in housing matters would be made within the framework of local initiative, local site selection, and private construction.¹