The end of US public housing as we knew it

Abstract

US public housing policy changed significantly in the 1990s in order to transform primarily high-rise developments into low-density mixed-income communities. While the goal of better quality housing for low-income people is good, the means to this end has raised concerns about the future of public housing in the United States. This article examines the outcomes from the past 15 years, focusing on demolition and redevelopment, which has not only produced fewer public housing units overall but, more importantly, entangled public housing in the market crisis. Now the same speculative hands that it was supposed to be protected from when first conceived drive its development. Examples from Chicago illustrate this point.

Keywords:

• public housing
• mixed-income

Notes

1. An historical analysis ‘seeks to make sense of the past through the disciplined and systematic analysis of the “traces” it leaves behind’ (Gardner 2006). This method allows the use of various sources of evidence, which in this article includes primarily public documents, observations at public meetings, and other published information.

2. While we have added more vouchers than lost public housing units (about 700,000 vouchers added and 300,000 units lost), the additional HCVs are not really a true gain in overall subsidized housing for very low-income families, since we lost another 400,000 units of subsidized housing to market conversion in the 1990s.

3. At its peak, the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) had about 41,000 units but by the mid-1990s, only 38,000 were considered ‘habitable.’

4. The CHA is once again rebranding itself with the release of its Plan Forward report spring 2013. See http://www.thecha.org/

5. At the time and still now, public housing allows families with income levels up to 80% of the area median income (AMI). To put this in perspective, a family of four with an income of $60,650 in 2012 could possibly live in public housing.

6. Interestingly, the effects of living with different people, whether it be a difference in income or culture or social status, are presumed to always be positive whether it be behavior change or access to better schools and not negative.

7. The Gautreaux program is the result of a class action lawsuit filed on behalf of CHA residents, claiming the CHA deliberately segregated them by the location of housing. The program provided over 7000 vouchers to help families move out into racially and economically integrated communities, mostly in Chicago’s suburbs.

8. At the time, the CHA had the largest number with 18,000 of its nearly 38,000 units failing the test. HUD has not published the results of the viability test for all PHAs in the United States. Total estimates of units nationwide that are or have been demolished vary, depending on the source.

9. In a 2008 report, the GAO reported that the leveraged amount had decreased between 2002 and 2006 to $1.28 for every HOPE VI dollar (US GAO 2008).

10. The CHA released Plan Forward: Communities that Work in April 2013, which lays out a broad vision for what CHA needs to do to complete the Plan for Transformation; however, there are no details on how or specific dates for when this will happen. See http://www.thecha.org/

11. This is based on the list of developments on the CHA website (www.thecha.org), which separates out specific sites within the larger area of the Cabrini Green redevelopment. These four sites include less than 400 public housing units.

12. It should be noted that many of the units – the CHA counts towards its Plan For Transformation – were under development prior to the plan being approved by HUD in 2000 and were funded through HOPE VI grants.

13. At the start of the plan, the CHA estimated about 6000 families would want to return. Now 12 years later, the exact number is hard to pin down since as time has gone by, many have changed their minds, given up or died (CHA 2011a).

14. This explanation was provided by various sources, including the CHA and developers in public meetings. There are different accounts as to whether or not the CHA portion of the funds is sufficient to cover the development costs for those units.

15. Related acquired Roosevelt Square when it bought LR Development, which had been the original developer.

16. It also required the Illinois General Assembly to extend the life of the TIF to 2035, which it did.

17. Until advocates pressed the CHA and then HUD to fill units up, this number had been closer to 3300 a year earlier (Caputo 2012).

18. The new Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD), which allows PHAs to use the value of the public housing building (i.e., the asset) to be leveraged, is evidence of this.

19. See HUD’s Section 811 program. http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src =/program_offices/housing/mfh/progdesc/disab811.