Wagner-Steagall and the D.C. Alley Dwelling Authority

Abstract

Problem, research strategy, and findings: How was it that the Housing Act of 1937 (the Wagner-Steagall Act) goal of decent housing for all took a back seat in subsequent legislation to economic development aimed at enhancing cities’ fiscal viability? For insight into this question, this article examines the alternative to Wagner-Steagall offered by the D.C. Alley Dwelling Authority (ADA), the public housing program created by Congress for the nation's capital in 1934. The ADA approach had the potential to keep housing goals the top priority of federal investment in the city, even as policymaking transitioned toward urban redevelopment. I explore the ADA operating rationale and methods; ADA impact in shaping U.S. public housing policy; and the factors that contributed to collapse of the ADA approach. The ADA effort presciently targeted the key challenge facing the U.S. public housing program, that of integrating it into existing land use and planning regimes, by seeking to establish a sustainable division-of-labor among public housers, private real estate interests, and city planners. The ADA fell short of its goal of establishing itself as Washington, DC's citywide redevelopment authority because it was unable to achieve this integration.

Takeaway for practice: Practitioners should invest less effort in winning ambitious declarations of substantive policy objectives than in crafting policy processes to quietly interweave new programs with established operations.

Research support: This research was supported by the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library.

Keywords:

• public housing
• Wagner-Steagall Act
• slum clearance and land assembly
• housing policy history
• redevelopment

Notes

Washington, DC's housing authority was created in 1934 as the D.C. Alley Dwelling Authority (ADA). Its name was changed pursuant to Executive Order 9344 (May 21, 1943), effective June 1, 1943, to the National Capital Housing Authority (NCHA). References in this article to the Authority are references to the ADA/NCHA.