“We Need to Have a Meeting”: Public Housing Demolition and Collective Agency in Atlanta, Georgia

Abstract

The last two decades have witnessed widespread demolition of public housing and a large-scale relocation of public housing residents. Much of the current literature has examined the impact of demolition on relocated residents, focusing primarily on individual outcomes such as employment, housing quality, and health. This article examines the potential collective consequences of relocation by using data from 40 in-depth interviews conducted with relocated public housing residents in Atlanta, Georgia, to examine experiences of civic engagement and tenant activism before and after relocation. Participants describe frequent experiences of civic engagement and tenant activism in their public housing communities prior to demolition and also discuss how these collective actions often translated into meaningful gains for their communities. Participants also describe challenges associated with reestablishing these sources of collective agency in their new, post demolition, private-market rental communities where opportunities for civic engagement and tenant activism were perceived to be limited, where stigma was a barrier to social interaction, and where they experienced significant residential instability.

Keywords:

• public housing
• minorities
• civic engagement
• tenant activism

Acknowledgments

I thank Erin Ruel, Christopher Pell, Elton Wilson, Annie Ro, and Julia Rozonova for their assistance with this project. I gratefully acknowledge support from the National Poverty Center at the University of Michigan, which is supported by Award 1 U01 AE000002-03 from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation. This work was also supported by the National Institute of Aging through a training grant to the University of Michigan Population Studies Center (T32 AG000221). Any opinions expressed are my own and should not be construed as representing the opinions or policy of any agency of the Federal Government.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

^1. Renee Glover was the executive director of the Atlanta Housing Authority from 1994 to 2013. Shirley Franklin was the mayor of Atlanta from 2002 to 2010.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Danya E. Keene

Danya Keene is an Assistant Professor of Social Behavioral Sciences at the Yale School of Public Health. Her mixed-methods research broadly explores how social policies contribute to health inequality, with a particular focus on issues related to housing, neighborhoods and place.