The Public Housing Acts
Jacob Riis, "Dens of Death"
In the 1900's, population in the cities grew, and the poor swelled into dilapidated tenements and slums. Although housing reformers brought attention to the horrible conditions, the federal government did not intervene until the Great Depression.
"In 1937, the country was suffering from a deep and dangerous depression...The number of 'poor people' in the country had been vastly increased; indeed, many of the 'poor people' were formally members of the middle class, who had enjoyed prosperity in the twenties. They retained their middle class culture and their outlook, their articulateness, their habit of expressing their desires at the polls. There were, therefore, millions of candidates for public housing..."
-Lawrence M. Friedman
-Lawrence M. Friedman
Under President Roosevelt, Congress passed the Housing Act of 1937, which hoped to stimulate the construction industry by funding the building of public housing.
However, construction of public housing quickly came to a halt as the U.S. entered WWII, with funds being diverted to the war efforts. |
1935 News Flash. Source: The Internet Archives
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As people flocked to the cities to find work in the war industry, housing worsened with overcrowding. After seven years of bitter debate, President Truman signed the Housing Act of 1949, providing funding for urban renewal, low-cost mortgages, and public housing.
"[There are] some people who we cannot possibly reach; I mean those who have no means to pay the rent...Obviously, this bill cannot provide housing for those who cannot pay the rent minus the subsidy allowed."
-Senator Robert Wagner |
"[Public housing was] originally designed in the wake of the depression as a way station for the temporally unemployed and the working poor..."
-TIME 2/13/84
-TIME 2/13/84