Public Housing

The public housing program, the first major federal housing initiative aimed at assisting very low income households in the United States, was authorized by the U.S. Housing Act of 1937. Although housing problems had been acknowledged for decades, federal intervention was not forthcoming until the Great Depression of the 1930s. The need to remedy unsafe and unsanitary housing conditions and the acute shortage of decent, safe dwellings was coupled with other key goals: to increase employment opportunities and stimulate the economy. The 1937 act reflected these dual objectives: “to alleviate present and recurring unemployment and to remedy the unsafe and insanitary housing conditions and the acute shortage of decent, safe, and sanitary dwellings for families of low income” (Pub. L. 412, 75th Congress, 50 Stat. 888; 42 U.S.C. 1401).

Senator Robert F. Wagner Sr. of New York, was the key legislator responsible for passage of the act. On the House side, the chairman of the Banking and Currency Committee, Representative Henry Steagall of Alabama, was also instrumental in its enactment, despite his personal opposition on the grounds that it was socialistic. Hence, the act is also referred to as the Wagner-Steagall Act.

Enactment of the public housing program was relatively long in coming, with other Depression-era recovery measures being enacted earlier in the 1930s. From the outset, public housing was a controversial idea and even President Franklin Roosevelt had to be coaxed. There was strong opposition from several key private interest organizations, including the National Association of Real Estate Boards, the Chamber of Commerce of the United States, the U.S. Savings and Loan League, and later, from the National Association of Home Builders. Together, these organizations launched scathing attacks on public housing, accusing it of being socialistic and representing unfair government competition with private enterprise.

In addition to opposing the 1937 legislation and the eventual reactivation of public housing (as part of the Housing Act of 1949), the private housing interest groups played major roles in organizing local communities to oppose the siting of public housing. As a result, many public housing developments were built in poor locations, where abutters (owners of contiguous property) were scarce.

[Page 570]Public housing has never been a broadly popular program. Although it provides low-rent housing to over 1 million households, it has never managed to shed its institutional image, with phrases such as “vertical ghettos” and “government-supported slums” frequently used in the media to describe public housing.

Much of the scholarly literature on public housing has argued that these overall negative images are unfair and inappropriate. Although public housing has certainly had its share of problems, it provides affordable housing for millions of people who do not have other options for attaining decent dwellings at rents they can afford. With the exception of units to replace demolished or otherwise lost units, funding for new public housing development has not been available since the mid-1990s.