| Public housing appeared on the American landscape in the 1930s in response to the collapse of the construction industry and a shortage of dwelling places for dislocated workers. This work examines the means by which public housing came to be a part of the urban topography in a small industrial community located in the nation's north central "Steel Belt." Unlike large cities that were early and major adopters of federal housing programs, Canton was a politically conservative town that was part of a national phenomenon of rejection or slow adoption of public housing by smaller and suburban cities. An insular community with a fragmented leadership throughout the first half of the twentieth century, Canton blocked the construction of non-defense public housing until the 1960s, despite significant labor support for the program.; Canton's leaders rejected public housing and other forms of government assistance because they continued to envision the city as a nineteenth-century version of a self-sufficient community, able to provide for the basic needs of its citizens through private enterprise. Although individuals with ties to leading industries were involved in civic and charitable activities, the business community remained largely disconnected from political affairs and strongly anti-government. When a public housing program became available to the city in 1938, realtors and builders had a greater influence in blocking its passage than elsewhere because the city's economic elite was not directly involved in public policy formation. Indeed, several disparate and incomplete, but intriguing, sets of data indicate that Canton was slower than many comparable communities to build public housing. By the 1950s when the city was in a state of economic decline, Canton's leaders united to revitalize the city through federal programs, such as government-assisted housing. Voters, however, did not lend their support at the polls because they were not convinced that there was a need for public housing or they continued to resist a federal presence in Canton. When the first units of public housing were eventually completed in 1963, they were an integral part of the city's urban renewal program, rather than a means of ensuring shelter for the working poor. |
