The Plight And Transformation Of Public Housing In The United States

Public housing policy of USA was a very important welfare policy for the Federal Government to solve the problem for the low income residents.Public housing started to be employed during the World War I and was suspended in the early 1970s.Public housing was much-debated from the very beginning due to mistakes in the policy,and there appeared a number of social problems which eventually resulted in a decline.Therefore,since the 1990s, the United States federal government experimented with a large-scale transformation of the poor public housing.This thesis is aimed to review the development of public housing and then discuss the problems in relation to the transformation.The thesis is composed of three parts,preface,main body and conclusion.The preface explains meanings of the theme,and the present studies in addition to an outline of the thesis.The main body consists of four parts.The first chapter reviews the development of public housing in the United States.The second chapter explores the plight of American public housing.First of all,a series of social problems are reviewed in relation to public housing,such as racial segregation, project location,concentrated poverty,high-rise public housing,operation and management and the like.In addition,this chapter analyses the declined public housing and its effects briefly.The third chapter explores the transformation of public housing in more detail,HOPE VI program.The program was created for the purpose of revitalizing the declining or obsolete public housing development and for accomplishment of the comprehensive revitalization of public housing communities through investment in both buildings and community services. Therefore,this chapter discusses the implementation of HOPE VI program with a systematic exposition.With the implementation of HOPE VI program,many public housing residents have to move to find new housings,so it is a very important task to help them find housing in low-poverty areas.The forth chapter analyzes the impact of public housing transformation.Many declined public housing projects have been transformed into mixed-income and racially diverse developments,which are newly,well-designed and well-constructed developments. Significant improvements have been made of certain HOPE VI sites and physical infrastructure in community institutions and the neighborhood.HOPE VI program results in developments of positive consequences,as a whole,for the city and metropolitan.However, the transformation has led to real loss for low-income families,who either have to move for new housing,or continue as most of residents do,to live in concentrated poverty,or poor and minority-dominated neighborhoods.The conclusion summarizes main viewpoints of the thesis.Public housing originally plans to provide appropriate living environment for low-income people,but many of them turn out to be settlements of the poor.Though the HOPE VI program has enabled certain public housings to be prosperous,a large number of low-income people have to desert their habitats,for the similar new ones.Therefore,Federal Public Housing Act shows inconsistency of goals and results to varying degrees,and low-income people frequently become victims of socio-economic policies.