No Place Like Home: The U.N. on America’s Housing System

Michelle Chen 

While largely based on a recent tour of six cities, the study traces the history of postwar housing segregation, from the warehousing of poor Black families in rental tracts to the redlining of suburbia into a white-only zone. Today, unmet needs continue to blight the housing landscape:

In past years there were significant cuts in low-income housing assistance programmes. Budget cuts in the 1980s resulted in the gradual erosion and poor maintenance of the public housing system. Further subsequent funding cuts have also significantly affected the preservation of public housing. By the early 1990s, hundreds of thousands of public housing units had become dilapidated. Over the past decade there has been a net loss of approximately 170,000 public housing units due to deterioration and decay, and much of the current public housing stock needs substantial repairs and rehabilitation. However, annual funding for public housing fell by 25 per cent between 1999 and 2006.

When federal funding is inadequate, housing agencies reduce their own expenses. Measures have included shifting units to tenants with higher incomes (who can be charged higher rents than lower-income households but typically have less need for assistance), or cutting back in areas such as security or maintenance.

The study also notes that the Section 8 housing voucher program, despite purporting to offer residents "choice" in the housing market, is so limited that it serves only a portion of eligible low-income families, while the supply of affordable public housing evaporates.

Posted via email from Jim Nichols for GA State House