At a time when inner cities are facing mounting pressure to preserve affordable housing, the nation’s 1 million public housing apartments are at a critical turning point, with aging properties, a multi-billion dollar backlog of deferred maintenance, declining federal funds and pressures from private-sector developers who are salivating at the chance to buy them out.
And yet, for every shocking evening news story of public housing’s moldy apartments or leaking roofs, there are thousands of quiet, unheralded successes: families staying together, scholarships won, down payments made and homelessness avoided. Public housing programs offer millions of people a life-saving quantum of stability and security amidst the rapidly-changing landscapes of our increasingly unaffordable cities.
Maybe you’re feeling cynical about your city’s NIMBYism and growing economic and racial divides, or maybe you think it’s time for your city to make reparations for redlining and urban renewal. Maybe you just want to feel optimistic and make life a little better for your most vulnerable neighbors.
[For more on this story by CHRISTIAN MILNEIL, go to https://www.citylab.com/perspe...-afford-rent/583537/]
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