Public housing

In the United States and Canada, public housing is usually a block of purpose-built housing operated by a government agency. Most housing communities were developed from the 1930s onward. Houses, apartments or other residential units are usally subsidized on a rent-geared-to-income (RGI) basis. Some communities have now embraced a mixed income, with both assisted and market rents, when allocating homes as they become available. Large multi-story buildings, often in large groups of similar buildings were popular government designs of the 1950s and 1960s. Many of these were torn down and replaced with mixed housing development in the 1990s and 2000s.

US public housing had a reputation for high crime levels, high drug use, and poverty.

In 1997, the top providers of US public housing, acording to HUD were:

• New York City, 160,000 units
• Puerto Rico, 57,000 units
• Chicago, 40,000 units
• Philadelphia, 22,000 units
• Baltimore, 18,000 units

In the United Kingdom public housing is often referred to as "council housing". Local not-for-profit housing associations have begun to operate some of the older council housing estates in the United Kingdom.

Some public housing developments

• Chicago
  • Robert Taylor Homes, largest public housing development in the world - 28 buildings of 16 stories each, housing 20,000 people.
  • Cabrini-Green
• Detroit
  • Herman Gardens
• New York
  • Queensbridge Houses - largest public housing unit in New York

External Links

Chicago Public Housing