Race and Public Housing: Revisiting the Federal Role by Richard Rothstein
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Poverty & Race POVERTY & RACE RESEARCH ACTION COUNCIL PRRAC November/December 2012 Volume 21: Number 6 Race and Public Housing: Revisiting the Federal Role by Richard Rothstein Residential racial segregation, ac- teachers can transform a child's life in neighborhoods to which planners companied by social and economic chances—and that poverty is not des- wanted to relocate a ghetto. Unlike hardship, burdens the learning of many tiny. It's a belief deeply rooted in his projects for middle-class whites who urban children. But school reformers childhood, as a kid growing up in pub- paid market rents that fully covered often express hope that, harsh though lic housing in Queens… He under- construction and operating costs, these obstacles may be, children in stands that education is …the force that projects for low-income blacks were high-poverty, racially isolated neigh- lifts children from public housing heavily subsidized with federal and borhoods could typically still be suc- projects to first-generation college stu- sometimes state and local funds. cessful if only they had better teach- dents….” (Duncan 2010). There were also privately-built and ers, more orderly schools and more Our credulity about Duncan’s well- -owned developments that were sub- hours of instruction. intentioned observation reveals a sidized by public land clearance and To support this hope, advocates shocking loss of collective memory tax breaks—such as the whites-only seek examples of disadvantaged chil- about how public policy created and Stuyvesant Town in New York City. dren who succeeded, overcoming great remains responsible for the hopeless These remain today as middle-class socioeconomic handicaps. Some such segregated ghettos in which too many urban islands, but forgotten have been cases exist, of course—there is a range children live today. the truly public projects—built, owned of outcomes for any human condition True, Joel Klein grew up in public and operated by government—for —but the reality that some who grew housing. But from the Depression into working- and middle-class whites. The up in “truly disadvantaged” neighbor- the early 1950s, faced with housing Woodside Houses in Queens, New hoods (Wilson 1987, 2012) beat the shortages compounded by a flood of York, where Joel Klein lived as a boy, odds does not mean that many can. returning war veterans, cities con- was one of these. Frequently-cited examples of such suc- structed public housing for white work- The New York City Housing Au- cess usually turn out, upon examina- ing- and middle-class families. These thority carefully screened applicants tion, to be chimeras (Rothstein 2001, projects, for stable white families like for projects like Woodside. Preference 2002). Joel Klein’s, became highly-prized (Please turn to page 2) A claim by U.S. Secretary of Edu- treasures, the most desirable housing cation Arne Duncan, referring to available, their lucky residents the former New York City Schools Chan- object of envy. The projects were lo- CONTENTS: cellor Joel Klein, is one. Mr. Duncan cated in mostly all-white neighbor- said: “Klein knows, as I do, that great hoods, and admitted only a token few Race and Public black residents, if any. Housing ................. 1 Richard Rothstein (rrothstein@epi. Fisher v. Univ. TX ..... 3 org) is a Research Associate at the Eco- Dual Immersion ....... 6 nomic Policy Inst. and a Senior Fel- NYC’s Subsidized Housing San Francisco ......... 9 low at the Chief Justice Earl Warren Meanwhile, cities also built projects Resources ............. 18 Inst. on Law & Social Policy at the Index to Vol. 21 .....21 Univ. of Calif. (Berkeley) School of for low-income African Americans in Law. ghetto neighborhoods, or sometimes Poverty & Race Research Action Council • 1200 18th Street NW • Suite 200 • Washington, DC 20036 202/906-8023 • FAX: 202/842-2885 • E-mail: [email protected] • www.prrac.org Recycled Paper (PUBLIC HOUSING: Cont. from page 1) board minutes explain that the South Levitt did not sell homes to blacks, Jamaica project should house minori- and each deed included a prohibition was given to war veterans. Only two- ties because it was “located in a neigh- of such re-sales in the future (TIME parent families were accepted, and ap- borhood having a preponderance of 1950; Jackson 1985). plicants had to produce marriage li- colored people” (Bloom 2008). The Of 300 large private subdivisions censes to prove their status. Investiga- project had lower income limits than built from 1935 to 1947 in New York’s tors visited potential tenants to verify Woodside, and rental rates were sub- Queens, Nassau, and Westchester they had good furniture and housekeep- sidized with federal funds, but not all Counties, 83% had racially restrictive ing habits, and well-behaved children. projects designed for African Ameri- deeds, with preambles like, “Whereas Stable post-war employment records, cans were low-income: A project the the Federal Housing Administration good credit, no teenage pregnant Housing Authority built contempora- requires that the existing mortgages on daughters and no alcohol or drug prob- neously with Woodside, also designed the said premises be subject and sub- lems were also required (Bloom 2008). for stable higher-income working ordinated to the said [racial] restric- Tenants typically had civil service jobs families where rents covered the full tions … [except for] domestic servants (like Klein’s father, a postal worker) of a different race domiciled with an or worked in trades or manufacturing. A shocking loss of owner or tenant…” (Dean 1947). Some were small business owners. collective memory. As whites fled cities, public hous- When the unsubsidized Woodside ing units were filled with lower-income project opened in 1949, its tenants were African Americans. In 1968, New 92% white. In the surrounding neigh- housing cost, was the Colonial Park York City abandoned its middle-class borhood was nary a black face. Across Houses in Harlem—it was 92% black, public housing program, accepting the borough in South Jamaica, the 7% Puerto Rican, and 1% white. federal subsidies for Woodside Houses Authority built a project for low-in- But as projects like Woodside filled and several other such projects. Long- come tenants: 30% white when it up with middle-class whites, other fed- term tenants with middle-class in- opened pre-war and down to 12% white eral policies lured these families out comes who did not leave voluntarily by the mid-1950s. Citywide, the Au- of projects into even whiter suburbs. were evicted. The Authority an- thority respected applicants’ prefer- These were the mortgage insurance pro- nounced that it would abandon previ- ences regarding which project they grams of the Federal Housing Admin- ous requirements of employment, sta- wished to occupy, guided by a rule es- istration (FHA) and the Veterans Ad- bility and orderliness and would no tablished during the New Deal by ministration (VA), from which black longer consider “morals of the appli- Harold Ickes, head of the Public Works families were mostly excluded. In the cants.” Many economically and so- Administration: public projects could 1950s, as single-family home construc- cially distressed minority tenants, not alter neighborhood racial compo- tion accelerated, the housing shortage some with unruly teenagers, were fun- sition. eased and white families took advan- neled into once-middle-class projects. As applied by New York City, the tage of these guarantees to decamp Changed population characteristics rule ensured that few low-income from Woodside and similar projects for were accompanied by a deterioration whites would live in South Jamaica, the suburbs. FHA- and VA-guaranteed in project upkeep. Students attending and few middle-income blacks would mortgages were so favorable that neighborhood schools now had drasti- live in Woodside. Housing Authority monthly carrying charges were often cally different, and greater, needs. less, for comparable rooms and square As public housing nationwide be- footage, than rents in the public came racially identifiable and associ- Poverty and Race (ISSN 1075-3591) projects. ated solely with poverty, public and is published six times a year by the Pov- Whether in the city or suburbs, the media stereotypes of public housing erty & Race Research Action Council, FHA required developers seeking its changed. By 1973, President Richard 1200 18th Street NW, Suite 200, Wash- financing to include restrictive cov- ington, DC 20036, 202/906-8023, fax: Nixon could describe many public 202/842-2885, E-mail: [email protected]. enants in their homeowner deeds, pro- housing projects as “monstrous, de- Chester Hartman, Editor. Subscriptions hibiting sales or re-sales to African pressing places—rundown, over- are $25/year, $45/two years. Foreign Americans. For example, Levittown, crowded, crime-ridden” (Nixon postage extra. Articles, article sugges- a suburb just east of Queens, was built 1973). tions, letters and general comments are in 1947 with 17,500 mass-produced welcome, as are notices of publications, These patterns were not unique to conferences, job openings, etc. for our two-bedroom houses, requiring veter- New York, but were repeated nation- Resources Section. Articles generally ans to put nothing down and make wide. may be reprinted, providing PRRAC monthly payments of only $56. (Com- • St. Louis: In the 1960s, Pruitt- gives advance permission. pare this to the $75 unsubsidized Igoe homes became a national symbol © Copyright 2012 by the Poverty & charge in Woodside Houses