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A Depleted Legacy: Public Housing in Houston

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A Depleted Legacy: Public Housing in Houston 10 C i r e 3 3 19 9 5 A Depleted C u r t i s L a n g Legacy Public Housing in his past year, Allen Parkwa y Village Despite substantial opposition , Congress Thas been in the news once again, for empowered the U.S. H o u s i n g Authority what may prove to be the last rime. ( h e r (L1SHA) in 1937 to fund local housing the past dozen years, the 50-year-old Houston authorities, w h i c h w o u l d demolish slum public housing c o m p l e x , Houston's neighborhoods and erect new housing largest, lias become a familiar fixture in complexes to replace t h e m . ' The next local newspapers. 1'hrough ,t series ot er c o u l d never provide housing for all private homebuilders and savings and year the city of H o u s t o n and the stare of efforts at d e m o l i t i o n and redevelopment Americans. They argued thar public loan associations, w h o launched vigorous Texas established H o u s t o n 's housing occurring under four mayors. Allen housing alone c o u l d deliver decent habi- attacks on public housing, accusing it of authority, governed by a five-member Parkway Village has generated seemingly tation for the poor. " E v e n at its incep- being socialistic and representing unfair hoard of commissioners appointed by the unending lawsuits, public meetings, c o n- tion, public housing was a controversial government competitio n w i t h free enter- mayor for two-year terms. gressional hearings, even its o w n H U D idea, and I'resideni f r a n k l i n Roosevelt prise. They played major roles in amendment. It has attracted a large, himself had to be c o a x e d , " reports Tufts organizing local communities to oppose Unfortunately, rhe H o u s i n g A u t h o r i t y of diverse coalition of project residents, University professor Rachel G. llrarr. the siting of public h o u s i n g . " - rhe City of H o u s t o n ( H A C H I was created community activists from both the left " I here was strong opposition f r o m . with a political structure that does not and the right, academics, writers , d o c u - provide for oversight and accountability mentary f i l m makers, historians, preser- as safeguards against malfeasance. vationists, and religious and civic leaders. 1IACH was created by both state and Allen Parkway Village has become such .1 local statutes as a public a u t h o r i t y , cause ecli'bre — even if the cause is lost bunded p r i m a r i ly by rhe U.S. H o u s i n g — because it embodies virtually all the Authority (later the Department of problems at tile H o u s i n g A u t h o r i t y of the Housing and Urban Development) and City of H o u s t o n ( H A C H ) since the agen- only supplemented hy grants f r o m the cy's first major scandal in 195.?. city of H o u s t o n , H A C H is in budget and operation theoretically independent of HACH's mission is to provide l o w - the city. A l t h o u g h the mayor is ultimately income housing for the poorest of accountable lor w h a t H U \ I does, the Houston's poor. A discrepancy exists organizational charts of city government between this legislated ration d'etre and make it possible for h i m to claim to have what H A C H actually achieves. !'or the only limited influence over w h a t happens at H A C H and only limited responsibility past 25 years and m o r e , H A C H has often for a state-chartered public authority been more successful in feeding tax d o l - funded and audited by a Washington lars to developers and builders than in cabinet agency. This insulates the m a y o r doing its mandated j o b . from political heat resulting f r o m any HACH's Historical Roots HACH mismanagement. Because H A C H is a bureaucracy that answers to three different sources of power, it is a d i f f i c u l t More than am other industrialized target for reformers at any level. Where Western n a t i o n, the United States has authority is diffused, so are responsibility traditionally looked to rhe marketplace 10 and accountability. provide housing for its population . Houston's reliance on free-enterprise solutions to social problems makes the During the period f r o m 1940 to 1944, Bayou City a model tor those s t u d y i n g HACH built 2,215 racially segregated the evolution of the A m e r i c a n social c o n - public housing units. For black residents tract vis-a-vis housing. HACH opened Cuney Homes in T h i r d Ward (across f r o m the future site of T S U I Two watershed events in the first half of in 1940 and Kelly C o u r t s in Fifth W a r d the 20th century established a substantial in 1 9 4 1 ; for white residents it built role for an activist government in the Irvinton C o u r t s , also in Fifth W a r d , 4 marketplace, hut the current negotiations in 1942. between Republicans and Democrats to transform federal housing policy suggest The c r o w n jewel ot I lACFI's empire was that the government's active role may s.111 I elipe ( m n i s . ] lesigned by a g r o u p well be abolished. o f H o u s t o n architectural firms led by MacKie ck K a m r a t h and completed in Early in the century, the appearance of 1944, San Felipe Courts was designed to tenement reform laws forged a role for enhance the beauty and commercial u t i l i - local governments to set standards and ty ot • me ot I l i u i s t m i \ most importan t regulate housing safety.' D u r i n g the civic corridors, Allen Parkway, a scenic |9?l)s. N e w Deal reformers were c o n - boulevard w i n d i n g alongside buffalo vinced that the unregulated operation ol Allen Parkway Village, 1995. Its 1,000 apartments make up more than 24 percent of all public housing units in Bayou that connects d o w n t o w n H o u s t o n the free market and philanthropy togeth- Houston. Only 21 apartments are currently occupied. with the city's planned suburb for the 11 . well-off. River Oaks. In I9HH, the project ber of units for whites, even though it was listed in the N a t i o n a l Register of often meant the units lay empty. H A C l 1 Historic Places as a historic district of eventually dropped that policy in the late national significance.-5 sixties and early seventies, and Allen / Parkway Village became predominantly Houston's housing a u t h o r i t y built the African American, T h e n — and only then 1,000-umt San Felipe Courts (renamed — was it suggested that maintainin g a Allen Parkway Village in 1964) as l o w - lenwood Johnson, president ol the Resident Council of Allen Parkway Village, on the complex's tree-lined central housing project on that site was not a income public housing w i t h money f r o m street. good idea. As H A C F I director Robert the I mteJ States 1 lousing A u t h o r i t y . But Moore explained in a N o v e m b e r 1977 in A p r i l 194 I, Congress created the letter to H U D proposing d e m o l i t i o n of I )-\ is;,HI ,il I (etensc I lousing to provide the project, " | A l l e n Parkway Village's low-income housing near crucial defense land values have| escalated beyond a cost plants, and w h e n construction on San where housing is the highest and best Felipe Courts began in 1942, the complex use."1 ! H A C H began to make plans for was designated as temporary defense rhe sale of the project. housing. It was lived in by families of - defense w o r k e r s until I ' M , In order to Selling the land along Allen Parkway build the 37-acre c o m p l e x, a section of B B m would provide a cash w i n d f a l l for H A C H Fourth W a r d , Houston's oldest African while encouraging major private-sector American neighborhood , had to be razed, development — always one of City H a l l 's triggering vociferous protests f r o m rhe primary goals.
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