The Projects may have been the home of the Evans family in “Good Times” and the backdrop for Matty Rich’s “Straight Out Of Brooklyn” but public housing as we know it about to become a thing of the past. And it seems that Atlanta is leading the charge—having demolished some 15,000 units in as many years according to a story in The New York Times. In its place, the city has created mix-income developments with lots of amenities ( in other words those neighborhoods get gentrified) Is this really a good thing? Or is this a veiled attempt to land grab prized real estate in the heart of the city?
The folks behind this movement have noble intentions: to get rid of neighborhoods that suffer from extreme poverty, joblessness, criminal activity:
“We’ve realized that concentrating families in poverty is very destructive,” said Renée L. Glover, the executive director of the Atlanta Housing Authority. “It’s destructive to the families, the neighborhoods and the city.”
However, life in the projects is not necessarily bleak for everyone. It is still a community after all and so there are also friendships, a willingness to help one another as well as a desire to live the best life possible.
But here’s the rub, this story doesn’t mirror George & Weezy Jefferson’s moving on up saga. In fact, most folks aren’t moving up they’re just moving out. The projects are demolished but people aren’t always given that many alternatives for new housing (but the government does subsidize their rents with vouchers). So many end up in neighborhoods only slightly better than the ones they previously called home. Research shows that people pushed out of public housing in Atlanta still settle in the city’s 10 poorest zip codes. Only a small percentage actually end up in the mixed income housing that is being built as the replacement for public housing—maybe it has to do with the paperwork they would need to fill out to qualify.
Most of the residents were behind this movement, they probably thought there was the promise of a better life. I wonder how they are feeling now? And if you think this is an isolated incident just know that officials in cities like Detroit, Miami, New Orleans and Chicago are watching how this experiment works out and trying to figure out whether they can follow suit. In other words if you’re poor and black, finding a place to live may be that much harder.
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