THE PUBLIC HOUSING DEBATE CONTENTS: Introduction Does Texas need public housing? Problems facing public housing The past: Beginnings of public housing Public Works Administration builds public housing Housing Act of 1937 Public housing in Texas Special interest, race and local control Solutions to fix public housing Postscript: Allen Parkway Village today For more information TxLIHIS' work in public housing copyright 1998 Texas Low Income Housing Information Service

The past: beginnings of public housing Housing in Texas in the 1920's During the 1920's there was a housing boom. Three-fourths of the housing created during the 1920's was marketed to households in the top one-third of the economy -- none of these boom houses were sold to the poorest third of the nation's families. Some historians draw analogies between the current economic conditions and those of the 1920's. Middle and upper income wealth increased rapidly at the same time low income families lost economic ground. Despite these economic realities there was an assumption by some 1920's political leaders that the prosperity enjoyed by the middle and upper classes would soon reach down to the poor. Home of an affluent Texas families built in the 1920's. (photo: Institute of Texan Cultures) Home of a low income Houston family. (photo: National Archives) President Herbert Hoover. (photo: National Archives) President Herbert Hoover declared during his 1928 election campaign, "The poorhouse is vanishing from among us. We have not yet reached that goal, but given a chance to go forward with the policies of the last eight years, we shall soon with the help of God be in sight of the day when poverty will be banished from this nation." Home of a San Antonio family in 1920's. (photo: Institute of Texan Cultures) Houses on the near-east side of Fort Worth. (photo: National Archives) Low income family's home in Fort Worth. (photo: National Archives) The Depression in Texas