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: special interests, race and local control Public housing and Texas segregation politics In the forty years before the passage of the Fair Housing Act of 1968, white government leaders in Texas cities struggled to preserve the legal barriers which prevented African Americans and Hispanic families from moving into white neighborhoods. Since public housing was controlled locally by a public housing authority whose "commissioners" were appointed by the city's mayor, decisions based on the local racial policies of the cities' rulers dictated public housing development. Anti-public housing ad from a Dallas newspaper , November, 1963. Houston Mayor and City Council in the 1940's. (photo: Houston Public Library) African American populations were growing rapidly in Texas cities during the post World War II era. Older Black communities were literally bursting at the seams under the pressure of this population growth. Given the official policy of maintaining and promoting residential racial segregation, local white political leaders faced a pressing problem - where would new African American families live? White city leaders struggled to find ways to promote the development of new segregated neighborhoods in a rapid but orderly manner. These officials found that public housing was a valuable tool to accomplish their goal. The anti-housing lobby warned that it would one day be public housing that become the tool of breaking the residential color barrier. This fear was enough to prevent many Texas cities from ever building public housing. Yet other Texas leaders saw public housing as a device to be used to prevent residential racial integration. These elected officials saw that public housing could be used to give minorities an alternative to the overcrowded slums of the cities and an alternative to moving into white neighborhoods. Public housing could be used to create segregated black neighborhoods of decent housing - separate, if not equal, to white housing. Houston City Hall. (photo: TxLIHIS) Public housing: a tool for racial segregation