| The past: public housing in Texas | ||||||||
| War worker housing and the Lanham Act | ||||||||
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The development of public housing in Texas set a rapid pace in
the early years with over 4,400 homes built in 1940 and 1941 and
almost 5,000 in 1942 and 1943. By the end of the first ten years
of the public housing program, in 1948, 10,332 public housing
units had been constructed in Texas. But World War II and the recovery period that followed brought traditional public housing production to a standstill. World War II produced a shift in who got to live in public housing. The Lanham Act of 1940 permitted the use of federal funds to build public housing for defense industry workers. The migration of low income rural residents to the cities to take factory jobs required that housing be built for the workers. The federal government made this part of the war effort, suspending traditional public housing construction but expediting the construction of war worker housing administered by local public housing authorities. |
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| War workers and their families had priority in public housing like this in Dallas during World War II. (photo: Dallas Public Library) | ||||||||
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| Thousands of Texans moved to cities to take war production jobs like those in the San Antonio electronics factory. (photo: Institute of Texan Cultures) | ||||||||
| Among the public housing built for war workers in Dallas was a community of these metal huts. (photo: Dallas Public Library) | ||||||||
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Public housing residents protest demolitions |
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