The working poor are working people whose incomes fall below a given poverty line due to low-income jobs and low familial household income. These are people who spend at least 27 weeks in a year working or looking for employment, but remain under the poverty threshold.
166-440: The Wendell O. Pruitt Homes and William Igoe Apartments , known together as Pruitt–Igoe ( / ˈ p r uː ɪ t ˈ aɪ ɡ oʊ / ), were joint urban housing projects first occupied in 1954 in St. Louis , Missouri , United States. The complex of 33 eleven-story high rises was designed in the modernist architectural style by Minoru Yamasaki . At the time of opening, it was one of
332-400: A Charles Dickens novel". Its housing stock had deteriorated by the 1940s, and more than 85,000 families lived in 19th century tenements . An official survey from 1947 found that 33,000 homes had communal toilets. Middle-class, predominantly white, residents were leaving the city , and their former residences became occupied by low-income families. Black slums in the north and white slums in
498-455: A Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher ) to help cover their housing expenses. However, these housing subsidies are not available to everyone who meets the Section 8 income specifications. In fact, less than 25% of people who qualify for a housing subsidy receive one. Education The issue with education starts many times with the working poor from childhood and follows them into their struggle for
664-413: A feedback loop where the loss of revenue from rent forced the housing authority to curtail maintenance, further reducing the project's desirability. Occupancy at both Pruitt and Igoe peaked in the first years, at 95 and 86 percent, respectively. In the 1960s, Pruitt remained about 75 percent full and Igoe 65 percent. In 1969, those numbers fell to 57.1 percent and 48.9 percent; at one point the vacancy rate
830-462: A "hostile climate" that limited financial assistance from the government; in turn, the eventual failure of the project contributed to the further unpopularity of public housing, both locally and nationally. According to The Architectural Review , the modern consensus is that the underfunded project was "doomed from the outset". The failure and demolition of Pruitt–Igoe damaged Yamasaki's reputation as an architect, and he personally regretted designing
996-575: A bachelor's degree or higher. Families with children are four times as likely as a single person to live in poverty, with families headed by single women making up 16% of all working poor families. In 2018, according to the US Census Bureau's official definition of poverty, 38.1 million US citizens were below the poverty line (11.8% of the population). However this number includes children under 18 years of age, elders over 65, and people with disabilities who cannot work. The poverty rate of people between
1162-581: A breakthrough in urban renewal. One early resident described her 11th floor apartment as a "poor man's penthouse". Pruitt–Igoe was officially desegregated by a Supreme Court decision in 1954, and as many as 40 percent of the initial tenants were white, but by the mid 1960s it had become exclusively African American. By 1958, just four years after the opening of the project, deteriorating conditions were already evident. Elevator breakdowns and vandalism were cited as major problems—Yamasaki later lamented that he "never thought people were that destructive". Ventilation
1328-565: A broader scale, and the NHA dissolved in 1936. The City of Milwaukee , under mayor Daniel Hoan , implemented the country's first public housing project, known as Garden Homes , in 1923. This experiment with a municipally-sponsored housing cooperative saw initial success, but was plagued by development and land acquisition problems, and the board overseeing the project dissolved the Gardens Home Corporation just two years after construction on
1494-452: A cabinet-level agency to lead with housing. This act also introduced rent subsidies for the first time, the beginning of a shift towards encouraging privately constructed low-income housing. With this legislation, the FHA would insure mortgages for non-profits which would then construct homes for low-income families. HUD could then provide subsidies to bridge the gap between the cost of these units and
1660-581: A cause of the American apartheid residential pattern in the city. Martin Luther King Jr. made housing integration a key part of his civil rights campaign and one month after the publication of the Kerner Commission was published, King was assassinated. His murder instigated another wave of riots and in response, and no later than a week after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. , Congress passed
1826-449: A characterization is a simplification of a much more complex set of social phenomena. According to Crump (2002), the term "concentrated poverty" was originally a spatial concept that was part of a much broader and complex sociological description of poverty, but the spatial component then became the overarching metaphor for concentrated poverty and the cause of social pathologies surrounding it. Instead of spatial concentration simply being
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#17330853075051992-418: A community, leading to several negative externalities . Crime, drug usage, and educational under-performance are all widely associated with housing projects, particularly in urban areas. As a result of their various problems and diminished political support, many of the traditional low-income public housing properties constructed in the earlier years of the program have been demolished. Beginning primarily in
2158-463: A complicated and often notorious history in the United States. While the first decades of projects were built with higher construction standards and a broader range of incomes and same applicants, over time, public housing increasingly became the housing of last resort in many cities. Several reasons have been cited for this negative trend including the failure of Congress to provide sufficient funding,
2324-432: A comprehensive overview of the number of working poor. One recent study proposed over 100 ways to measure this and came up with a figure that ranged between 2% and 19% of the total United States population. There is also controversy surrounding ways that the working poor can be helped. Arguments range from increasing welfare to the poor on one end of the spectrum to encouraging the poor to achieve greater self-sufficiency on
2490-461: A direct indictment of the society-changing aspirations of the International school of architecture and an example of modernists' intentions running contrary to real-world social development. Pruitt–Igoe served as a case study for Oscar Newman's concept of defensible space , in which structures are laid out so that residents have control and responsibility over their surroundings. Newman criticized
2656-554: A disincentive to high-paying businesses to locate themselves in the area. He further argues that the pathologies caused by a concentration of poverty are likely to spread to surrounding neighborhoods, forcing local residents and businesses to relocate. Freeman and Botein (2002) are more skeptical of a reduction of property values following the building of public housing units. In a meta-analysis of empirical studies, they expected to find that when public housing lacks obtrusive architecture and its residents are similar to those already in
2822-505: A former US Congressman . Originally, the city planned two partitions: Pruitt for black residents and Igoe for whites, as St. Louis public housing was segregated until 1955. In 1950, the city picked Leinweber, Yamasaki & Hellmuth , an architectural firm based in St. Louis, to design the new public housing complex. The project was led by architect Minoru Yamasaki , then early in his career, and performed under supervision and constraints imposed by
2988-445: A generous welfare state does two key things to reduce working poverty: it raises the minimum level of wages that people are willing to accept, and it pulls a large portion of low-wage workers out of poverty by providing them with an array of cash and non-cash government benefits. Many think that increasing the United States' welfare state generosity would lower the working poverty rate. A critique of this proposal by Charles Murray
3154-498: A great American city into something decent and good". Although Yamasaki's design followed modernist conventions and was influenced by Le Corbusier 's ville radieuse concept, many design decisions were imposed by federal authorities, including vetoing the original proposal of a mix of structures of different heights. Even before the completion of the project, Yamasaki was skeptical that high-rise buildings would be beneficial to tenants, stating that "The low building with low density
3320-473: A healthy manner." 78 percent of residents reported that they were satisfied with their apartment, and 80 percent said that Pruitt–Igoe met their needs "a little better" or "much better" than their previous place of residence. The project contained isolated pockets of well-being throughout its worst years, and apartments clustered around small, two-family landings with tenants working to maintain and clear their common areas were often relatively successful. In 1968,
3486-584: A high school diploma, 9.7% with some college, and 6.2% with a bachelor's degree of higher. Blacks and Hispanics have higher rates of poverty than Whites and Asians at every education level. Student loan debt in the US can also contribute to poverty due to capitalized interest if the borrower does not earn enough wages keep up with the loan payments. Married and cohabiting partners are less likely to experience poverty than individuals and single parents. The percentage of married and cohabiting partners living in poverty in 2018
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#17330853075053652-686: A home ownership model for Section 8, and expanded the HOPE VI program to replace traditional public housing units. The act also effectively capped the number of public housing units by creating the Faircloth Limit as an amendment to the Housing Act of 1937, which limited funding for the construction or operation of all units to the total number of units as of October 1, 1999 and repealed a rule that required one for one replacement of demolished housing units. According to HUD's Residential Characteristic Report,
3818-403: A household out of poverty than having just one adult in a household. Many scholars and policymakers have used this fact to argue that encouraging people to get married and stay married is an effective way to reduce working poverty (and poverty in general). However, this is easier said than done. Research has shown that low-income people marry less often than higher-income people because they have
3984-614: A low-rise neighborhood by collapsing the towers down to a few floors to reduce the density. After 1971, most tenants were consolidated into the Igoe section. Despite the impending demolition, more than $ 1 million was spent on renovation in the 1970s, mainly funded by grants from the federal government. After months of preparation, the first building was demolished with explosives on March 16, 1972. More buildings followed on April 21, June 9, and July 15. HUD announced in August 1973 their decision to demolish
4150-664: A low-wage earners' income, making work, especially in a job with no potential for advancement, an economically illogical activity. However, some single parents are able to rely on their social networks to provide free or below-market-cost childcare. There are also some free childcare options provided by the government, such as the Head Start Program . However, these free options are only available during certain hours, which may limit parents' ability to take jobs that require late-night shifts. The U.S. "average" seems to suggest that for one toddler, in full-time day care, on weekdays,
4316-747: A lowering of standards for occupancy, and mismanagement at the local level. In the United States, the federal government provides funding for public housing from two different sources: the Capital Fund and the Operating Fund. According to the HUD, the Capital Fund subsidizes housing authorities to renovate and refurbish public housing developments; meanwhile, the Operating Fund provides funds to housing authorities in order to assist in maintenance and operating costs of public housing. Furthermore, housing projects have also been seen to greatly increase concentrated poverty in
4482-417: A major factor in a nine-month rent strike by tenants in 1969. The strike began on February 2 at other public housing projects in the city and spread to Pruitt–Igoe by April 1. It ended with a settlement under which the board of commissioners of the housing authority resigned and tenant organizations were granted more influence. In 1965, the project received a federal grant to improve the physical condition of
4648-564: A materials subsidy for housing construction. However, in the wake of the 1946 elections, President Truman believed there was insufficient public support to continue such materials restrictions and subsidies. The Veterans' Emergency Housing Program ended in January 1947 by an executive order from President Truman. With the Office of Housing Expediter ended, housing efforts moved to look at new, comprehensive approaches to address housing issues. The result
4814-446: A meaningful minimum wage in place. The federal government offers a Flexible Spending Account (FSA) that's administered through workplaces. If a job offers an FSA (also known as a Dependent Care Account), one can put aside up to $ 5,000 in pre-tax dollars to pay for child care expenses. If both you and your spouse have an FSA, the family limit is $ 5,000—but you could get as much as $ 2,000 in tax savings if your combined contributions reach
4980-440: A more difficult time finding a partner who is employed, which is often seen as a prerequisite for marriage. Therefore, unless the employment opportunity structure is improved, simply increasing the number of marriages among low-income people would be unlikely to lower working poverty rates. Ultimately, effective solutions to working poverty are multifaceted. Each of the aforementioned proposals could help reduce working poverty in
5146-538: A need to house those displaced by the clearance (Massey and Kanaiaupuni 1993). However, those in city governments, political organizations, and suburban communities resisted the creation of public housing units in middle and working-class neighborhoods, leading to the construction of such units around ghetto neighborhoods which already exhibited signs of poverty. Massey and Kanaiaupuni (1993) describe three sources of concentrated poverty in relation to public housing: income-requirements structurally creating areas of poverty,
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5312-405: A need to strengthen the labor movement . Cross-national statistical studies on working poverty suggest that generous welfare states have a larger impact on working poverty than strong labor movements. The labor movements in various countries have accomplished this through political parties of their own (labor parties) or strategic alliances with non-labor parties, for instance, when striving to put
5478-805: A new program called the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program. Under the demonstration program, eligible public housing properties are redeveloped in conjunction with private developers and investors. The federal government, through its Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program (which in 2012 paid for construction of 90% of all subsidized rental housing in the US), spends $ 6 billion per year to finance 50,000 low-income rental units annually, with median costs per unit for new construction (2011–2015) ranging from $ 126,000 in Texas to $ 326,000 in California . In
5644-494: A package of across the board cuts. Additionally, emergency shelters for the homeless were expanded, and home ownership by low-income families was promoted to a greater degree. In 1990, President George H. W. Bush signed the Cranston-Gonzalez National Affordable Housing Act (NAHA), which furthered the use of HOME funds for rental assistance. In his address upon its passage, Bush said, "Although
5810-513: A part of the broad description of social pathologies, Crump (2002) argues that the concept replaced the broad description, mistakenly narrowing the focus to the physical concentration of poverty. The HUD's 2013 The Location and Racial Composition of Public Housing in the United States report found that the racial distribution of residents within individual public housing units tends to be rather homogeneous, with African Americans and white residents stratified to separate neighborhoods. One trend that
5976-500: A private security force that patrolled the buildings led to a further escalation in crime and vandalism, which was partially attributed to the large number of juveniles in single-parent households; a census undertaken in September 1965 found that 69.2 percent of inhabitants were minors, and less than 30 percent of households with children had both parents present. Teenage pregnancy and juvenile delinquency were considered major problems by
6142-457: A relative for care. North Carolina's Smart Start is a public/private partnership that offers funding for child care. Check the National Women's Law Center for each state's child care assistance policy. In the conclusion of her book, Nickel and Dimed (2001), Barbara Ehrenreich argues that Americans need to pressure employers to improve worker compensation. Generally speaking, this implies
6308-506: A second job. In addition, working poor people's working hours can fluctuate wildly from one week to the next, making it difficult for them to budget effectively and save up money. Multiple jobs Many low-wage workers have to work multiple jobs in order to make ends meet. In 1996, 6.2 percent of the workforce held two or more full- or part-time jobs. Most of these people held two part-time jobs or one part-time job and one full-time job, but 4% of men and 2% of women held two full-time jobs at
6474-421: A set percentage of a household's income. The 1961 Housing Act quietly introduced a program under Section 23 which allowed local housing authorities to house individuals on their waiting lists in privately leased units through the mechanism of a voucher which covered the gap between household ability to pay and the market rent. This mechanism was repeatedly expanded in later legislation. In response to many of
6640-477: A significant public housing program. Title II of the legislation stated the goal of a "decent home in a decent environment for every American," and the legislation authorized $ 13 billion mortgage guarantees, $ 1.5 billion for slum redevelopment, and set a construction goal of 810,000 units of public housing. Upon its passage, Truman told the press: "[This legislation] opens up the prospect of decent homes in wholesome surroundings for low-income families now living in
6806-484: A small sample of countries. Brady, Fullerton, and Cross (2010) accessed this data through the Luxembourg Income Study . This graph measures household, rather than person-level, poverty rates. A household is coded as "poor" if its income is less than 50% of its country's median income. This is a relative, rather than absolute, measure of poverty. A household is classified as "working" if at least one member of
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6972-403: A strong bent towards local efforts in locating and constructing housing and would place caps on how much could be spent per housing unit. The cap of $ 5,000 was a hotly contested feature of the bill as it would be a considerable reduction of the money spent on PWA housing and was far less than advocates of the bill had lobbied to get. Construction of housing projects dramatically accelerated under
7138-577: A strong sense of self-worth. One coping mechanism is called boundary work , which happens when one group of people valorize their own social position by comparing themselves to another group, who they perceive to be inferior in some way. For example, Newman (1999) found that fast food workers in New York City cope with the low-status nature of their job by comparing themselves to the unemployed, who they perceive to be even lower-status than themselves. Scholars, policymakers, and others have come up with
7304-512: A substantial income. Children growing up in families of the working poor are not provided the same educational opportunities as their middle-class counterpart. In many cases the low income community is filled with schools that are lacking necessities and support needed to form a solid education. This follows students as they continue in education. In many cases this hinders the possibility for America's youth to continue on to higher education. The grades and credits are not attained in many cases, and
7470-409: A temporarily during an emergency or when a family is in need. This plan did not account for any food consumption outside of the home, and while it was considered nutritious, it was limited in variety and monotonous, thus the temporary designation. The US government took this number and—because the average family at the time spent one-third of their income on food—multiplied it by three. This has remained
7636-466: A traditional rental, but they are accessible to the working poor because they do not require a large deposit. If someone is unable or unwilling to pay for a room in a motel, they might live in their car, in a homeless shelter, or on the street. This is not a marginal phenomenon; in fact, according to the 2008 US Conference of Mayors, one in five homeless people are currently employed. Some working poor people are able to access housing subsidies (such as
7802-643: A variety of proposals for how to reduce or eliminate working poverty. Most of these proposals are directed toward the United States, but they might also be relevant to other countries. The remainder of the section outlines the pros and cons of some of the most commonly proposed solutions. Cross-national studies like Lohmann (2009) and Brady, Fullerton, and Cross (2010) clearly show that countries with generous welfare states have lower levels of working poverty than countries with less-generous welfare states, even when factors like demography, economic performance, and labor market institutions are taken into account. Having
7968-501: Is an example of how stigma and judgement around public housing and affordable housing resulted in a significant change in the racial demographics of urban housing. White flight is a sociological response to perceptions that racially diverse neighborhoods will decrease their home value and increase crime rates. McNulty and Holloway (2000) studied the intersection of public housing geography, race, and crime in order to determine if racial differences existed in crime rates when controlled for
8134-431: Is doubled for blacks compared to whites. The study further found that public housing tends to concentrate those who struggle the most economically into a specific area, further raising poverty levels. A different study, conducted by Freeman (2003) on a national level, cast doubt onto the theory that public housing units have an independent effect on the concentration of poverty. The study found that while out-migration of
8300-500: Is not the rebuilding of cities. This is the sacking of cities." Several additional housing acts were passed after 1949, altering the program in small ways, such as shifting ratios for elderly housing, but no major legislation changed the mechanisms of public housing until the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1965 . This act created the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD),
8466-474: Is observed is that black neighborhoods tend to reflect a lower socioeconomic status and that white neighborhoods represent a more affluent demographic. More than 40% of public housing occupants live in predominantly black neighborhoods, according to the HUD report. Even though changes have been made to address unconstitutional housing segregation , stigma and prejudice around public housing projects are still prevalent. Segregation in public housing has roots in
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#17330853075058632-507: Is that a generous welfare state would not work because it would stagnate the economy, raise unemployment, and degrade people's work ethic. However, as of 2011 , most European countries have a lower unemployment rate than the US. Furthermore, although Western European economies' growth rates can be lower than the US's from time to time, their growth rates tend to be more stable, whereas the US's tends to fluctuate relatively severely. Individual states offer financial assistance for child care, but
8798-459: Is that a person's poverty status is determined after subtracting taxes, food, clothing, shelter, utilities, childcare and work-related expenses, and including government benefits and people living in the home that do not fit the "family" definition (such as an unmarried couple, or dependent foster children). Using the SPM, the poverty rate overall increases, particularly the rate of the working poor. In 2018,
8964-404: Is the low skill jobs that usually only require a high school degree or GED . The inequality in available education continues the vicious cycle of families entering into the working poor. Transportation Given the fact that many working poor people do not own a car or cannot afford to drive their car, where they live can significantly limit where they are able to work, and vice versa. Given
9130-513: Is unquestionably more satisfactory than multi-story living." Nonetheless, he defended the high-rise design as a practical necessity for clearing slums . Criticism of the project's architectural design began in the 1960s. The skip-stop elevators forced many residents to use the stairwells, where muggings were frequent. The galleries, which were unpainted, unfurnished, and dimly-lit, served as hang-outs for criminal gangs rather than communal spaces. The landscaping intended to make Pruitt–Igoe " towers in
9296-549: The Fair Housing Act which prohibited discrimination in housing. However, since the Fair Housing Act was passed, housing policies restricting minority housing to segregated neighborhoods are still heavily debated because of the vague language used in the Fair Housing Act. In the 2015 Supreme Court case Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs v. The Inclusive Communities Project , Justice Kennedy clarified that
9462-703: The Federal Housing Administration (FHA), which used only a small capital investment from the federal government to insure mortgages. Construction of public housing projects were therefore only one portion of the federal housing efforts during the Great Depression. In 1937, the Wagner-Steagall Housing Act replaced the temporary PWA Housing Division with a permanent, quasi-autonomous agency to administer housing. The new United States Housing Authority Housing Act of 1937 would operate with
9628-504: The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency on an adjacent lot were reportedly stalling the redevelopment of the site. Pruitt–Igoe has received extensive commentary in the architectural literature; architect William Ramroth describes it as "the most infamous public housing disaster in American history" and a "poster child" for the failures of public housing projects. Nonetheless, the initial reception of Pruitt–Igoe
9794-462: The Section 8 Housing Program to encourage the private sector to construct affordable homes. This kind of housing assistance assists poor tenants by giving a monthly subsidy to their landlords. This assistance can be 'project based,' which applies to specific properties, or 'tenant based,' which provides tenants with a voucher they can use anywhere vouchers are accepted. Tenant based housing vouchers covered
9960-496: The ' towers in the park ' style of Le Corbusier . Jane Jacobs would famously describe the new products as, "Low-income projects that become worse centers of delinquency, vandalism, and general social hopelessness than the slums they were supposed to replace. Middle-income housing projects which are truly marvels of dullness and regimentation, sealed against any buoyancy or vitality of city life. Luxury housing projects that mitigate their inanity, or try to, with vapid vulgarity ... This
10126-423: The 1940s to 1 million in 1970 as projected, the city lost 30 percent of its residents in that timespan due to suburbanization and white flight , as well as 11,000 manufacturing jobs in an overall shift from a blue collar to white collar economy. The Pruitt-Igoe Myth , a 2011 documentary film, largely followed Bristol's view. In his book-length study of St. Louis public housing policy, Eugene Meehan assessed
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#173308530750510292-539: The 1960s, across the nation, housing authorities became key partners in urban renewal efforts, constructing new homes for those displaced by highway, hospital and other public efforts. When US entry to World War II ended the era of New Deal reforms, the call for public housing from the NAACP , women's groups and labor unions was quieted. As part of the war mobilization, entire communities sprang up around factories manufacturing military goods. In 1940, Congress therefore authorized
10458-637: The 1970s the federal government turned to other approaches including the Project-Based Section 8 program, Section 8 certificates, and the Housing Choice Voucher Program. In the 1990s the federal government accelerated the transformation of traditional public housing through HUD's HOPE VI Program. Hope VI funds are used to tear down distressed public housing projects and replace them with mixed communities constructed in cooperation with private partners. In 2012, Congress and HUD initiated
10624-467: The 19th and early 20th centuries, government involvement in housing for the poor was chiefly in the area of building code enforcement, requiring new buildings to meet certain standards for decent livability (e.g. proper ventilation), and forcing landlords to make some modifications to existing building stock. Photojournalist Jacob Riis' How the Other Half Lives (1890) brought considerable attention
10790-502: The Consumer Price Index for goods, multiplying the cost of a minimum food diet in 1963 by three, a family's gross income (before tax), and the number of family members. In 2017, there were 6.9 million individuals defined as working poor. Because there has been, and still is, debate on how accurate using this metric is, the US Census Bureau began publishing a Supplemental Poverty Measure in 2011. The main difference using this metric
10956-504: The Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. However, according to Gotham (2000), Section 235 of the Housing Act of 1968 encouraged white flight from the inner city, selling suburban properties to whites and inner-city properties to blacks, creating neighborhoods that were racially isolated from others. White flight - white people moving out of neighborhoods that have become more racially or ethnoculturally heterogeneous -
11122-434: The Fair Housing Act was intended to promote equity, not just eliminate explicit acts of discrimination. Changes in both public policy and social narrative are equally necessary for establishing equitable housing opportunities for all Americans. Working poor In the United States, the official measurement of the working poor is controversial. Many social scientists argue that the official measurements used do not provide
11288-885: The Federal Government currently serves about 4.3 million low-income families, there are about 4 million additional families, most of them very low income, whose housing needs have not been met. We should not divert assistance from those who need it most." The next new era in public housing began in 1992 with the launch of the HOPE VI program by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development . HOPE VI funds were devoted to demolishing poor-quality public housing projects and replacing them with lower-density developments, often of mixed-income. Funds included construction and demolition costs, tenant relocation costs, and subsidies for newly constructed units. HOPE VI has become
11454-585: The Housing Division of the PWA and headed by architect Robert Kohn , the initial, Limited-Dividend Program aimed to provide low-interest loans to public or private groups to fund the construction of low-income housing. Too few qualified applicants stepped forward, and the Limited-Dividend Program funded only seven housing projects nationally. In the spring of 1934, PWA Administrator Harold Ickes directed
11620-412: The Housing Division to undertake the direct construction of public housing, a decisive step that would serve as a precedent for the 1937 Wagner-Steagall Housing Act , and the permanent public housing program in the United States. Kohn stepped down during the reorganization, and between 1934 and 1937 the Housing Division, now headed by Colonel Horatio B. Hackett, constructed fifty-two housing projects across
11786-516: The National Housing Association (NHA) was created to improve housing conditions in urban and suburban neighborhoods through the enactment of better regulation and increased awareness. The NHA was founded by Lawrence Veiller , author of Model Tenement House Law (1910), and consisted of delegates from dozens of cities. Over time, the focus of the housing movement shifted from a focus on proper building typology to community development on
11952-520: The Seventies was instrumental in crafting new housing legislation the following year. In keeping with Nixon's market-based approach, as demonstrated by EHAP, Nixon also lifted the moratorium on the Section 23 voucher program late in September, allowing for 200,000 new households to be funded. The full moratorium was lifted in the summer of 1974, as Nixon faced impeachment in the wake of Watergate . The Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 created
12118-580: The US Housing Authority to build twenty public housing developments around these private companies to sustain the war effort. There was considerable debate over whether these should be permanent dwellings, furthering reformer goals of establishing a broader public housing effort, or temporary dwellings in keeping with the timeliness of the need. The Defense Housing Division was founded in 1941 and would ultimately construct eight developments of temporary housing, though many ended up as long-term housing after
12284-414: The US's. Most of this difference can be explained by the fact that European countries' welfare states are more generous than the US's. The relationship between generous welfare states and low rates of working poverty is elaborated upon in the " Risk factors " and " Anti-poverty policies " sections. The following graph uses data from Brady, Fullerton, and Cross (2010) to show the working poverty rates for
12450-885: The United States, as well as Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Atlanta's Techwood Homes opened on 1 September 1936 and was the first of the fifty-two opened. Based on the residential planning concepts of Clarence Stein and Henry Wright, these fifty-two projects are architecturally cohesive, with composed on one to four story row house and apartment buildings, arranged around open spaces, creating traffic-free play spaces that defined community life. Many of these projects were built on slum land, but land acquisition proved difficult, so abandoned industrial sites and vacant land were also purchased. Lexington's two early projects were constructed on an abandoned horse racing track. At Ickes' direction, many of these projects were also segregated, designed and built for either whites or African-Americans. Race
12616-517: The United States, transgender people are three times more likely than the average population have a household income between $ 1 and $ 9,999, and nearly twice as likely to have a household income between $ 10,000 and $ 24,999. Workers with disabilities significantly earn less than their non-disabled counterparts. The working poor face many of the same daily life struggles as the nonworking poor, but they also face some unique obstacles. Some studies, many of them qualitative , provide detailed insights into
12782-511: The United States. Labor market polarization has been the most severe in liberal market economies like the US. Countries like Denmark and France have been subject to the same economic pressures, but due to their more "inclusive" (or "egalitarian") labor market institutions, such as centralized and solidaristic collective bargaining and strong minimum wage laws, they have experienced less polarization. Cross-national studies have found that European countries' working poverty rates are much lower than
12948-476: The aftermath of its demolition, Pruitt–Igoe became a symbol of the failings of the society-changing aspirations of modernist architecture, as the project's problems were widely attributed to architectural flaws that created a hostile and unsafe environment. Critic Charles Jencks described its demolition as "the day Modern architecture died". More recent appraisals have placed a greater emphasis on St. Louis's precipitously declining population, and fiscal problems with
13114-527: The ages of 18 and 64 was 10.7%, or 21.1 million people. Of these, nearly half, 5.1%, were working at least part-time. Using the US Census Bureau's definition of poverty, the working poverty rate seems to have remained relatively stable since 1978. There is some controversy around this measurement, namely how the dollar amounts that make up the poverty threshold are calculated. In 1961, the Department of Agriculture came out with an "economy food plan" to be used as
13280-472: The aid varies widely. Most assistance is administered through the Child Care and Development Block Grants. Many subsidies have strict income guidelines and are generally for families with children under 13 (the age limit is often extended if the child has a disability). Many subsidies permit home-based care, but some only accept a day care center, so check the requirements. However, in an academic research, half of
13446-402: The amount of which was determined by a formula focusing on population, given to state and local governments for housing and community development work. The sum could be used as determined by the community, though the legislation also required the development of Housing Assistance Plans (HAP) which required local communities to survey and catalog their available housing stock as well as determine
13612-498: The average annual income in 2013 for a resident of a public housing unit is $ 13,730. The same report classifies 68% of residents as Extremely Low Income, with the largest annual income bracket being $ 5,000 to $ 10,000, containing 32% of public housing residents. Trends showing an increase in geographic concentration of poverty became evident by the 1970s as upper and middle-class residents vacated property in U.S. cities. Urban renewal programs led to widespread slum clearance, creating
13778-596: The buildings and establish social programs for residents, but the grant failed to reverse the decline. Between 1963 and 1966 it was the subject of a sociological study by Lee Rainwater . In 1966, the Pruitt–Igoe Neighborhood Corporation commissioned a survey of the housing project that catalogued numerous issues with its maintenance, security, and management. Basic services like elevators and heating often failed, and maintenance sometimes took years to respond to tenant requests. The withdrawal in 1967 of
13944-520: The buildings. Subsidized housing in the United States In the United States, subsidized housing is administered by federal, state and local agencies to provide subsidized rental assistance for low-income households. Public housing is priced much below the market rate, allowing people to live in more convenient locations rather than move away from the city in search of lower rents. In most federally-funded rental assistance programs,
14110-510: The concentration of poverty, some contended these developments were declared unsuitable for families. One of the most notorious of these developments was the Pruitt-Igoe development in St. Louis, Missouri , constructed in 1955 and 1956. This development posted 2,870 units in thirty-three high rises buildings. By the late 1960s, vacancy rates reached as high as 65%, and the project was demolished between 1972 and 1975. More recent scholarship about
14276-725: The conditions of the slums in New York City, sparking new attention to housing conditions around the country. Early tenement reform was primarily a philanthropic venture, with Model Tenements built as early as the 1870s which attempted to use new architectural and management models to address the physical and social problems of the slums. These attempts were limited by available resources, and early efforts were soon redirected towards building code reform. The New York Tenement Act of 1895 and Tenement Law of 1901 were early attempts to address building codes in New York City, which were then copied in Chicago, Philadelphia, and other American cities. In 1910,
14442-442: The construction industry, at 9.7%, 9.0% and 7.1% respectively. The largest ethnicity groups of the working poor are African-American and Hispanics or Latinos, both at 7.9%, with whites at 3.9% and Asian at 2.9%. Women are far more likely than men to be working and in poverty, 10% vs 5.6%. While the majority of the working poor have a high school diploma or less, 5% have some college education, 3.2% have an associate degree, and 1.5% have
14608-793: The cost is approximately $ 600.00 per month. But, that figure can rise to well over $ 1000.00 per month in major metro areas, and fall to less than $ 350 in rural areas. The average cost of center-based daycare in the United States is $ 11,666 per year ($ 972 a month), but prices range from $ 3,582 to $ 18,773 a year ($ 300 to $ 1,564 monthly), according to the National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies. Work schedules Many low-wage jobs force workers to accept irregular schedules. In fact, some employers will not hire someone unless they have "open availability," which means being available to work any time, any day. This makes it difficult for workers to arrange for childcare and to take on
14774-453: The country's median household income. According to Eurostat, a relative measure of poverty is appropriate because "minimal acceptable standards usually differ between societies according to their general level of prosperity: someone regarded as poor in a rich developed country might be regarded as rich in a poor developing country." According to the latest data the UK's working poor rate is 10%, with
14940-408: The country. Even under federal cost-cutting regulations, Pruitt–Igoe initially cost $ 36 million, 60 percent above the national average for public housing; one factor was the installation of an expensive heating system. Despite the poor build quality, material suppliers cited Pruitt–Igoe in their advertisements to capitalize on the national exposure of the project. Pruitt–Igoe was initially seen as
15106-493: The damage. In 1948, voters rejected the proposal for a municipal loan to finance urban redevelopment, but soon the situation was changed with the Housing Act of 1949 and Missouri state laws that provided co-financing of public housing projects. The approach taken by Darst, urban renewal , was shared by President Harry S. Truman 's administration and fellow mayors of other cities overwhelmed by industrial workers recruited during
15272-461: The demand side of the housing market rather than the supply side by supplementing a household's rent allowance until they were able to afford market rates. EHAP was designed to test three aspects of the impact of vouchers: Ultimately, new legislation on housing vouchers did not wait for the conclusion of the experiment. When the program concluded over a decade later, it was discovered that the program had minimal impact on surrounding rents, but did have
15438-468: The demolition of the first buildings in 1972, Pruitt–Igoe received wider attention and began to be perceived as a failure of modernist architecture as a whole. By the late 1970s, this view had coalesced into "architectural dogma", especially for the nascent movements of postmodern architecture and environment and behavior architecture. Postmodern architectural historian Charles Jencks called its destruction "the day Modern architecture died" and considered it
15604-477: The design to save money, and the complex had no public mailbox) contributed to its problems. The huge, 11-story buildings of the development were reportedly a magnet for criminals and vagrants from the surrounding low-rise slums; a 1959 audit reported that most of the vandalism was done by transients rather than residents, and a 1967 report similarly found that a "relatively large proportion" of crimes were committed by outsiders. Large criminal gangs were not common in
15770-549: The early developments and activities of the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), created by the Housing Act of 1934 . The FHA institutionalized a practice by which it would seek to maintain racially homogenous neighborhoods through racially restrictive covenants - an explicitly discriminatory policy written into the deed of a house. This practice was struck down by the Supreme Court in 1948 in Shelley v. Kraemer because it violates
15936-498: The emerging concerns regarding new public housing developments, the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1968 attempt to shift the style of housing developments, looking to the Garden Cities model of Ebenezer Howard . The act prohibited the construction of high-rise developments for families with children. The role of high-rises had always been contentious, but with rising rates of vandalism and vacancy and considerable concerns about
16102-500: The fact that public transportation in many US cities is sparse, expensive, or non-existent, this is a particularly salient obstacle. Some working poor people are able to use their social networks—if they have them—to meet their transportation needs. In a study on low-income single mothers, Edin and Lein found that single mothers who had someone to drive them to and from work were much more likely to be able to support themselves without relying on government aid. Basic necessities Like
16268-414: The federal Department of Housing of Urban Development (HUD) began encouraging the remaining residents to leave Pruitt–Igoe. A 1970 report assessed the extent of the physical damage to the buildings as "nearly unbelievable" and far worse than in the other St. Louis projects. Many buildings had been practically ransacked, with broken windows and doors, walls stripped for wire and pipe, and garbage strewn about
16434-622: The federal authorities. His initial proposal, which included walk-up and mid-rise buildings as well as high-rises, was accepted by the St. Louis authorities, but exceeded the federal cost limits imposed by the Public Housing Administration ; the agency intervened and imposed a uniform building height of 11 floors. Shortages of materials caused by the Korean War and tensions in the Congress further tightened federal controls. Overall density
16600-423: The first, fourth, seventh, and tenth "anchor" floors in an attempt to lessen elevator congestion, forcing many residents to use the stairs. The same anchor floors were equipped with large south-facing communal corridors called "galleries", as well as laundry rooms and garbage chutes. During the 1940s, the city of St. Louis was overcrowded, with housing conditions in some areas being said to resemble "something out of
16766-572: The former slum dwellers. By 1950, St. Louis had received a federal commitment under the Housing Act of 1949 to finance 5,800 public housing units. The first large public housing in St. Louis, Cochran Gardens , was completed in 1953. It contained 704 units in a mix of medium- and high-rise buildings. It was followed by three more projects: Pruitt–Igoe, Vaughn, and Darst–Webbe. Pruitt–Igoe was named for St. Louisans Wendell O. Pruitt , an African-American fighter pilot in World War II , and William L. Igoe ,
16932-550: The funding resources of the G.I. Bill to start a new mortgage. However, there was not enough housing stock to accommodate the demand. As a result, President Truman created the office of Housing Expediter by executive order on January 26, 1946, to be headed by Wilson Wyatt. Through this office, government intervened in the housing market largely through price controls and supply chain restrictions, despite political pressure from some factions to directly construct housing. Efforts moved to focus exclusively on veterans housing, specifically
17098-534: The gap between 25% of a household's income and established fair market rent . Virtually no new project based Section 8 housing has been produced since 1983, but tenant based vouchers are now the primary mechanism of assisted housing. The other main feature of the Act was the creation of the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG). While not directly tied to public housing, CDBGs were lump sums of money,
17264-604: The heels of the passage of Title I and the Housing Act of 1949. Urban renewal had become, for many cities, a way to eliminate blight, but not a solid vehicle for constructing new housing. For example, in the ten years after the bill was passed, 425,000 units of housing were razed under its auspices, but only 125,000 units were constructed. Between Title I and the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 , entire communities in poorer, urban neighborhoods were demolished to make way for modern developments and transportation needs, often in
17430-496: The hiring of private security, rent incentives to attract new tenants, and grants for academic studies, were tried. As the financial position of the authority worsened, it raised the minimum rent from $ 20 a month in 1952, to $ 32 in 1958, $ 43 in 1962, and $ 58 in 1968. The increases forced some families to devote as much as 75 percent of their income to rent. In addition to the rent increases, tenants were charged for basic services like replacing fuses and door locks. The rent increases were
17596-434: The home ownership market through the expansion of the FHA. Ginnie Mae was initially established to purchase risky public housing projects and resell them at market rates. In addition, Section 235 originated mortgage subsidies by reducing the interest rate on mortgages for low-income families to a rate more comparable to that of the FHA mortgages. The program suffered from high foreclosure rates and administrative scandal, and
17762-654: The homes was completed. Permanent, federally funded housing came into being in the United States as a part of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal. Title II, Section 202 of the National Industrial Recovery Act , passed June 16, 1933, directed the Public Works Administration (PWA) to develop a program for the "construction, reconstruction, alteration, or repair under public regulation or control of low-cost housing and slum clearance projects ...". Led by
17928-405: The household was employed at the time of the survey. The most important insight contained in this graph is that the US has strikingly higher working poverty rates than European countries. [REDACTED] Minorities in the US are disproportionately affected by poverty . Blacks and Hispanics are twice as likely to be part of the working poor than Whites. In 2017, the rate for Blacks and Hispanics
18094-496: The housing projects constructed in the prior two decades. HUD Secretary George Romney declared that the moratorium would encompass all money for Urban Renewal and Model Cities programs, all subsidized housing, and Section 235 and 236 funding. An intensive report was commissioned from the National Housing Policy Review to analyze and assess the federal government's role in housing. This report, entitled Housing in
18260-407: The lack of guidance in the schools leaves the children of the working poor with no degree. Also, the lack of funds for continuing education causes these children to fall behind. In many cases, their parents did not continue on into higher education and because of this have a difficult time finding jobs with salaries that can support a family. Today a college degree is a requirement for many jobs, and it
18426-444: The large spaces shared by dozens of families as "anonymous public spaces [that] made it impossible for even neighboring residents to develop an accord about acceptable behavior", and attributed Pruitt–Igoe's social problems to its high-rise design and lack of defensible space, contrasting it unfavorably with the adjacent Carr Village, a low-rise area with a similar demographic makeup that remained fully occupied and largely trouble-free in
18592-484: The largest public housing developments in the country. It was constructed with federal funds on the site of a former slum as part of the city's urban renewal program. Despite being legally integrated , it almost exclusively accommodated African Americans . Although initially viewed as an improvement over the tenement housing it replaced, living conditions in Pruitt–Igoe began to deteriorate soon after completion. By
18758-465: The late 1970s and 1980s. Since that time, cities across the country have implemented such programs with varying levels of success. Changes to public housing programs were minor during the 1980s. Under the Reagan administration, household contribution towards Section 8 rents was increased to 30% of household income and fair market rents were lowered. Public assistance for housing efforts was reduced as part of
18924-428: The local housing authority. The Architectural Review states in a summary of the modern consensus that the project was "doomed from the outset". As of 2024, a large portion of the Pruitt–Igoe site remains vacant, although new development is pending. Pruitt–Igoe consisted of 33 eleven-story concrete apartment buildings, clad in brick, on a 57-acre (23 ha) site, on St. Louis 's north side, bounded by Cass Avenue on
19090-403: The maximum. Households with two wage-earners have a significantly lower rate of working poverty than households with only one wage-earner. Also, households with two adults, but only one wage-earner, have lower working poverty rates than households with only one adult. Therefore, it seems clear that having two adults in a household, especially if there are children present, is more likely to keep
19256-513: The median income being £507 per week in 2018. According to a 2017 report from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics 4.5% of all people working or looking for work for at least 27 weeks in the previous year had incomes below the poverty level. 10.9% of those were employed part-time, and 2.9% were employed full-time. The occupations that have the highest poverty rate are agricultural jobs, such as farming, service sector jobs, such as fast food or retail, and
19422-405: The mid-1960s it was plagued by poor maintenance and crime, particularly vandalism and juvenile delinquency . Numerous initiatives to reverse the decline failed, and by 1970 more than two-thirds of the complex was vacant. Demolition of the complex began in 1972 with a televised implosion of several of the buildings. Over the next four years, the rest of the complex was vacated and demolished. In
19588-770: The narrative of racially segregated housing in the 20th Century. The rebellion in Detroit in 1967 was a symptom of racial tension that was in part due to unfair housing policies. In July 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson issued a commission, led by Illinois Governor Otto Kerner to determine the causes of the riots. The Kerner Commission clearly articulated that housing inequality was solely determined by explicitly discriminatory policies. It stated that " White institutions created it, white institutions maintain it, and white society condones it ". The Kerner Commission blatantly condemned white institutions for creating unequal housing opportunities, specifically highlighting restrictive covenants as
19754-414: The neighborhood, property values are not likely to fluctuate. However, a review of the literature yielded no definitive conclusions on the impact of public housing on property values, with only two studies lacking methodological flaws that had either mixed results or showed no impact. Others are skeptical of concentrated poverty from public housing being the cause of social pathologies, arguing that such
19920-518: The new structure. In 1939 alone, 50,000 housing units were constructed—more than twice as many as were built during the entire tenure of the PWA Housing Division. Building on the Housing Division's organizational and architectural precedent, the USHA built housing in the build-up to World War II, supported war-production efforts and battled the housing shortage that occurred after the end of the war. In
20086-634: The non-poor and in-migration of the poor were associated with the creation of public housing, such associations disappeared with the introduction of statistical controls, suggesting that migration levels were caused by characteristics of the neighborhood itself rather than the public housing unit. Concentrated poverty from public housing units has effects on the economy of the surrounding area, competing for space with middle class housing. Because of social pathologies incubated by public housing, Husock (2003) states that unit prices in surrounding buildings fall, reducing city revenue from property taxes and giving
20252-667: The north, North Jefferson Avenue on the west, Carr Street on the south, and North 20th Street on the east. Each building was 170 feet (52 m) long; most contained between 80 and 90 units, although some buildings had up to 150. The complex totaled 2,870 apartments (1,736 in Pruitt and 1,132 in Igoe) housing more than 10,000 people at full occupancy. The apartments were deliberately small, with undersized kitchen appliances, and few units were designed for larger families. The apartments were not equipped with balconies. " Skip-stop " elevators stopped only at
20418-502: The northwest for African Americans, and Clinton Peabody in the southwest for whites. The projects, intended for the working poor rather than the truly destitute, were successful. In 1947, St. Louis planners proposed to replace DeSoto-Carr, a run-down neighborhood with many black residents, with new two- and three-story residential blocks and a public park. The plan did not materialize; instead, Democratic mayor Joseph Darst , elected in 1949, and Republican state leaders favored clearing
20584-536: The obstacles that hinder workers' ability to find jobs, keep jobs, and make ends meet. Some of the most common struggles faced by the working poor are finding affordable housing, arranging transportation to and from work, buying basic necessities, arranging childcare, having unpredictable work schedules, juggling two or more jobs, and coping with low-status work. Housing Working poor people who do not have friends or relatives with whom they can live often find themselves unable to rent an apartment of their own. Although
20750-472: The official poverty threshold, the US Department of Labor would classify them as "working poor". (Note: The official poverty threshold, which is set by the US Census Bureau, varies depending on the size of a family and the age of the family members.) As of 2021 , the poverty threshold for a family of four people is $ 27,479 and for a single person $ 13,788. The official poverty threshold is calculated by using
20916-473: The official rate was 5.1% vs the SPM's measure of 7.2%. In Europe and other non-US, high-income countries, poverty and working poverty are defined in relative terms. A relative measure of poverty is based on a country's income distribution rather than an absolute amount of money. Eurostat , the statistical office of the European Union , classifies a household as poor if its income is less than 60 percent of
21082-466: The other end, with most arguing varying degrees of both. According to the US Department of Labor , the working poor "are persons who spent at least 27 weeks [in the past year] in the labor force (that is, working or looking for work), but whose incomes fell below the official poverty level." In other words, if someone spent more than half of the past year in the labor force without earning more than
21248-444: The park " was cut from the final plan, and the surrounding area subsequently turned to wasteland. In addition to the architectural flaws, the overall quality of construction was extremely poor: the buildings were described by housing researcher Eugene Meehan as "little more than steel and concrete rabbit warrens, poorly designed, badly equipped, inadequate in size, badly located, unventilated, and virtually impossible to maintain". After
21414-524: The populations most in need of assistance. These were submitted as part of the CDBG application. Again in response to the growing discontent with public housing, urban developers began looking for alternate forms of affordable, low-income housing. From this concern sprang the creation of scattered-site housing programs designed to place smaller-scale, better-integrated public housing units in diverse neighborhoods. Scattered-site housing programs became popularized in
21580-416: The potential to tighten the market for low-income housing, and communities were in need of an infusion of additional units. Some therefore argued that public housing was the appropriate model for cost and supply-chain reasons, though vouchers did not appear to overly distort local housing markets. In 1973, President Richard Nixon halted funding for numerous housing projects in the wake of concerns regarding
21746-507: The primary vehicle for the construction of new federally subsidized units, but it suffered considerable funding cuts in 2004 under President George W. Bush who called for the abolition of the program. In 1998, the Quality Housing and Work Responsibility Act (QHWRA) was passed and signed by President Bill Clinton . Following the frame of welfare reform , QHWRA developed new programs to transition families out of public housing, developed
21912-401: The project's design, Bristol cited the underfunding of public housing and consequent inability for the housing authority to properly maintain the buildings and the deleterious effects of poverty and racial discrimination on its residents as crucial factors in Pruitt–Igoe's decline. The steep fall in St. Louis's population exacerbated the project's vacancy problem—instead of growing from 850,000 in
22078-427: The project. The Recession of 1958 led to increased crime, vacancy, and rent delinquency in the development, which cut into the housing authority's revenue. In response, the authority reduced maintenance by 10 percent, and the reduction in maintenance coupled with a grand jury report that criticized crime levels in Pruitt–Igoe caused a significant drop in applications to the development. Increasing vacancy rates set off
22244-478: The projects continue to operate as mutual housing corporations owned by their residents. These projects are among the very few definitive success stories in the history of the US public housing effort. During World War II, construction of homes dramatically decreased as all efforts were directed towards the War. When the veterans returned from overseas, they came ready to start a new life, often with families, and did so with
22410-591: The proximity of public housing units. The study found that "the race-crime relationship is geographically contingent, varying as a function of the distribution of public housing". This suggests that a focus on institutional causes of crime in relation to race is more appropriate than a focus on cultural differences between races being the cause of differing crime rates . Public housing units were often built in predominantly poor and black areas, reinforcing racial and economic differences between neighborhoods. These social patterns are influenced by policies that constructed
22576-494: The reinforcement of patterns of poverty via the location of the public housing units, and the migration of impoverished individuals towards the public housing, although this effect is relatively small in comparison to the other sources. A study of public housing in Columbus, Ohio , found that public housing has differing effects on the concentration of black poverty versus white poverty. Public housing's effect on concentrated poverty
22742-479: The residents. Families at Pruitt–Igoe were large: the average household had four minors. Nearly half of births (and 73 percent of first-born children) were out of wedlock , though this statistic was no higher in Pruitt–Igoe than in nearby private housing. In spite of the widespread issues, most inhabitants of Pruitt–Igoe continued to live ordinary lives, and, according to Rainwater and activist Joan Miller, "the vast majority ... responded to their sick society in
22908-567: The respondents linked aspirations to their tax refunds for financial support, even though they did not ask for specific governmental aid. Some states distribute funds through social or health departments or agencies (like this one in Washington State). For example, the Children's Cabinet in Nevada can refer families to providers, help them apply for subsidies and can even help families who want to pay
23074-446: The rest of the complex. A last-minute attempt to purchase and rehabilitate a few of the buildings by a neighborhood community development corporation was rejected by HUD. The last tenant moved out in May 1974, and the project was fully cleared by 1976 at a total cost of $ 3.5 million – becoming the first major housing projects in the United States to be demolished. Footage of the demolition
23240-476: The root cause as "a set of policies programmed for failure", in particular the requirement of the Housing Act of 1949 that local housing authorities pay their expenses from rental income, which made them vulnerable to fiscal problems. The "mindless concentration on dollar costs" and "voracious and inefficient" local construction industry also contributed to the project's maintenance woes. Widespread voter opposition to public housing, both locally and nationally, created
23406-449: The same period. Newman's analysis was one of the most influential in attributing the project's failure to "environmentally determined architecture". Other critics argue that the Pruitt–Igoe's architecture has been overemphasized compared to political and social factors, a view prominently advanced by Katharine Bristol (at the time a doctoral student in architecture) in a 1991 article titled "The Pruitt–Igoe Myth". While acknowledging flaws in
23572-516: The same time. This can be physically exhausting and can often lead to short-term as well as long-term health problems. Low-status work Many low-wage service sector jobs require a great deal of customer service work. Although not all customer service jobs are low-wage or low-status, many of them are. Some argue that the low status nature of some jobs can have negative psychological effects on workers, but others argue that low status workers come up with coping mechanisms that allow them to maintain
23738-489: The site. Only 10 of the original 33 buildings were still occupied. In December 1971, state and federal authorities agreed to demolish two of the Pruitt–Igoe buildings. They hoped that a gradual reduction in population and building density could improve the situation; by this time, Pruitt–Igoe had consumed $ 57 million, an investment which they felt could not be wholly abandoned. Authorities considered different possibilities for rehabilitating Pruitt–Igoe, including conversion to
23904-491: The site. When completed, the facility is planned to house the Ponce Health Sciences University School of Medicine in St. Louis. In 2021, a developer submitted zoning applications for the construction of office buildings and a hotel on the site. An urgent care center named after the former Homer G. Phillips Hospital was built in 2022, but restrictions related to the construction of a new headquarters for
24070-420: The slums and replacing them with high-rise, high-density public housing. They reasoned that the new projects would help the city through increased revenues, new parks, playgrounds and shopping space. Darst stated in 1951: We must rebuild, open up and clean up the hearts of our cities. The fact that slums were created with all the intrinsic evils was everybody's fault. Now it is everybody's responsibility to repair
24236-511: The south were expanding and threatening to engulf the city center. To save central properties from an imminent loss of value, city authorities settled on redevelopment of the inner ring around the central business district . Due to the state of decay, neighborhood gentrification never received serious consideration. The first generation of St. Louis public housing was enabled by the Housing Act of 1937 and opened in 1942 as two identical but racially segregated low-rise developments: Carr Square in
24402-421: The squalor of the slums. It equips the Federal Government, for the first time, with effective means for aiding cities in the vital task of clearing slums and rebuilding blighted areas. This legislation permits us to take a long step toward increasing the well-being and happiness of millions of our fellow citizens. Let us not delay in fulfilling that high purpose. Discontent with Urban Renewal came fairly swiftly on
24568-453: The standard way to set the poverty thresholds. The food plan has not changed, it has only been adjusted for inflation. One argument is that this is no longer an accurate way to measure poverty because the average lifestyle has changed dramatically since the 1960s. Other high-income countries have also experienced declining manufacturing sectors over the past four decades, but most of them have not experienced as much labor market polarization as
24734-455: The story of Pruitt-Igoe, which has often been used as a parable for the failures of large-scale public housing in the United States, has elucidated that the unraveling of the complex had more to do with structural racism, disinvestment in the urban core, white flight, and the diminishing post-industrial incomes of the buildings' residents than with high rise architecture or the nature of publicly owned and -operated housing. The Act also impacted
24900-708: The tenants' monthly rent is set at 30% of their household income. Now increasingly provided in a variety of settings and formats, originally public housing in the U.S. consisted primarily of one or more concentrated blocks of low-rise and/or high-rise apartment buildings. These complexes are operated by state and local housing authorities which are authorized and funded by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). In 2020, there were one million public housing units. In 2022, about 5.2 million American households received some form of federal rental assistance. Subsidized apartment buildings, often referred to as housing projects (or simply "the projects"), have
25066-407: The unemployed poor, the working poor struggle to pay for basic necessities like food, clothing, housing, and transportation. In some cases, however, the working poor's basic expenses can be higher than the unemployed poor's. For instance, the working poor's clothing expenses may be higher than the unemployed poor's because they must purchase specific clothes or uniforms for their jobs. Also, because
25232-618: The war. One of the most unusual US public housing initiatives was the development of subsidized middle-class housing during the late New Deal (1940–42) under the auspices of the Mutual Ownership Defense Housing Division of the Federal Works Agency under the direction of Colonel Lawrence Westbrook . These eight projects were purchased by the residents after the Second World War and as of 2009 seven of
25398-406: The war. Specifically, the St. Louis Land Clearance and Redevelopment Authority was authorized to acquire and demolish the slums of the inner ring and then sell the land at reduced prices to private developers in the hopes of fostering middle-class development and luring families back from the suburbs. Another agency, the St. Louis Housing Authority , had to clear land to construct public housing for
25564-455: The working poor are employed at least some of the time, they often find it difficult to save enough money for a deposit on a rental property. As a result, many working poor people end up in living situations that are actually more costly than a month-to-month rental. For instance, many working poor people, especially those who are in some kind of transitional phase, rent rooms in week-to-week motels . These motel rooms tend to cost much more than
25730-436: The working poor are spending much of their time at work, they may not have the time to prepare their own food. In this case, they may frequently resort to eating fast food , which is less healthful and more expensive than home-prepared food. Childcare Working poor parents with young children, especially single parents, face significantly more childcare-related obstacles than other people. Often, childcare costs can exceed
25896-501: Was 5.3%, compared to 3.8% for men. The rate for Black women and Hispanic women was significantly higher than their male counterparts, at 10% and 9.1%, compared to Black men at 5.6% and Hispanic men at 7.0%. The rate for White women was closer to White males, at 4.5% and 3.5%, respectively. Only Asian women had a lower rate of working poverty than Asian males, at 2.5% and 3.2%, respectively. Transgender persons are more likely than cisgender men or women to be classified as working poor. In
26062-722: Was 7.7% and 13.9% versus 21.9% for individuals. Single mothers are more likely than single fathers to experience poverty, 25% and 15.1% respectively. Older workers are less likely to be working and poor than their younger counterparts. The age group with the highest rate of poverty at 8.5% is 20 to 24 year olds, and 16 to 19 year olds at 8.4%. As workers age, the rate of poverty decreases to 5.7% for 25 to 34 year olds and 5% for 35 to 44 year olds. Workers ages 45 to 50, 55 to 64 and 65+ had much lower working poor rates, 3.1%, 2.6% and 1.5%, respectively. Women of all races are more likely than men to be classified as working poor, especially if they are single mothers. The overall rate for women in 2017
26228-533: Was 7.9%, and 3.9% for Whites, 2.9% for Asians. Higher levels of education generally leads to lower levels of poverty. However, higher education is not a guarantee of escaping poverty. 5.0% of the working poor have some college experience, 3.2% have an associate degree, and 1.5% have a bachelor's degree or higher. Using the Supplemental Poverty Report and looking at everyone in poverty, not just those working, these percentages actually rise to 14.9% with
26394-526: Was dramatically scaled down in 1974. The Section 236 program subsidized the debt service on private developments which would then be offered at a reduced rates to households below a certain income ceiling. The Housing Act of 1970 established the Experimental Housing Allowance Program (EHAP), a lengthy investigation in the potential market effects of housing vouchers. Vouchers, initially introduced in 1965, were an attempt to subsidize
26560-471: Was featured in the film Koyaanisqatsi . Since Pruitt–Igoe's demolition, various plans have been put forth for the use of its site, including a golf course, a business park, and a 50-story tower. An elementary school was built on part of the site in 1995, but as of 2023 a significant part of it remains vacant, even as adjacent lots have been redeveloped. In 2020, Ponce Health Sciences University announced its intention to construct an $ 80 million facility on
26726-461: Was higher than any other public housing complex in the country. The annual turn-over rate was 20 percent. After 1960, the rental income from Pruitt–Igoe failed to cover the cost of operation, forcing the housing authority to tap into its reserves and causing cutbacks at other developments, which were themselves profitable. Attempts by local authorities to improve living conditions were handicapped by lack of resources, though numerous programs, including
26892-504: Was largely determined by the neighborhood surrounding the site, as American residential patterns, in both the North and South, were highly segregated. Coming out of the housing movement at the turn of the century, the 1930s also saw the creation of the Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC), which refinanced loans in order to keep the housing market afloat. The National Housing Act of 1934 created
27058-502: Was poor during St. Louis's hot and humid summers. Meanwhile, the St. Louis Housing Authority was in the midst of a decades-long problem with inefficient and costly maintenance of its buildings, partly attributed to the power of labor unions . The stairwells and corridors attracted muggers , a situation exacerbated by the skip-stop elevators. Its location in "a sea of decaying and abandoned buildings" and limited access to shopping and recreation (ground-floor businesses had been eliminated from
27224-409: Was positive, although contrary to popular belief the project never won any architectural awards. In 1951, before construction had finished, an Architectural Forum article lauded Yamasaki's original proposal, praising the layout as "vertical neighborhoods for poor people", and Yamasaki biographer Paul Kidder appraised it as "an amazingly ambitious effort to turn the embarrassment of tenement squalor in
27390-518: Was set at a level of 50 units per acre, higher than in downtown slums. Although each row of buildings was supposed to be flanked by a "river of open space", landscaping was omitted from the final plan and few trees were planted. Construction began in 1951. Pruitt accepted its first tenants in November 1954, Igoe in July 1955. When the two projects opened, they were one of the largest public housing developments in
27556-492: Was the Housing Act of 1949 , which dramatically expanded the role of the federal government in both public and private housing. Part of Truman's Fair Deal , the Act covered three primary areas: (1) It expanded the Federal Housing Administration and federal involvement in mortgage insurance, (2) under Title I, it provided authority and funds for slum clearance and urban renewal , and (3) initiated construction of
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