Public Housing Quotes

“Most poor people in America were like Arleen: they did not live in public housing or apartments subsidized by vouchers. Three in four families who qualified for assistance received nothing.”
― Matthew Desmond, Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City

“In 2013, 1 percent of poor renters lived in rent-controlled units; 15 percent lived in public housing; and 17 percent received a government subsidy, mainly in the form of a rent-reducing voucher. The remaining 67 percent—2 of every 3 poor renting families—received no federal assistance. 32 This drastic shortfall in government support, coupled with rising rent and utility costs alongside stagnant incomes, is the reason why most poor renting families today spend most of their income on housing.”
― Matthew Desmond, Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City

“Rosewood Courts, Austin's Eastside project for African Americans, was built on land obtained by condemning Emancipation Park, the site of an annual festival to commemorate the abolition of slavery. The park had been privately owned by a neighborhood association the Travis County Emancipation Organization, and residents protested the condemnation of this community institution in which they took great pride. But their objects had no effect, despite the availability of other vacant land.”
― Richard Rothstein, The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America

“In New Jersey, for example, Governor Harold Hoffman refused to allow any camps for African American corps members because of what he termed “local resentment.” The national CCC director, Robert Fechner, implemented a policy never to “force colored companies on localities that have openly declared their opposition to them.”
― Richard Rothstein, The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America

“The USHA manual warned that it was undesirable to have projects for white families “in areas now occupied for Negroes” and added: “The aim of the [local housing] authority should be the preservation rather than the disruption of community social structures which best fit the desires of the groups concerned.”
― Richard Rothstein, The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America

“Q: what radicalized you?

A: When we lived in public housing my mom started a community garden to grow food to save money and to occupy the kids that lived there and the public housing authority came & pulled out all the plants and poured bleach into the ground to destroy it. Because gardens weren't allowed.

(8/3/2020 on Twitter)”
― Kaitlyn Greenidge