Depression-Era Planners Thought They’d End Poverty with Public Housing. Instead, They Created the Projects

History Unplugged Podcast · Sep 4, 2025 · 41m

In the 1930s, New Deal-era technocrats devised a solution to homelessness and poverty itself. They believed that providing free or low-cost urban housing projects could completely eliminate housing scarcity. Planners envisioned urban communities that would propel their residents into the middle class, creating a flywheel of abundance where poverty was eradicated. However, once construction began after World War II, these projects quickly became dangerous, poorly maintained slums, serving as breeding grounds for crime and decay. By the 1970s, crime rates were so high that levels of violence…