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Public housing describes a form of housing tenure
in which the property is owned by a government authority, which may be central
or local. Although the principles are common, the details of the arrangements differ between countries, and so does the
terminology.
Canada
Arrangements and terminology in Canada are similar to those in the United States
Ireland
In Ireland, public housing and halting sites have been built by Local
Authorities and are known as Local
Authority Accommodation. Dublin Corporation and the
former Dublin County Council provided the lion's share of
Irish Local Authority Housing, with County Longford having the
largest ratio of Local Authority to private housing in the state.
New Zealand
In New Zealand, public housing is referred to as State housing
Singapore
In Singapore, public housing is made by HDB.
United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom public housing is often referred to as
"council housing", and is described in the article on that subject. Local
not-for-profit housing associations have begun to operate
some of the older council housing estates in the United Kingdom.
United States and Canada
In the United States and Canada, public housing is usually a block of purpose-built housing operated by a government agency.
Most housing communities were developed from the 1930s onward. Houses, apartments or
other residential units are usually subsidized on a rent-geared-to-income (RGI) basis. Some communities have now embraced a mixed
income, with both assisted and market rents, when allocating homes as they become available. Large multi-story buildings, often
in large groups of similar buildings were popular government designs of the 1950s and
1960s. Called housing
projects or "the projects."
In recent years, many such projects have been torn down, renovated or replaced after criticism that the concentration of
poverty in economically depressed areas, inadequate management of the buildings, and
government indifference have contributed to increased crime. Indeed, US public housing continues to have a reputation for high
crime levels, drug use, and prostitution.
In 1997, the top providers of US public housing, according to HUD were:
- New York City, 160,000 units
- Puerto Rico, 57,000 units
- Chicago, 40,000 units
- Philadelphia, 22,000 units
- Baltimore, 18,000 units
Some US public housing developments
- Atlanta
- Techwood Homes First
projects in the nation. Located in downtown Atlanta south of the campus of Georgia Tech. Torn down for Olympics and turned into
Centennial Place Apartments.
- Chicago
- Robert Taylor Homes was the largest public housing
development in the world - 28 buildings of 16 stories each, housing 20,000 people. Robert Taylor is virtually no more, thanks to
the Chicago Housing Authority's Transformation Plan.
- Cabrini-Green
- Detroit
- New York
- St. Louis
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