In a May lecture at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, Edward Goetz, Ph.D., of the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs discussed his observations and research findings on the aggressive dismantling of public housing seen across the nation since the 1990s.
Professor Goetz explored the political climate and public discourse around public housing issues and its role in society and asked why some cities have been more active in eliminating public housing than other cities. He found that in the 1990s, concerns about crime and pressures to gentrify neighborhoods were clear drivers, but the following decade saw more articulated concerns over the racialization of public housing. Cities with stronger concerns about the concentrations of African-Americans in public housing were more assertive in reforming public housing through demolition and relocation.
Professor Goetz’s lecture was part of the Lewis Center’s Spring 2013 Housing Lecture Series.