Decent, Safe and Sanitary Dwellings: The National Conversation About Public Housing, 1932-1973

In 1973, President Nixon halted new construction of public housing, claiming that the U.S. government had become "the biggest slumlord in history." Four decades earlier, in the depths of the Great Depression, strong political support for federally-subsidized low-income housing had resulted in the Housing Act of 1937.

By the 1950s, growing criticism of the housing constructed by local authorities and prejudice against poor residents--particularly African Americans--fueled opposition to new ...