--- title: The History Behind America’s Affordable Housing Problem description: Past experience suggests it's time for the federal government to reconsider public housing. canonical: https://time.com/6900050/public-housing-biden-plan-history/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-03-25T14:48:33.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:42:53.541Z article:section: History og:title: The History Behind America’s Affordable Housing Problem og:description: Past experience suggests it's time for the federal government to reconsider public housing. og:url: https://time.com/6900050/public-housing-biden-plan-history/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbbfa6bb397fe59e0/698a4d17e6e84a7f672b1e83/kc-tenants.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Kansas City Tenants Host Rally To End Evictions og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The History Behind America’s Affordable Housing Problem twitter:description: Past experience suggests it's time for the federal government to reconsider public housing. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbbfa6bb397fe59e0/698a4d17e6e84a7f672b1e83/kc-tenants.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # America Needs a New Approach on Affordable Housing. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-sub-2026q3/newsletters?i=b35196fc-da80-41c4-bd1d-c32ac14e1df0&cr=time-sub-2026q3-v1) * TIME Subscriptions: [time.com/subscribe-agent](/c/time-sub-2026q3/subscribe?i=b35196fc-da80-41c4-bd1d-c32ac14e1df0&cr=time-sub-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Renter Revolt: Housing and Human Rights in America's Heartland [Watch (HLS stream): Renter Revolt: Housing and Human Rights in America's Heartland](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/LejXmCAo.m3u8) (19:16)  _Published 2023-10-26. KC Tenants is organizing poor and low income tenants in Missouri, with ambition to create a new political class of renters. This short documentary follows a KC Tenants activist running for city council in Kansas City._ by [Lily Geismer / Made by History](https://time.com/author/made-by-history/) ## Lily Geismer / Made by History Mar 25, 2024 2:48 PM UTC  Demonstrators attend a KC Tenants rally outside the Jackson County Courthouse in Kansas City, Mo., in 2020. Demonstrators attend a KC Tenants rally outside the Jackson County Courthouse in Kansas City, Mo., in 2020. Chase Castor—Bloomberg via Getty Images by [Lily Geismer / Made by History](https://time.com/author/made-by-history/) ## Lily Geismer / Made by History Mar 25, 2024 2:48 PM UTC The U.S. has a housing crisis — one only growing more serious with each day. In the District of Columbia, a recent report by the [Urban Institute](https://www.urban.org/research/publication/housing-insecurity-district-columbia) found that 12% of the city’s population of more than 82,000 residents does not have stable housing. The majority of D.C. residents navigating housing insecurity are people of color, a reality reflected across the country. The Biden Administration has recognized that housing insecurity is a problem that it can’t ignore, in part because it affects the confidence Americans have about the economy. On Thursday, the Administration announced a [bold series of policy proposals](https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/ERP-2024-CHAPTER-4.pdf), which deployed a public-private approach focused on changing exclusionary zoning, expanding the financing options for affordable housing, and promoting the conversion of empty office space into apartments. These followed up on ideas Biden had proposed in the [State of the Union](https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2024/03/07/remarks-of-president-joe-biden-state-of-the-union-address-as-prepared-for-delivery-2/) address. While it is important that the Administration is taking the affordable housing crisis seriously, the long history of attempts to address housing problems in the U.S. reveals these types of public-private initiatives have repeatedly enriched the private sector and done little to help those who need government action the most. This history suggests that it's time for the federal government to follow the lead of local and state housing activists and create programs that recognize housing is a right not a commodity. This means reconsidering an idea that is barely mentioned in the Administration’s 45-page proposal: public housing. In fact, on Thursday, the same day the Biden Administration announced its proposal, New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders released their own plans to advocate for [“Green New Deal for Public Housing”](https://www.politico.com/f/?id=0000018e-5eee-d570-adaf-fefe1d300000) legislation — a sign that some legislators are starting to recognize the essential role that public housing will play if the Administration is to solve the housing crisis. Public housing in the U.S had its origins in the New Deal. It began as an effort by Franklin D. Roosevelt's Administration to boost the construction industry and provide temporary housing support for struggling Americans. Until World War II, it remained a very small and highly segregated program that primarily benefited working-class whites. **_Read More:_** [Read President Joe Biden’s 2024 State of the Union Address](https://time.com/6898705/read-president-joe-bidens-2024-state-of-the-union-address-full-transcript/) After the war, that changed. The federal government allocated funds for a substantial increase in public housing units to address a national housing shortage and advance urban redevelopment. These funds fueled the construction of large-scale modernist developments like Chicago’s [Robert Taylor Homes, ](http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/2478.html)which was the largest public housing project in the U.S. with over 4,000 units in 28 identical 16-story buildings. Initially touted by city planners as “palaces for the poor,” these projects experienced problems of segregation and discrimination almost from the outset and increasingly fell into disrepair due to the limited funds allocated for their initial construction and ongoing maintenance. In the 1960s, many city housing agencies exacerbated the pre-existing problems. They changed their policies to allow occupancy by single-parent households and welfare recipients. Meanwhile, Congress passed a law raising the cap on rents to 30% of a household’s income, which substantially increased the rent for people who worked and drove many them into the private market. This exodus transformed public housing into the option of last resort, inhabited exclusively by the poorest of the poor. Instead of trying to improve the situation in the 1970s, the federal government turned away from constructing, owning, and managing public housing, and instead adopted private market tools such as vouchers and subsidies in an effort to make housing affordable. They also contracted with private management companies to run preexisting public housing, while greatly reducing the capacity and power of public housing agencies. By the 1980s developments like the Robert Taylor Homes became the sites of major drug and gang activity, turning them into proxies for the problems of public housing and the “inner city.” In response, Bill Clinton promised to “end public housing as we know it” and [introduced the HOPE VI program](https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/lily-geismer/left-behind/9781541757004/?lens=publicaffairs). HOPE VI became a hallmark of the Clinton years and largely amounted to privatization of public services. The initiative encouraged tearing down many existing federal projects like the Robert Taylor Homes and replacing them with lower-density townhouse style developments that combined market rate housing designed to appeal to the middle class with subsidized units for poor families. To qualify for the houses, poor families had to meet a stringent set of requirements, including having no criminal record and having a job or being enrolled in an employment training program. These projects benefited the private developers, who built the new housing and surrounding businesses, but only compounded the problems for tenants. The vast majority of former public housing residents found themselves displaced from their longtime homes. While many received Section 8 vouchers to rent homes, they confronted a highly discriminatory private rental market that left many former public housing residents with few options, most of them in racially-segregated, high-poverty areas. The end result was the exacerbation of housing segregation and economic inequality in many cities, while gentrification spread. Despite this mixed record, in the early 21st century, public-private projects like HOPE VI remained virtually the only housing initiatives that seemed viable. That’s changed in recent years. Policymakers from Los Angeles to Rhode Island have launched a range of innovative campaigns to consider alternative ways to increase affordable housing that go beyond simply changing single-family zoning laws and allowing for the construction of Auxiliary Dwelling Units (ADUs). Many of these projects have taken inspiration from longstanding social housing programs in Western Europe, most notably [Vienna](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/23/magazine/vienna-social-housing.html), where more than half a million residents, both low-income and middle class, live in well-constructed social housing units, spending less than 10% of their incomes on rent. **_Read More:_** [How More Cities Worldwide Can Attract Remote Workers](https://time.com/6168289/cities-attracting-remote-workers/) The shape of new programs vary significantly. On one end of the spectrum, Montgomery County, Md., has broken ground on several new mixed-income, government-owned projects. But the projects still rely on a public-private model and contain many echoes of HOPE VI, making them unlikely to eliminate fully the problems of the past. On the other end of the spectrum, is the work being done by housing groups like Kansas City-based [KC Tenants.](https://kctenants.org/) The group has adopted a definition of “social housing” which points to a way of imagining housing outside the scope of the private market and unavailable for profit or speculation. In using the term “social,” KC Tenants seek to avoid the indelible stigma associated with public housing and to highlight that they envision something very different from the post-World War II massive housing projects or even the HOPE VI townhomes. They are crusading for construction of well-designed housing in desirable parts of the city that serves everyone but the most wealthy. KC Tenants co-founder Tara Raghuveer has deemed this form of “true public housing” the organization’s “north star.” The group is helping push Kansas City closer to that goal. In 2022, by a wide margin, [the city](https://www.kcur.org/politics-elections-and-government/2022-11-08/kansas-city-voters-pass-175-million-in-bonds-for-affordable-housing-and-convention-center) passed a $50 million bond for long-term affordable housing. **_Read more:_** [Renters Are in Revolt. This Tenant Union Plans to Get Them Organized](https://time.com/6325516/kc-tenants-union-time-documentary/) This vision of social housing has a chance to undo the mistakes of the postwar era, which stigmatized public housing, and produced substandard and segregated residences for only the poorest of Americans. But for such programs to truly solve the affordable housing crisis, the federal government needs to be involved. The scope of the problem is simply too large for states and localities to tackle. Imaging and designing a federal initiative will take policymakers who can think big, while learning from the mistakes of the post-WWII housing projects. Crucially, they should follow the lead of local housing activists who see housing as a right, not a commodity.  To do so, officials must abandon the narrative that public housing has been a failed social experiment. Instead, they need to sell the public on viewing it as a critical way for the federal government to serve the public good and build a better functioning system of social welfare. This approach will promote a just policy — one that addresses a problem that has festered for 75 years — and it could also provide a political boost for the Democrats in November and beyond. The poor, working, and middle-class Americans who would benefit most from this vision of public housing are some of the people most [dissatisfied](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/05/us/politics/biden-trump-2024-poll.html) with the Biden Administration. Fixing the housing crisis and creating a broad scale public housing program that makes these groups’ lives better promises to give these crucial constituencies a reason to turn out to vote. _Lily Geismer is a professor of history at Claremont McKenna College where she focuses on political and urban history. She is the author of_ Left Behind: The Democrats’ Failed Attempt to Solve Inequality. _Made by History takes readers beyond the headlines with articles written and edited by professional historians._ [_Learn more about Made by History at TIME here_](https://time.com/6317798/introducing-made-by-history-for-time/)_. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of TIME editors_. ## Transcript My friends, neighbors, comrades,   and fellow tenants. We envision a Kansas  City where everyone has safe, accessible,   truly and permanently affordable home. At  KC Tenants, we are here to get [ __ ] done! Their tactics are effective, but  they are bullies. They will make   the most noise and show up on your lawn  and demand things until they get them. And it's working. I was born and raised in  the Northland of Kansas City My mom was a single mom. We lived in a tent for  a little while, we lived in friends's basements. At 20, I found out I was pregnant with twins. Five weeks after they were  born, I went back to work. Donating plasma, working at Applebee's,  piecemealing life together... Got my section 8 and then immediately it was like   taken away because they claimed I  was working two jobs when I wasn't. I moved back in with my ex, and I knew that I  was getting myself into an abusive situation. I was like, okay, this is impossible. And that's when I found KC Tenants. Tara was like one of the first people to say,   "Are you going to take your power back? Here  are the ways that I can support you to do it." Like you've got a crew that wants to follow your  leadership, so you got to do what you got to do,   I don't know if it's like listening to  some hype music, I don't know if it's... When we first started organizing, I was  hearing a lot of stories of horrible   conditions. I had gained access to 20 years  of eviction data in urban Kansas City. And we   were finding that several dozen tenants  were being evicted every business day. I have mold in my bathroom. My air conditioning  went out about 4 weeks ago. Part of my ceiling   collapsed in my front room. I'm being evicted, I  have court on December 21st. There's lead paint,   I just don't know what to do next. I  have to find somewhere else to live. The people who are displaced here,  the people who are exploited don't   have other places to go. In addition  to housing the people of Kansas City,   we want to make sure that every tenant  in this town is part of a union. We talk a lot about tenants as  a political class. A class of   people who identify with their tenancy. They're poor and working class tenants,   and that's actually not something to be  ashamed of. It's something to find strength in. So Emerson Manor is another property on the  east side, and it is also owned by the same   landlords who own this building. We did, we  did a canvas there a few weeks ago, Michael,   what were the conditions like there? It's a real [ __ ] hole! Yeah? How so? $500 with no stove, that's what it  was. There was feces on the floor,   in yeah, uh-huh, in the laundry room uh-huh. How many people in that apartment  building is willing to come forward? If five people willing to come  forth, that's enough. That's enough. Of course there going to be some housing providers   who do not maintain their property according to  codes. There's always going to be a bad apple. By Tara and her team I've been  called a profiteer, a gentrifier. We've been called every name you  can think of. It's been set up   as an us versus them, with us being the villains. KC Tenants, first of all, has not taken a formal  position on all landlords. We organize against   landlords who are bad to our people. And the  profiteers are not these nice moms and pops,   the profiteers are corporate profiteers  who have engineered the market in their My enemies will love to see how messy my desk is. This bull didn't really have a  lot of meaning four years ago,   but we have given it its meaning. You  mess with the bull, you get the horns. Tenants organized a union at Gabriel Tower after  their air conditioning went out this summer. They took a list of demands  to the property manager and   to the property's corporate representative. We're not going to quit doing these protests or  whatever until things start to change around here. My job as Jenay's organizer is  to hear her vision for herself,   because the world needs her to be  audacious as hell, and ambitious as hell. That ain't right! That ain't right! That ain't right! That ain't right! Tara would call me and be like,  "Hey, I need you to give a testimony,   can you do that," or "Here's the  thing that's happening at City Hall." She's committed to people who are impacted  making the decisions around our lives. But then when covid happened... We shut down. Breaking news stay at home, that  is the order tonight from four   state governors. It's now classified as a  public health emergency. Housing advocates   warn we could be headed toward  a massive wave of homelessness. Some of the people that we organize were  some of the most vulnerable people in the   country during those early months of the pandemic. Many Americans don't have stable housing. Now the federal moratorium on evictions   is going to expire at the end of this month. My abuser was still living with me. I saw unemployment numbers rising,   domestic violence numbers rising at the same rate. I was like, "Oh, it's going to get really bad." She was working at a gas station  and she was working overnights,   so she was sleeping like 30 minutes in a  24-hour period for weeks on end. And she   called me bawling and she said, "I don't  know how the world can let this happen." I am taking a minute to call on Governor  Parson to let him know last night I worked   from 10:00 p.m. till 7:00 this morning. I can't cut back on my hours at work to   be able to be a mom and a teacher to  my kids without a rent suspension. At that time, the consequences of an  eviction were equivalent for some to   a death sentence. So we were left with no  other choice but to shut evictions down. All evictions are an act of violence! All evictions are an act of violence! Others displayed messages on overpasses. We want to cancel rent and mortgages. They   chained themselves to the doors of the Jackson  County courthouse in protest of evictions. They chained themselves to the doors and posted a  big thing saying, "You have blood on your hands,"   to a judge who is merely doing his job because  he wouldn't stop evictions like they demanded. What kind of sense is that? That  feels violent to me. And so they   use the eviction moratorium to chip  away at our private property rights. Your investment is not worth more than a person's  life. And their life right now depends on the   place where they live, and they can't afford to  pay you rent because they've lost their job during   a global pandemic. But you've got federal aid  to help you out buddy, you're going to be okay. Zero, zero! Eviction, eviction! January, January! We shut down 90% of the  evictions that were scheduled. Today, a new order. Zero  evictions till January 24th. One of the beautiful things about  covid, as a real estate agent I   saw this too for my clients that are  selling houses, the prices went up. Rents have soared in the last  couple of years since the pandemic,   They're rising at rates higher  than we've seen in 40 years. Before we started organizing,   the conversation around the city hall  was about potholes and trash, truly. The fact that they're littering. The trash the  litter that is left... Spray painting graffiti... These forums were like buttoned-up,  pearl-clutching events. And out the gate   we said, "We're going to bring our crisis  to the people who have either created it,   or they have the power to do something about it,   and we're going to show up to the forums  wearing our yellow t-shirts and disrupt." Tonight, the ongoing debate over  tenant rights in Kansas City,   Missouri is back before the city council. I've known my rights were being violated, I've  proven my rights have been violated. All I can   do as a single mother is continue to drown in a  system that won't fight for me or my children. Voters approved a $50 million  bond that will be used to help   build what is called deeply affordable units. 48% of us are renters, almost half the city is  a tenant. We have a stake in this place too. ...passed an ordinance that gives free legal  representation to tenants facing eviction. They're doing everything they can to turn  this place into a playground for the wealthy,   for the muckety mucks. And I ain't a muckety muck. Nothing in this Bill of Rights  should scare a landlord who was   already doing right by their tenant. A Bill of Rights for all renters. Bernie Sanders tweeted, "Congratulations to the   advocacy work done by KC Tenants to  help pass a Tenants Bill of Rights." It's a three-bedroom, one-bath in  Blue Hills. And it's had some paint,   floors, they had gross carpet... KC Tenants, they're strong and they're, they're  getting what they ask for. And what they're   asking for next is mandatory acceptance  of vouchers and and rent control. This is,   all these things start to make this  asset over here very unattractive. I am as liberal as a day is long, blue  through and through. And even I'm like,   this going to wreck the  rental landscape of the city. We demand social housing! Permanently off the   private market market, and  truly affordable, forever! Who in the world that's in their right mind  would want the government to be a landlord   and to own real estate? It's never worked,  we had projects here that did not survive. Yeah the government programs don't work  as they should today. That is because   they've been defunded, privatized. The answer is investing in those   public programs and guaranteeing  that investment over the long haul. Why does it have to be a policy solution? Why can't the natural market do what it   does? What the normal person would do, if  I lost a job, I'd go hey, which which one   of my relatives can I go double up and live  in there? "Mom, can I come to your basement?" It is not a good thing for our only option  to be like finding a roommate or a partner   or parents. I moved my abuser back in  because I knew that the only way that   I wouldn't be in crisis on the rent  was to have somebody stay with me. We can continue to look at poor and working class   people and assume that they've done  something wrong. It's not their fault. So what we know is that like, we  can pass policy all day. As people   in our community like are living that  policy, we find kinks in those policies. What's up? Take a break. I can't take a break,   I am getting signatures, I  have already told you this. In order to pass policy in Kansas City, we have  to count to seven. So there are 13 people on our   city council including our mayor. To pass  anything, we have to have seven votes. Our   lives could be a lot easier in passing policy  if we had more champions on city council. So my name is Jenay Manley, and  I'm running for city council,   second district at large. I was wondering if  you'd sign my petition so I can get on the ballot. I was like watching city council meetings  like in the middle of the night because I   was hungry to learn what decisions were being  made about my life and my neighbors' lives. Hey y'all, my name is Jenay Manley, I am  running for the second district at large baby! For three years, we have been building  power in Kansas City. In 2015 and 2016   I didn't believe this was possible. I sat in my room and I cried for my   kids' future. If it's not working  for us, we have every right to say,   "This doesn't work, let's change it. Let's  evaluate it and build something better!" We gathered 948 signatures to get us on the  ballot, so I'm running for second district   at large today, we're going to fill out  some paperwork and get on the ballot! I have walked into this building, City Hall,  hundreds of times over the last three years. I sat in these rooms as politicians removed a  protection that would protect a single Black   mom like me. That was the day that I learned  a champion won't save us. We are who we need. Others organize around ideology,   we organize around mutual interests. KC  Tenants has people who voted for Trump,   we have anarchists, Black tenants, white  tenants, elders, we've got young kids. And the at-large races, where the  votes come from all over the city,   second district at large race  Lindsay French facing Jenay Manley. I think the biggest difference between me  and my my opponent is that I'm willing to   listen to all voices and bring all voices  to the table, not just a narrow-minded few. We are all impacted by poverty in  the city, and I want to make sure   that poor and working class people have  a voice to help co-govern in the city. Fox 4 is your local election headquarters, and  by tomorrow night, we're going to know who the   new city council members will be for Kansas  City, Missouri. Mayor Lucas had predicted   that this would be the most progressive  city council in Kansas City's history. Thousands of people in our city went to the polls  today, and they voted with the tenant union! That is so revolutionary, do you feel that? Regardless of the results I'm about  to read, we crushed. We all know that. It is the single proud accomplishment  of my life that Jenay is my leader,   and I am her organizer. And she's doing  exactly what the hell she was meant to do. In the second district at large, Jenay lost to Lindsay French. She picked up  48.44% of the vote, 19,633 of our neighbors. Let me say that again. Let me  say that again, 19,633 people! I'm going to be real with y'all, I'm mad as  hell that I lost my election. I'm mad as hell. But I did not run for city council in order  to win a seat. I ran for city council to show   poor and working class people that we can  actually run for city council. I am mad   as hell that I lost my election, but I am  mad as hell and ready to organize! Are you? The closest race of the night was in the  second district, Manley was part of a new   movement spearheaded by the political arm of  KC Tenants. Four of the six endorsed candidates   came out on top. The populist political  organization was formed only four years ago. This is a defining moment for them. Kansas City is just like every  place, like Cleveland or Omaha,   in that everything that we do  here, might be done somewhere else. I am grateful for y'all and  I'm ready to build some power! ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6900050/public-housing-biden-plan-history/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6900050/public-housing-biden-plan-history/"},"headline":"America Needs a New Approach on Affordable Housing. 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