The fate of public housing in America — its rise, much of it in the form of towers like Cabrini-Green, and its fall as those towers came down — is the story of urban poverty as an unsteady political priority. In previous decades when slums were cleared, those displaced were sent into public housing. As the fortunes of cities changed once again, public housing experienced a new pressure. Many more families were like the Rickses, people who went from run-down public housing to rehabbed public housing, albeit still in areas of concentrated poverty. People in public housing had, by necessity, bartered services, shopped together, shared food, stepped up when a neighbor lost a loved one.

Source: New York Times February 06, 2018 09:56 UTC