The end of US public housing as we knew it

US public housing policy changed significantly in the 1990s in order to transform primarily high-rise developments into low-density mixed-income communities. While the goal of better quality housing for low-income people is good, the means to this end has raised concerns about the future of public housing in the United States. This article examines the outcomes from the past 15 years, focusing on demolition and redevelopment, which has not only produced fewer public housing units overall but, more importantly, entangled public housing in the market crisis. Now the same speculative hands that it was supposed to be protected from when first conceived drive its development. Examples from Chicago illustrate this point.