Public Housing- The Myths, The Truths, and The Problem

     Public housing or affordable housing often brings cringe to any conversation. It is a much-needed concept, but it could be better in application and reality. So why do we have this negative, preconceived opinion of public housing? What is the negative stigma associated with it?

    The Pruitt-Igoe public housing project in St. Louis is the perfect example of a needed project that didn't get the necessary attention it required to stay operational. It also has a strong negative connotation which isn't completely correct. The project was an attempt to mitigate the slums of St. Louis while also supporting the movement of people from the south. Eminent domain was used to claim a section of the slums for the new site for Pruitt Igoe. Thirty-three buildings rose 10 stories to symbolize raising the impoverished and homeless to opportunity and potential. 

The Pruitt-Igoe Project
“Pruitt-Igoe (St. Louis, MO),” Joel Hulsey, November 12, 2013,
https://joelhulsey.wordpress.com/urbex/etc/pruitt-igoe-st-louis-mo/, Image.

    The new project was an excitement to the families in need of a proper place to call home. New citizens referred to the project as the "oasis in the desert" (Ruby Russel) and the "poor man's penthouse"(Sylvester Brown). Early accounts of the Pruitt-Igoe celebrated the fresh paint, the electricity, the indoor plumbing, the plaster walls, the abundant windows, and the clean living conditions. 

    The initial years of the project were a celebrated success. Residents were content and happy. There was a shared sense of community throughout the project. There was warmth and comradery between the residents.

Citizens Play Ball Outside of the Pruitt-Igoe Project
Dana Hogan and Nash Overfield, “Pruitt-Igoe: Stories from Within,” ArcGIS StoryMaps, May 7, 2023, https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/6f65833d956d453095d5f68f6f7d816b, Image.

    Like any controlled environment prioritizing safety and well-being, there are restrictions. The managerial staff of Pruitt-Igoe restricted men from living in the project. They also had other stipulations like not allowing televisions or phones in the home. Most residents understood these rules as the price to pay for living in the community. Others hid men and husbands in their apartments and found loopholes in other regulations. Already, there was a slight distaste between those who lived at Pruitt-Igoe and those who ran Pruitt-Igoe. 

    Over time, the money at Pruitt-Igoe ran thin. The low rent residents were paying wasn't enough to sustain the maintenance and care of such a large complex. The elevators stopped working. The plumbing had issues and flooding occurred abundantly. Trash shoots and incinerators weren't properly cared for. Windows were broken and never fixed. Pruitt-Igoe soon resembled the slums where the residents once lived. As the building continued to decline, so did the uplifting spirit that once encompassed the project. Crime and vandalism flooded through the door and chaos ensued. 

    Numerous studies and grants were put toward recovery efforts of the project, but Pruitt-Igoe was too far gone. Rent was raised in an effort to put more funds into renovations, but rent strikes broke out and only angered the residents. The building was condemned, evacuated, and demolished twenty years after the end of construction. 

Demolition of Pruitt-Igoe
YouTube (YouTube, 2011), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_zFIg8N9Rw, image.

    Was it a failure? Most people will be quick to say yes. I have a sense that the project wasn't a complete failure. The project did what it was supposed to do. The architecture acted as it was intended to. The downfall of the project was poor management, financial planning, safety, and maintenance of the building. The failure of the project was not due to the inhabitants of the project but those in charge of the project.

    Pruitt-Igoe is one of the reasons why public housing has a negative aura, but it isn't the architecture of the project or the inhabitants of the project that caused that negative aura. It was the management which is a reasonable fix. It is easy to blame the typology for having its associated issues, but a deeper examination of the typology reveals that it wasn't the typology's
fault for the failure of the project.