Module 14.1

Public Housing and the disappearing public

A R T 1 0 0

U n d e r s t a n d i n g V i s u a l C u l t u r e

agenda 3.28.15

first federal housing policy during the Depression

attempting to provide housing for the millions evicted

attempting to articulate housing as a basic right

USHA 1937: mechanism for funding public housing

housing ignites during WWII to provide housing for war

workers

Brewster-Douglass, Detroit, MI

Pruitt-Igoe, St. Louis, MO

Cabrini-Green, Chicago, IL [next time]

The Great Depression

October 29, 1929: "Black Tuesday" stock market crash.

Shortages in money supply and credit. Many bankruptcies

and shrinking businesses. Workers laid off; 25%

unemployment by 1932.

• No jobs.

• No money for rent or mortgage payments.

• No money for food.

• No money for clothing.

President Herbert Hoover thought it would blow over..

The breadline was a common sight.

Margaret BOURKE-WHITE, Breadline during the Louisville Flood, 1937

Great Depression:

impact on housing

Between 1928 and 1933:

• residential construction activity plummeted by 95%.

• one million households foreclosed upon.

By Spring 1933:

• 50% of all home mortgages were in default.

• rate of 1000 foreclosures/day.

Hoover's response, 1932

was probably insufficient.

Federal Home Loan Bank Act (assisted banks with

mortgage lending by creating a credit reserve).

Emergency Relief and Construction Act (loans to

nonprofits building low-income housing).

"Hooverville," Sacramento, CA

The distinctive architecture of President Hoover's administration: the shanty.

"Hooverville," Seattle, WA, 1931-1941

"Hooverville," St. Louis, MO, on Mississippi River

"Hooverville," Central Park, NY, 1932

"Hooverville,"

Elm Grove, OK

1936

location of

Chicago's

Hooverville,

Grant Park at

Randolph St.

1933

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (we usually call him "FDR") was

elected. Put forward a wide range of policies and programs

to create a "social safety net".

origins of: unemployment insurance, public housing, public

assistance, aid to the elderly and disabled

New Deal

"New Deal": sea change in reach of federal government

1. Asked Congress to repeal Prohibition.

2. TVA: public project to build hydroelectric dams in one of

the poorest regions of the country.

3. Agricultural Adjustment Act. Paid farmers NOT to plant to

end agricultural surpluses that were depressing crop prices.

New Deal, continued

4. National Industrial Recovery. Guaranteed the right to

unionize and bargain collectively for higher wages and better

working conditions. Suspended some antitrust laws (in other

words, allowed some monopolies) and established PUBLIC

WORKS ADMINISTRATION (government-funded

infrastructure projects.)

5. Glass-Steagall Banking Bill (commercial banking

separated from investment banking.)

6. Home Owners' Loan Act.

first 100 days

THE PUBLIC WORKS ADMINISTRATION (PWA) focused on large-scale

construction projects, including bridges and dams. In 1934, work began on the

Grand Coulee and Boneville Dams along the Columbia River.

Hoover Dam (originally Boulder Dam) was built at the height of the Great Depression,

employing a total of 21,000 men during its five years of construction.

Created by Franklin Roosevelt in 1933, the Civilian Conservation Corps put

more than 3 million young men to work during the Great Depression.

CCC

Established in 1933, the CCC was initially open to

unmarried, unemployed men between the ages of 18 and

25.

Participants had to send $22 to $25 of their $30 monthly

allowance back to their families.

CCC volunteers were divided into companies typically

numbering 150 to 200 men.

CCC in Illinois

soil erosion control projects on farmland

construction of lodges and trails at Pere Marquette, Giant

City, and Starved Rock

tree planting

Camp Eureka, located east of the Mackinaw River on the

north side of what is now U.S. 150, served northwestern

McLean County and parts of Woodford and Tazewell

counties.

Many Camp Eureka volunteers gained 10 to 15 pounds

during the first two months of camp life, testament to the

widespread malnutrition and hunger average Americans

faced during the Great Depression.

CCC volunteers at Camp Leroy in Illinois

creating control measures for soil erosion.

CCC project in Illinois during the Great Depression.

1935 Second New Deal

WORKS PROGRESS ADMINISTRATION (WPA)

• provided jobs, built post offices, schools, and

infrastructure like bridges, highways and parks.

• also employed artists, writers, directors, and musicians

NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS ACT to set terms by which

unions and employers would interact.

SOCIAL SECURITY ACT

• created pensions for old age

• system of unemployment insurance

• care of dependent children and the disabled

The Works Progress

Administration spent more

than $4 billion dollars on

highway, road and street

projects.

New York City's Triborough Bridge was one of the biggest WPA projects.

WPA workers on the job.

1936

Despite aggressive investment in jobs programs, the

Depression continued.

Severe labor unrest.

December 1936: the United Auto Workers started a sit-down

strike at a GM plant in Flint, Michigan that lasted for 44 days

and was joined by 150,000 autoworkers in 35 cities. By 1937,

8 million workers had unionized.

when/how does it end?

We enter World War II against Japan and Germany after the

bombing of Pearl Harbor, end of 1941.

The war machine cranks up. Full employment.

internal company morale poster,

Westinghouse Corp.

J. Howard Miller

1943

Along with exhorting Americans

to save and conserve, gardening

was promoted as a patriotic

measure.

HOLC (1933)

HOME OWNERS' LOAN CORPORATION (HOLC).

A government-sponsored corporation established in 1933 to

refinance home mortgages that were in default (preventing

foreclosure).

FHA (1934)

FEDERAL HOUSING ADMINISTRATION (FHA)

The FHA was created in 1934 to stimulate the building

industry. How?

• insuring mortgage loans made by banks—increasing

number of loans with better terms

• smaller down payments, longer repayment periods

• minimum standards for housing construction

“There are far-reaching problems still with us for which

democracy must find solutions if it is to consider itself

successful. For example, many millions of Americans still live

in habitations which not only fail to provide the physical

benefits of modern civilization but breed disease and impair

the health of future generations. The menace exists not only

in the slum areas of the very large cities, but in many smaller

cities as well. It exists on tens of thousands of farms, in

varying degrees, in every part of the country.”

—FDR, State of the Union Message

January 6, 1937

"I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-

clad, ill-nourished. . . . The test of our

progress is not whether we add more to

the abundance of those who have much;

it is whether we provide enough for those

who have too little.”

—FDR, Second Inaugural Address, January 20, 1937

"Springwood," FDR's home in Hyde Park, NY, built 1800; 1845; 1866; 1915

USHA (1937)

UNITED STATES HOUSING AUTHORITY (USHA) provided

$500 million in loans for low-cost housing projects across the

country. How?

USHA was the loan- granting agency to state and local

housing authorities to build low-cost housing in both small

and large urban areas.

Loans could be as much as 90% of project costs, at low-

interest and on 60-year terms.

USHA gets started

By the end of 1940, over 500 USHA projects were in

progress or had been completed, with loan contracts of $691

million.

Program was supposed to be self-sustaining through the

collection of rents: 50% rent from the tenants themselves,

33.33% paid by Federal government; and 16.66% paid by

the localities themselves.

During World War II, the USHA was instrumental in planning

and constructing housing for defense workers.

FDR

"Second Bill of Rights"

State of the Union

January 11, 1944

FDR

"Second Bill of Rights"

State of the Union

January 11, 1944

the role of race

The Great Migration

characteristics of Northern racism vs Southern racism

Great Migration

When the Emancipation Proclamation was signed

(January 1, 1863) fewer than 8% of US African-American

population lived in the Northeast or Midwest.

By 1900, 90% of all African- Americans still resided in the

South.

Western Migration, 1879-1881, about 60,000 African-

Americans moved into Kansas and Oklahoma Indian

Territories in search of social and economic freedom.

African-American population density, by county, based upon 1900 census data

US Census Bureau, Data Visualization Gallery,

https://www.census.gov/dataviz/visualizations/020/

Great Migration

steady stream with massive waves around WWI and WWII

when high-paying jobs were plentiful

PHASE I: 1910-1940

PHASE II: 1940-1970

hope of freedom

"The North symbolized to me all that I had not felt or seen; it

had no relation to what actually existed. Yet by imagining a

place where everything is possible, it kept hope alive inside

of me."

—Richard Wright

Jacob Lawrence, The Great Migration, 1940-1, panel 3

Jacob Lawrence, The Great Migration, 1940-1, panel 23

race, 2010

http://demographics.coopercenter.org/DotMap/index.html

complete map

http://www.wired.com/2013/08/how-segregated-is-your-city-

this-eye-opening-map-shows-you/

map presented with commentary & city jpegs

DETROITThe Story of Brewster-Douglass

Protest signs outside the Sojourner Truth Housing Project, 1942

Detroit, MI

Racism is a reality in the industrial North.

Brewster-Douglass, Detroit

Project developed in phases, beginning with low-rise

apartment rows, ending with high-rise towers.

Existing neighborhood cleared: Black Bottom—the

commercial strip was known as Paradise Valley.

Current residents objected, but did not have a voice in the

decision.

Segregated housing project for African-Americans.

First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt attended the "clearing"

ceremony.

Hastings Street, the core of "Paradise Valley," Detroit, MI, c. 1950

This place wasn't broken. Why did it need fixing?

Hastings Street area, after the construction of I-75 and I-375

Brewster Project

Design by Harley, Ellington & Day of Detroit.

Low-rise apartment blocks, begun in 1935, was completed in

1938.

Expansion, completed in 1941, brought the total number of

housing units to 941.

First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt with a child from the redeveloped area.

Brewster Homes, 1939: the first wave of construction for war workers

2 story rowhomes. Exterior lawns are not grown in yet.

Frederick Douglass

Apartments

The Frederick Douglass Apartments, built immediately to the

south of the Brewster Project, began construction in 1942

with the completion of apartment rows, two 6-story low-rises,

and finally six 14-story high rises completed between 1952

and 1955.

The combined Brewster-Douglass Project was five city

blocks long, and three city blocks wide, and housed

anywhere between 8,000 and 10,000 residents.

Douglass Towers, last remaining 4 towers, 2010 (now demolished)

qualifications for residency

Detroit Housing Commission initially required one parent

for each family to be employed.

Housekeeping inspections; "moral" fitness

Brewster Homes

1991 the original Brewster Project was demolished

1994 250 new townhomes renamed the "Brewster Homes."

ST. LOUISThe Story of Pruitt-Igoe

Pruitt-Igoe

1952 city began clearing the old DeSoto-Carr

neighborhood.

57-acre complex of 33 11-storey buildings.

2,868 apartments for low-income people.

Mayor Joseph M. Darst said, "These two projects are

tangible evidence of progress in the continuing war

against slums and decay."

An aerial view of the Pruitt and Igoe housing complexes under construction

northwest of downtown, August 1954.

sketch for "open gallery concept"

One of the first

families to move

into Pruitt

October 1954

Igoe Homes in July 1955, 10 buildings with

apartments for 1,132 families.

Tenant in her living room in Igoe, 1967.

using the stove for heat,

January 1970

January 1970

severe weather caused pipes to freeze,

then burst, damaging electrical systems

and heat

Demolition of Pruitt-Igoe, April 1972

Children walk by piles of rubble on Oct. 5, 1972. Why is the debris still there?

"The Pruitt-Igoe Myth"

(2011)

dir. Chad Freidrichshttps://vimeo.com/39276340

Site tour

https://vimeo.com/18356414

Trailer for documentary