Addressing urban social and spatial stratification: testing the potential for integration of public housing

Abstract

The legacy of public housing in the American city is dominated by a condition of social and spatial stratification. In New York City, inadequate funding exacerbates the conditions of isolated public housing residents, raising questions about the stability and sustainability of public housing. At a time when a severe housing crisis is impacting on the affordability of and access to urban housing generally, addressing this legacy of public housing can be the impetus for a long-term vision that integrates public housing into the fabric of the city, providing new housing options for public housing residents while merging them into mixed-income neighbourhoods with redefined public spaces and increased services and amenities. This approach to a long-term vision, built around high-density mid-rise development, contrasts with the incremental approach currently expedient due to the social and political climate surrounding public housing. However, current resistance to an aggressive strategy belies another part of the legacy of public housing: the major demolition of city streets and blocks that made possible the anti-urban planning that undergirds this isolation and stratification. Empirical evidence supports urban design that builds on the nineteenth-century city’s urban form of small blocks and active streets as the foundation for vital urban neighbourhoods. This study of the political and urban design efforts to address the severe challenges facing public housing tests the potential for a path, when the political and social climate allows, for an aggressive strategy to preserve public housing that centres on social and spatial integration.