Public Housing Redevelopment and the Displacement of African Americans

Abstract

This chapter addresses the degree of displacement and disparate impact of public housing redevelopment. Specifically, the author finds that the dismantling of public housing has had a disparate impact on African Americans. Projects that have been eliminated are, in general, disproportionately occupied by African Americans compared to other projects in the same cities that are left standing. The indirect displacement effects of public housing redevelopment are mixed. In some communities it is leading to gentrification and racial change, while in other cases one or neither of these phenomena result. The most important part of the evolution of the HOPE VI program relates to how it moved from an orientation toward rehabilitation to a program that relies on demolition. Finally the chapter indicates that public housing demolition and redevelopment is generating a wide range of neighborhood outcomes, the most common of which are patterns of black or white gentrification. Keywords:African Americans; gentrification; HOPE VI program; public housing redevelopment