Cornell University Press
New Deal Ruins: Race, Economic Justice, and Public Housing Policy
Key Metrics
- Edward G Goetz
- Cornell University Press
- Hardcover
- 9780801451522
- 9.3 X 6.2 X 0.9 inches
- 1.05 pounds
- Political Science > Public Policy - Social Policy
- English
Secure TransactionBook Description
Public housing was an integral part of the New Deal, as the federal government funded public works to generate economic activity and offer material support to families made destitute by the Great Depression, and it remained a major element of urban policy in subsequent decades. As chronicled in New Deal Ruins, however, housing policy since the 1990s has turned to the demolition of public housing in favor of subsidized units in mixed-income communities and the use of tenant-based vouchers rather than direct housing subsidies. While these policies, articulated in the HOPE VI program begun in 1992, aimed to improve the social and economic conditions of urban residents, the results have been quite different. As Edward G. Goetz shows, hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced and there has been a loss of more than 250,000 permanently affordable residential units. Goetz offers a critical analysis of the nationwide effort to dismantle public housing by focusing on the impact of policy changes in three cities: Atlanta, Chicago, and New Orleans.Goetz shows how this transformation is related to pressures of gentrification and the enduring influence of race in American cities. African Americans have been disproportionately affected by this policy shift; it is the cities in which public housing is most closely identified with minorities that have been the most aggressive in removing units. Goetz convincingly refutes myths about the supposed failure of public housing. He offers an evidence-based argument for renewed investment in public housing to accompany housing choice initiatives as a model for innovative and equitable housing policy.
Author Bio
Edward G. Goetz specializes in housing and local community development planning and policy. His research focuses on issues of race and poverty and how they affect housing planning and implementation. His most recent book, The One-Way Street of Integration: Fair Housing and the Pursuit of Racial Justice in American Cities (2018, Cornell University Press) examines the tension between the pursuit of integration and community development efforts that focus on building power and communities where people are.
Goetz is a professor of urban and regional planning at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs and the director of the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs at the University of Minnesota. He has served on a variety of local and national advisory committees related to affordable housing and community development.
He is a past-winner of the University of Minnesota's "Distinguished Teaching Award for Outstanding Contributions to Post-baccalaureate, Graduate and Professional Education."
Goetz is also the author of New Deal Ruins: Race, Economic Justice and Public Housing Policy(2013, Cornell University Press); and, Clearing the Way: Deconcentrating the Poor in Urban America(2003, Urban Institute Press).
Research Interests
Race and ethnicity; urban and regional planning; housing policy and planning; income inequality and poverty
- Education
PhD in Political Science (Northwestern University, 1987)- MA in Political Science (Northwestern University, 1981)
- BA in Political Science (University of California, Riverside, 1979)
Source: University of Minnesota
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