A Look at Purging the Poorest
This blog post marks the first of what will be many opportunities for you to read insights and opinions directly from the desks of BPI staff and supporters. Through these posts we hope to spark dialogue about topics that have implications for the work of BPI, and beyond. Today’s entry is penned by Alexander Polikoff, Co-Director of our Public Housing program and Senior Staff Counsel. Professor Lawrence J. Vale’s latest book, Purging the Poorest , does a superb job of rendering the three-part history of American public housing. Part One begins with housing the working poor during Depression years and runs to the Urban Renewal “purging” of the early 1960s when slums were cleared and residents dispersed. In Part Two, from the 1960s to the ’90s, compassionate instincts turned public housing into housing of last resort for the poorest and most vulnerable in our society. When that turned out badly, Part Three, which we’re still in, “purged” and dispersed the poor once again w...