New Museum Examines the History of American Public Housing—and the Stories of Its Residents

Tens of thousands of people were displaced when the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) started demolishing its own public housing apartments in the early 2000s, despite the agency's assurances that it would soon provide them with new housing and significant community investment.

The CHA's Plan for Transformation was an ambitious urban redevelopment initiative that sought to replace the deteriorating conditions of public housing estates like Cabrini-Green and the Robert Taylor Homes with a new and improved vision.

Twenty years later, the majority of the city's high-rise public housing projects have been demolished, but the project's revolutionary second half has not yet been completed. Where the future was intended to blossom, vacant lots are sprawling.

The history of public housing in the United States is dominated by accounts of personal tragedy and institutional negligence. However, optimism and genuine change can occasionally still be seen.

The History of American Public Housing and the Narratives of Its Residents Are Examined by a New Museum.

Public housing is one of the most contentious and significant periods in American urban history, and a brand-new museum display is shedding new light on it. The exhibit, titled "Foundations: The Story of Public Housing in America," seeks to illustrate the lives, hardships, and tenacity of those who occupied its walls in addition to charting the development of public housing legislation.

The show, which is hosted by the American Urban History Museum in Chicago, includes a wealth of government records, designs, oral narratives, and archive photos. It provides a thorough examination of how politics, racism, economics, and community activity have influenced and been influenced by public housing in the US.

From Assured to Disputed

In America's early days, public housing was seen as a guarantee of security and opportunity. As part of larger social welfare reforms during the 1930s New Deal era, the federal government attempted to provide government-sponsored, reasonably priced housing. Early versions, like Atlanta's Techwood Homes and New York's First Houses, were constructed to improve working-class families, many of whom had been uprooted due to slum clearance or financial difficulties.

The display does not, however, downplay the most challenging parts of this history. Many projects suffered from mismanagement, underfunding, and segregation. Before being demolished in the 1970s, the notorious Pruitt-Igoe complex in St. Louis—once a symbol of modernist architecture and hope—became a warning about urban neglect and ruin.

The Influence of Local Voices

Foundations' emphasis on the individual narratives of its residents distinguishes it from earlier investigations of public housing. Visitors hear from those who lived there through audio recordings, diary entries, and interviews. They hear tales of birthday celebrations in packed kitchens, close-knit communities formed by neighbours, and grassroots organising to demand better living conditions or resist eviction.

The goal, according to curator Danielle Ross, is to humanise a topic that is frequently reduced to stigmas or numbers. Although public housing has historically been seen as a policy failure, we want people to recognise the richness and worth of the communities that formerly called it home. "These were homes, not just buildings," says Ross.

Engaging and Immersive

Visitors may explore restored living areas that are based on mid-century flats in Brooklyn's Red Hook Houses or Chicago's Cabrini-Green. While an immersive VR station lets users examine the development of a single housing complex from its conception to demolition, interactive digital maps illustrate the expansion and fall of public housing throughout American cities.

The exhibit also touches on the present and future of affordable housing. A section titled “What Comes Next?” explores how cities are grappling with gentrification, rising rentals, as well as a resurgence of interest in mixed-income projects. Visitors are prompted to think about the current housing crisis and the potential contribution of public investment to its resolution.

A Prompt Discussion

The museum's exhibition couldn't have arrived at a better time, as home affordability is currently a hot topic in the country. Foundations promotes discussion on what went wrong and what could still be achievable as the federal, state, and local governments contemplate new housing inequality policies.

The exhibition continues outside the museum's walls with a number of community-led panel discussions, movie screenings, and storytelling workshops through the end of the year.

Foundations provides a vital reexamination of what "home" has meant to millions of Americans by narrating the complete narrative of public housing in America—not just its structures and regulations, but also its residents.

Residents banded together to rescue one building as a lasting memorial to the life they had created at the Jane Addams Homes, the city's oldest federal public housing development that dates back to the New Deal era, when the Plan for Transformation threatened it.

This month, the new National Public Housing Museum (NPHM) on Chicago's West Side opened its doors in that structure?