The Government Built "Public" Housing. What A Disaster! Chicago 1964
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- Опубликовано: 1 янв 2022
- The projects is what we called them when I was a kid growing up in New York City. They were scary. Gang violence. Elevators that didn't work. Ugly to look at least in my opinion. It was a disaster for Chicago and eventually, all of the large public housing projects built in the 1950s and 1960s were torn down. It was backed by the Housing and Urban Development (HUD) part of the government plus local Chicago and State of Illinois funding. It built places like Cabrini Green and Robert Taylor Homes which this documentary clip looks at. Other major cities had housing projects that were similar. Government housing we called it. The intention was good as the gentleman in this video explains. But it was segregated housing for sure. 95% black families. Something initially supported by Martin Luther King and other civil rights leaders but eventually, all came to see it as a disaster. In part this was caused by Chicagos' inability to maintain the buildings physically. When I visited folks I knew in the New York City projects, we walked up as the elevator never seem to be available. Graffiti was everywhere. Garbage was left outside. Sad. But a part of American history that I felt I should include in my videos. Is it the whole story? No. Was it real for many as this woman expresses it? Yes. As the mother says in the video, she would have preferred to go back to what was called the "slum" where her mother lived, then to continue to live in a Robert Taylor home.
Here is a story from Philadelphia that is shockingly similar - ruclips.net/video/1s_-MusKZNk/видео.html
Less than 100 years since the end of slavery and towards the end of legal segregation, this is the society many blacks were forced to live because of our government.
Many blacks were still uneducated and had to rely on whites for employment. Many were not hiring blacks.
Covenants were active, barring blacks to live in better areas.
Where could they move if they could afford it?
How could they acquire home loans when banks would not approve them solely based on race?
Unlike many of the commenters here or professors/politicians interested in the topic, I was born and raised in the NYC projects for 25 years during a time NYC was the most dangerous. My elderly parents still live there (they want to stay) and I visit twice a month. I can say that the bad people that live in there make it worse for the good people. The buildings are expensive to maintain and a good amount of the residents do not have pride where they live. They dump trash, pee in hallways and elevators and dont pick up dog feces. I saw someone get shot at the age of 8. Many of the guys i grew up with playing ball are dead or incarcerated for violent crimes. Glad I made it out.
See so let's stop blaming other people for what's going on, people go around blaming the "white man" when they have no respect for where they live, its up to the community, when u allow gangs to commit crimes and don't report it or help the police do their job the neighborhood becomes run down, businesses leave because why get robbed 3 times a month, but at the end of the day I guess its easier to point fingers then to take responsibility
Glad you made it out.
Glad you still visit your parents. God bless
@@nostalgiajuana yea man I agree the situation could be much better if theres was personal and communal responsibility. The family structure is important. I was one of the few kids in the crew fortunate to have two parents, most of my buddies were raised by single moms.
@@amandafeliciano542 🙏 thank you.
As somebody who works in public housing, I can say that the situation hasn’t changed much.
With the majority of public housing: you don't even know it's "public housing". The big housing projects in major cities, yes. But 90% of it is fine, compared to the other housing in the area. 55+ housing is especially needed as the population ages.
Why would a situation change in an area that is still filled with the same people.
Probably has got worse.
To get a feel for the living conditions in these projects I highly recommend the book "there are no children here" that covers the lives of two boys who grew up in this buildings sister complex "Henry Horner Homes"
Thanks for the book recommendation.
They made it into a movie too! Oprah played the mother… I believe she also produced the film.
Great book - I read it in college
Great book
You recommend a BOOK? REALLY? How about taking the train downtown and VISITING for REAL.
Speaking of these developments, James Baldwin said, "of course the property deteriorates because the children can't bear it."
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I'm 50 from Chicago and I went to school across the streets from the Robert Taylor homes.. The projects were large, oppressive and horrible.. They've all been torn down, some of the lots are still empty..
Could you explain how these were oppressive, all I gathered is that it got people out of the slums
Why don't y'all take care of Chit? oppressive? So free housing is Oppressive? My mortgage to keep FAR Away from y'all is oppressive.
@@DETmichigan-yy6lf you're honest but, pathetic.
If you don't like the handouts, DON'T TAKE THEM.
@@aky1313 oppressive because black AMERICANS and their generations still feel the affects of living in poverty DUH
I lived in a high rise advertised as senior housing. My friend lived in one in another state and it was a great affordable place and it was only seniors 62 and up. Not the one I moved into. It was a mix of senior and disabled. Lots of misery is all I can say and lots of bedbugs too. It was built in the early 70s and needed new elevators and freshly painted halls. When I first moved in 5 of the washer/dryers of the 12 total were not working. It wasnt anything like the one my friend lived in. I moved out when the first opportunity to move into a better safer environment was offered. Senior high rises mixed with disabled means senior and psychiatric housing often times. These senior facilities that are mixed housing is where many of the mentally ill are housed. Everybody needs a place to call home but some of the psychiatric cases can be scary to seniors.
Thanks for the warning!
my mom is in senior housing and they got a bad roach and bedbug infestation!! she never had these issues when she had her own house. only gave it up because it was too big and expensive upkeep when just by herself. we siblings couldn't save the house after the tornado and flood, just didn't have the extra money to fix everything.
i told her mom she should live with me since I have the extra space, but she's being stubborn and miserable and doesn't want to move to a new area where she has to learn how to get around. I think dementia is setting in and moving to a new neighborhood will upset her.
I am working hard to get her out of those apartments and find a nice place in the same city
I wonder why my last comment was removed.
Interestingly, Robert Taylor Homes were named after an African American Chicago Housing Authority Board member who resigned in 1950 when the city of Chicago refused to endorse potential building locations throughout the city of Chicago that would induce racially integrated housing. These buildings did the exact opposite of his wishes.
Segregation and dependency was the plan. Only with a clever marketing strategy to make it look good.
Well that’s an interesting fact I’m going to have to look into
@@thecatguy4301 Not true. Those large public housing projects happened all over the western world after WW2, and most of those countries did not have black people or any large minority. People today dont understand how poor people lived in slums before these projects. Public high-rise towers still exist in many countries. There are even new high-rise residential towers going up around the world, but they are privately owned and middle class.
Its not so much the building, but putting a lot of poor people in a small area can lead to problems.
@@tubester4567 I was talking about Richard Daily of Chicago specifically. And yes, it was intended to segregate and create dependency. In big cities of America, the factories were in the city centers. The factories left and went out into the suburban areas. Welfare and projects took over.
What happened around the world wasn't the same. England for example built massive condo type inner city housing projects because they had a population explosion and needed to house ppl. The only way to do it was to build up. They didn't have the miles of endless expansive areas to build out as America did.
Japan did it for much the same reason. Russia did it because they were a bunch of goddam communist and wanted to control everyone.
And finally, no, not everyone lived in slums before the slums projects were built. Yes you had tenements in major cities. The projects only took place of those. It wasn't and isn't any different. But not at all the same world wide. Not at all. Richard Daily was a racist Democrat who isolated blacks into a small section of Chicago, made them dependent and poor. Just like his Democrat Jim Crow post civil war predecessors did before him. Although, the democrats did a much better job at segregation in the North than they had in the South. In any southern state in let's say, 1900, blacks and whites co-mingled, unharmonious as it was, they at least knew each other. Fast forward to the "progressive age" in the north, and out west, most whites could go days and weeks, even months without ever seeing a black person and not uncommonly going their whole lives never knowing any.
The idea was to revitalize failed neighborhoods, not destroy successful ones.
Most forget…public housing was meant as a safety net and to be temporary until a family could afford to move into their own place. Thanks to LBJ the safety net became a hammock and it is not uncommon to find 3 generations in PH
Look at how urban renewal stole people's homes and land, and conveniently gave us the projects, don't forget that part....
@@mikematerne4579 yeah right😏
It's simply an expression of the same squandering of tax dollars that perpetuates war for profit and employment, and giving criminals a monopoly on an industry rivaling the fast food industry in market size just so intentionally-cultivated crime can be exploited as a resource for tax funding of various industries, institutions and contractors. There is very little truly legitimate capitalist industry in America (with organized crime ironically making up a significant fraction of it), and even at that time-- before Bush II signed China into the WTO and sold out America's manufacturing industry to a communist regime back in 2001-- there was hardly enough employment to go around. Multi-generational public housing certainly could work if that was the intended result, but it isn't. If it worked, a lot of people currently employed via taxes living off of crime would be out of a job and would find themselves in a very similar situation, which would definitely be a good thing. There's no reason we should be paying for property on recently-occupied land that was initially granted by the government.
LBJ also said he would have blacks voting democrat for 200 years. He used another word for black.
Many crippled elderly live there and there isn't another option.
I remember seeing some projects when I was going to school in southern Illinois. My roommate has a brother in med school in Chicago and we would take the train up on weekends. The train frequently slowed down going through south side Chicago and the sight was third world. It was horrible. I never forget the scenes. edit: 1970 was when I saw this.
I agree, as a young man I used to go to the loop to see movies and remember those train rides. I never forgot. Those buildings were so depressing/scary to look at. Forever etched in my mind.
As a kid in the 70s we took many class trips to the museums. We lived way south of Chicago and as we rode the bus through the south side I always thought I would see Fred Sanford!
@@backachershomestead I was in the Air Force stationed at Rantoul, Illinois which I think is about 100 miles south of Chicago. Were you from down there?.
The slums before public high rise were even scarier. High-rise public housing still exists in many countries, including the US. High-rise residential towers are going up all around the world right now, but they are privately owned and desirable. Its not so much the type of housing, but putting a lot of poor people in a small area leads to problems,
I use to go in those projects a lot, I use to pull up in the parking lot with my white friend and he would be staring at the roof of the car the entire time. lol. I would tell him relax and pretend like you have family here and been coming over here your entire life, don’t look scary you draw attention to yourself.
Housing is a smaller problem than the welfare system. Women were given the incentive to remain unmarried and still have children. That made men lose the financial responsibility of providing for their own children. It was and still is a crap system .
Says a guy who has no experience with the welfare system? For example did you know that case workers had "constant right to search and deny"? Any time they wanted was 'home visit hours". and nothing was off limits. Case workers had open warrant to search for a man in the home or even his clothing and finding such was grounds for instant loss of benefits and eviction from public housing or cutting of rental assistance.
@@MrDportjoe thanks for proving my point. Appreciate that. You see where the welfare system perpetuated it and made it worse for single women receiving benefits? That's the welfare system, not housing. Housing was providing to families , single and married couples as well , not just single women . But for your argument to make sense you ignore that distinction ... but you're just trying to argue and failing miserably.
Anyways, my experience with the system , I'd be happy to share with anyone that cared to know. That's not you , now is it...
@@nathanarievlis3985 BUT the housing too could be lost if you were tying to say build a relationship, get that man with the good job to want to marry you, the system ASSUMED you were a woman of loose moral fibre and not worthy of assistance. So you are NOT supposed to work (lose housing) OR leave your kids alone, etc etc.
@@MrDportjoe the system didn't care about moral fiber. Single moms with children received benefits and guess what happens when they have more out of wedlock? More benefits.
I agree that public assistance is a handicap to single mothers. I am one and I had only food stamps and medical. I never qualifed for anything else because I always had a job. If you have a job they make it harder for you to get assistance even if your job doesn't pay well. So it forces you to be a liar and a cheat. It makes you want to give up any drive to be successful really. When I told people that I didn't want any government benefits people lost their minds. How you gonna have the money? What are you going to do? Oh you too proud to get benefits it's for you son. I didn't like being accountable to the government. I didn't like them restricting my earning capacity. I didn't like all the control. I haven't dealt with social services in about 8 years and I've lived a better life because of it.
The problem with families living in high-rise buildings is that you don't raise your kids, the street does.
Her voice is so sweet. I had a couple of friends who grew up in HUD apartments. I remember visiting them and seeing their beige walls that they were never allowed to paint. My parents always hated when I went to visit them, they much rather preferred that they to come to our house instead. It was rough there to say the least. Thank you for sharing.
Beige walls are nice tho? Like honestly I’d want all the walls in my future house to be 2000s beige, or maybe 2009-2016 Cream. Like those colors are super nice
If you had people pain their walls all sort of colors there would be a mess. There must be some type of conformity to keep the place up to some type of standards. You don't own your apartment, hopefully within time you'll be able to move out, but there has to be rules in place.
5:45 - I agree. The small things are taken for granted by most, but they are luxuries to those who must conform to certain living situations. Those little things give you _dignity._ They give you _pride._
An articulate, thoughtful woman - I appreciated her insight.
Maybe get a job, not have kids out of wedlock and you can buy a nice house 😉
@@macneoh7418 Maybe, try to have a little understanding and compassion for those who struggle in life... never forget - one day will come when you, too, will need someone's compassion and understanding.
My uncle had a window company back in the 80s they had contracts to replace windows in the hi rise units. Work all week and leave for weekend and Monday most windows were broken.
There were burnt out units were they barbecued in the cast iron tubes.
They had to leave a person to guard there vehicles as they were carrying tools up . They came back to get more and the tools were gone and the guard was in his underwear.
They stole his clothes?
No self respect or respect for anyone or anything
I agree with the mother that left! I would much rather live in a slum with freedom than an overcrowded “apartment “ with NO privacy or protection of your children
Oh man, her mom's house is AWESOME! If that's considered a "slum", then I'd be picking slum over being in that project. Also, thank you David, for sharing your collection of real history on film and photography. I feel that people need to see these things now more than ever. Thank you💜
I helped a friend go around on the south side of Chicago in the 80s . We went and tore down several of the single family homes that were rundown. They looked nice but very sketch built.
I loved how free and happy they looked when they were visiting her mum.
They were a little liberal in calling that a slum, the tenements of the 1940s and 1950s were much worse than that cute 4 square house the grandma lived in. They were dilapidated townhouses with no bathroom and rats. Much worse than that quaint single family house which is probably like 1.3 million dollars now
I think the slum she came from was the housing at about 25-30 seconds in it looked like the parent's just had a normal townhouse they lived in it must've been hard for the parent's to see their daughter and grandchildren living in that housing project though I feel like smaller housing for each family in bigger suburbs would've been far better though not likely to have been right in the city itself
I agree. I'd pick the house too
That's absolutely correct The projects were just simply that a project It was a stepping stone. Unfortunately not everyone had the concept mindset to get out of the projects. Many that live there became complacent And that created a stuck like mentality.
That was the point complacency, you stay here don’t go no where else.
Problem with society in general is "people who shouldn't have kids, have too many, and people who should have more kids, do not have enough"...
This is the same year that LBJ sign into law civil rights law. This story is heart braking, it's like the show Good Times but in real life housing most of them were blacks and Latino. That's for sharing this video David Hoffman film maker.
Subsidized basic housing fails because subsidized basic housing isn't the problem. It's changing how people think, especially those at the lower end of the socioeconomic scale. Access to better healthcare and education definitely helps but exposure to how the upwardly mobile think, plan, act and interact with and within society is equally important. I know guys who grew up in the projects and became doctors. They thought differently than I did. Fantastic video by the way.
To an extent, having a good roof over your head can change how you think. You wont believe the sudden shift in mindset when you finally get a set in stone place with a shower, kitchen and bed.
@@sillylittlemonkey7130 I agree. I should have been clearer in stating that shelter isn't the only problem the disadvantaged face. Education and healthcare are major obstacles as well.
Those things only go so far, then you reach the real problem that's unsolvable with any cultural influence:
*_BIOLOGY_*
and _that_ alone dictates more than any outside influence of whether a person succeeds or fails in life.
@@DTreatz LOL. You aren't the master race, my friend. Delusional.
I searched up that director, Charles Swibel. Immigrated from Poland as a kid, extremely poor, he became very rich with real estate and was head of the Housing Authority for 26 years. Very controversial yet respected, was an advisor, and campaign contributor, to many Chicago mayors. In his obituary they called him "the ultimate wheeler-dealer in a city known for wheeling and dealing".
He died in 1990 at 63.
Like many self made, successful immigrants, he probably had little empathy for people who got stuck into the poverty cycle.
Exactly 63 not even old old. Its a shame so many had their hand in the oppression of african Americans its sick
Immigrants hardly have any empathy for native populace
@@naughtydorf18 I guess I can see how it could be hard to sympathize with people that start already at the point (integration), you are struggling to achieve for yourself.
Wow, that’s so interesting. He probably never wanted to go back to poverty.
He was asked to step down as CHA Chief due to unethical practices. He was a wealthy real estate developer. He really shouldn't have been appointed CHA head. He was also a slum lord who owned slum tenement buildings on the west and south sides of Chicago.
Where are these families now?? That would be the best generational study.
Jail, how can they "better themselves" when masters degrees make minimum wage
@ SativaGunner. It all depends on choosing the correct field of study.
@Daniel Stadden, absolutely! And they brought that project mentality with them! You can remove someone out of the projects but you can’t take the project out of them! And that’s for some, not all.
I used to live in Robert Taylor Homes from 1969 to 1975. We moved there in 1969 five years after this Earleen White want. I believe someone paid her to do this documentary. I also believe she was given a script to read prior to this interview. This is not an accurate depiction of the RT Homes in the 60s and 70s. It was not declining in 1964. The decline of RT started during the mid-80s when the Crack epidemic hit Chicago. That info scrolling on the screen says 95% of the tenants were unemployed, drug dealing, and gang activity happened regularly, and every family had someone in prison or returning from prison are lies.
This happens in other countries also, the Ballymun flats in Dublin city Ireland are another example. Ballymun was also build in the 1960s as an urban slum clearance, moving people away from the inner city and in the highrise public housing. The project failed and is Ballymun is now demolished. There was an interesting interview done shortly after they were built, with a man and his family who had just moved in. In the interview the man said "these flats are a bad idea", too many people living on top of each other can only bring problems. He predicted violence, future gangs, dispair and a poor future for the children living there. Unfortunately his prediction came through. Two different countries, same problem.
But he was wrong about “Too many people living on top of each other” being the cause of the violence. Chicago,NYC, and many other cities have many high rise condo and apartment buildings in which many people live on top of each other, and those buildings are very peaceful and well maintained. Of course, well educated,responsible people of good character live in them.
@@boataxe4605 right on! that is attitude of the people who live there.
@@boataxe4605 Gee, you ever think for 2 seconds why that is? People who live in high rise condos/apartments are usually wealthy. Wealthy kids got more appealing things to do than hang out in stairwells and commit petty crimes since their parents will probably give them more allowance money and toys than thieving could ever compete with. They are built better, with better noise insulation, and better maintained as they generate more income from residents. Lastly, wealthy people tend to have smaller families overall so there just aren't as many people living there so most of these issues aren't even present. People aren't meant to live piled up on top of each other. Every mammal reacts with stress when not given adequate space. It is completely unnatural to try squeeze everybody together and in fact is known to raise people's heartrate by a significant amount, enough to be the tipping point for a cardiac arrest.
@@KvltKommando In the first part of your reply you admit that people can live peacefully in high rises, and in the second part of your reply you say that it’s practically impossible. And do you know why the people who peacefully live in them are rich? It’s because they have a strong work ethic and believe in education,in other words, they are of good character. And it’s not about race because many minorities of good character live in those nice high rises. They were raised right and have lived honest lives. They haven’t adopted a victim mentality.
@@boataxe4605 It's more about the design. High rises are not the problem, 5 miles north you have the Gold Coast, with private entries and elevators that work. You don't have common gangways more like a prison block than anything else.
That was a eye opener to things I wouldn't even have thought of! Right from the get go of just trying to take the elevator. That mother said it all to clear.
I was homeless for a long time because of being mired in the Worker’s Comp system. I got help and housing, immediately went into a job program. I got off any sort of government assistance within the first year. Got a job, saved up money and just bought a house. It’s a hand up, for people to get their lives together not a lifetime ( or many generations) handout.
How can someone with 5 kids blame the neighbor with 5 kids for being disruptive?
She seemed to be blaming the situation of being stuck in a high rise for the problems.
They aren’t trained they knock on the door and stuff like that at indecent hours
I mean you can have 5 quiet and well disciplined kids or you can have 5 kids you neglect that run around screaming their heads off... like my downstairs neighbor.
"Nearly a hundred years of the supposed “legacy of slavery” found most black children [78%] being raised in two-parent families in 1960. But thirty years after the liberal welfare state found the great majority of black children being raised by a single parent [66%]. Public housing projects in the first half of the 20th century were clean, safe places, where people slept outside on hot summer nights, when they were too poor to afford air conditioning. That was before admissions standards for public housing projects were lowered or abandoned, in the euphoria of liberal non-judgmental notions. And it was before the toxic message of victimhood was spread by liberals. We all know what hell holes public housing has become in our times. The same toxic message produced similar social results among lower-income people in England, despite an absence of a “legacy of slavery” there.
If we are to go by evidence of social retrogression, liberals have wreaked more havoc on blacks than the supposed “legacy of slavery” they talk about."
Thomas Sowell
The lady in the beginning first couple minutes tells the same exact "story" from the 1970s series Good Times.
These projects were the inspiration for the show
@@The_Death_Owl - Yes. Also I forgot to mention that Good Times was suppose to be in Chicago too.
Reminded me of the Projects in the intro of the TV Show Good Times.
She said, "For each family there are two to ten children." !!!
I hope there aren't people out there who believe high-rise public housing failed in the United States because African Americans were the main occupants. These high-rise low-income housing also went up here in Honolulu, Hawaii in the 1960's and like Robert Taylor Homes in Chicago it too was a disaster right from the get-go. It was riddled with same type of problems such as crime, gangs, drug-trafficking, elevators not working, people using the stairway for toilet and so on and I should point out almost all the tenants were of Polynesian background. I have also spoken to people from England and they tell me these high-rise buildings for the poor simply does not work.
So what is your solution?
Original public housing was built to provide decent housing to those of low to moderate income. The tenants paid from one-fourth to one-third of their monthly income in rent and could expect periodic inspection of their units. The deal was this: the government was to finance the construction of the housing, and the rents collected from the tenants were to pay the administration and maintenance expenses. Expecting public housing residents to "better" themselves so they could move out clearly ignores the reason the housing was built in the first place. Of course, providing only the bare minimum accommodations to public housing tenants so they will find housing elsewhere ensures that the people least able to earn a livable income will fill the units, making the administration and maintenance of the residences difficult to say the least.
Great film!
I love hearing the experiences of other human beings. Despite some negativity, it does ultimately bring more empathy. Thank you!
😲 Thank you for posting this insightful video. …. Looking forward to more.
I appreciate the diversity of your content Thank you Mr Hoffman!😊
Similar structures were built across eastern Europe, people still live in them today. They did not pee in the elevators or otherwise destroy what was provided for them. The residents of the Chicago projects created their own hell.
edit: Swibel is precisely right. Imagine if public servants today spoke in such a direct and forthright manner.
Be quiet, don’t compare some damn Europeans with Black Americans, totally different. Piss in the hallways had nothing to do with why the projects were hell… it was institutional racism, Goofy. Europe didn’t have that, Goofy. And I know your ass ain’t trying to act like Europeans are more civil? Filth, poverty, CONSTANT WARS… the creators of the Black Plague, Gtfoh
@@lastshallbefirst5516 "Institutional racism" sure. You have a lot of excuses for people not picking up their own trash
@@jflsdknf You have a lot of excuses for not having comprehension and reading skills. Your history of America is sad. Your brain sees, “picking up trash.” An intelligent brain sees, “What created the hell hole in the first place.”
Everybody can’t be smart
Thanks for sharing . I believe your work is priceless . I pray it be preserved forevermore.
Just recently, I watched both of the Candyman movies. This gives great contextualisation for those movies. I always enjoy these old docs you post!
It wasn’t these projects it was Cabrini Green is where candy man was filmed. These projects Robert Taylor was on the southside.
I am of East European origin. Down there, they call these concrete monsters of human storage: Kruchevka. And the story behind their creation is largely the same. It sounds so self-contradictory, to feel isolation when your major complaint is the utter lack of privacy. But that is precisely what happens. Excellent interview.
Thanks for showing this well made film. The lady described the problems of living in the public housing project perfectly.
Those housing projects were horrible. I saw Cabrini Green toward the end. It looked like a bombed out war district. Pure horror show.
As a letter carrier I delivered mail to many scaled down versions of the housing projects in Charlotte, NC. Grinding poverty, drug dealers, hyper gun violence. I was caught in crossfire on three occasions, almost was shot once (I was not an intended target). These were very stressful places to work. I can't imagine having to live there. All gone, now. The projects emptied of tenants and leveled; the downtown locations gentrified and filled with very expensive homes. The families who once lived in them scattered into Section 8 housing and very small subsidized apartment buildings. The poverty and crime is still with us, merely redistributed.
"Down These Mean Streets" was an Excellent Book, written by the Late Piri Thomas, about growing up as a Puerto-Rican Youth in East Harlem. It was set from the Thirties to the Fifties. You see the Same Cycle in Charles Dickens novels about Lower Class England, as well as Victor Hugo books about France in the Nineteenth century.
Shortly before the Robert Taylor Homes was demolished, Sudhir Venkatesch (a sociology graduate student studying at nearby University of Chicago) wrote a book about his experiences with the culture and "economy within an economy" of the projects. He was befriended by a university-educated gang leader/drug dealer who was in charge of two of the project buildings and learned of the culture of the projects. The book is entitled "Gang Leader for a Day". Fascinating read. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the projects and the indomitable spirit of those who lived there.
That was a great book. I highly recommend it!
It was definitely a lot to learn from the projects across Chicago, even though they are all gone now I feel a piece of Chicago is missing. They also promised people a new place after demolishing all the buildings but 90% percent of the land across the city that had projects is still vacant pieces of land they still haven’t built anything on to this day.
I was a military kid. The first time I went inside a friends house that lived in the projects, I knew the whole floor plan
Government housing seems all the same
That building was only up 30 years before it was destroyed. Who's fault is that? Government for not maintaining the buildings or the tenants who abused it?
You can't tell that that building only had a lifespan of 30 years. There are many other buildings much older than that that are still maintained enough that would be able to support accommodations in the modern era.
@ Nate Allen. Most of the buildings were overbuilt with cinderblock walls and metal doorframes to stand up to the foreseen abuse . Unfortunately there were some who had nothing better to do than try to destroy them . Unfortunately those who did try to take care of them were overpowered and suffered
It was 36 years old when demolition began.
@@florjanbrudar692 That seems like a waste.
thank you for this upload. i was born into the very first PH in Charlotte NC called Dalton Village 1969 no longer exists as many PH buildings have been sold to developers and destroyed for high rise condos mainly bought by new comers to Charlotte. A huge housing crisis is now going on in my former hometown. My mother moved us out to grow up in the southwest part in 1972 .
I live in the greater Charlotte area. I hear it on wsoctv quite a bit
The projects became wild as the city stopped spending money on them, wouldn’t even repair broken elevators in the buildings, the city just let them continue to fall apart. It was a rough place to be even though I would stop in the projects across the city frequently. People feared the projects but my mentality was If you can join the army, skydive, and climb mountains the last thing you should fear is human beings.
If feels like it was a social experiment. Shanty living‘upgraded’. The director was so condescending. He said they should be grateful for what they had..it’s not a swamp...wow.
The government will be doing this sort of thing again with smart cities and VR - Metaverse.
PLEASE don't forget that the Chicago housing authority rejected the father's and husband's of all of those families from living in those buildings with their families. Now the question is, why was that?
America has opressed blacks for 400 years
LBJ and the Democrats!!
This was/is powerful! Thanks for sharing!
Thank you for posting this.
❤️THIS ❤️
This is what I always thought the medium of film was supposed to be used for.
Watching all those holywood fake sets with fake stories and fake people always felt like a waste of my consciousness.
David you use the medium of film to teach us truth AND you respect the intelligence of your audience
I virtually bow to you Sir David🙏
The problem with the public housing project is that they didn’t actually solve issues like employment, crime rate was bigger because most of the people who lived there were poor, and this projects were made to segregate even more. The projects where very bad maintained and the police was never there so it was a very unsafe place to live
A lot of people still live in this public housing projects and that’s the issue, a lot of people can’t afford a house so they still live in a temporary solution
If you are that poor why the hell do you have 6 children?!!!!
You are IGNORANT
Not a disaster. Just a social experiment that didn't work. #Onward
Not a disaster? Huh?
Yes, a colossal, disastrous failure.
This is reminiscent of the Pruitt-Igoe apartments that are shown being demolished in the film, Koyaanisqatsi. Built in ‘54, they barely made it for 20 years.
I think Taylor’s argument was that those apartments were not meant to stay in or raise a family but as a lil pick me up when one falls on hard times. While in the apartments that individual earns an income that can help him find better housing. I think that’s a reasonable argument either way.
Like disability checks my gf gets. It a pick me up not a lifeline
I was in Chicago during that time, and as built these were more than adequate; however, what happened was many of those who moved there didn't maintain any standards. When I say many, that isn't most, just a large number. Instead of taking garbage down it wax dumped into elevator shafts. This drew rodents and insects.
When people started falling off balconies wire screens were enslaved. My father was the supervisor ( nice word for a working foreman) on that installation (something that if you check had to be done at least one more time since the iron work somehow disappeared into scrap yards). It cost more than it should since for every qualified worker the company had to hire two local laborers. Sounds good until you realize a single worker brought up one panel for everyone that the two labors brought up between them. In one apartment a hole had been knocked in the wall to allow people to go between that and the next apartment
i had a neighbor who threw her trash off the balcony all the time i asked why dp you do that and she said 'whats wrong with that"? some people..
Being a life long Chicagoan seeing the project buildings when they still stood was a crazy sight. Most of them are torn down now. I remember idk if it was somebody close to the mayor or a senator or something volunteered to spend the night at Cabrini Green or the Ickes. I don’t think she lasted the whole night. Even with security. They used to have guys posted on the higher floors with rifles in case somebody from another tower came onto their turf. There’s a documentary about it somewhere. They put Cabrini Green right in the middle of a neighborhood too. The other towers were just south of downtown not in a neighborhood like residential area so much as just them really.
Jane Byrne was the mayor that moved in cabrini green
Government housing and many (not all but many) social prgrams are intentionally designed to create dependency on the government. Full disclosure, I'm thankful for my Social Security, but I paid into the system for 50 years so I feel that social program was an investment. Overall, I'm thankful that I've been able to live free than benig locked into government dependency.
Eh if the alternative is homelessness and you are a black woman.
As a kid who grew up with the Oregon version of Welfare rights I would argue that rather than being designed to create dependency by clients-it is designed to have a flaw that prevents it from reaching it's stated goal to the point of self redundancy. Then the programs become political footballs often the more successful cut first. Take a look at say Neighborhood Youth Corps (the first non piece paid, non ag work I had). When did it become too expensive to teach middle and high school kids about work hours and payment? When it started to make serious in roads in urban areas and more and more people of color were heading to college or apprenticeships.
Her complaints were more about the residents than the building. I mean...it's pretty good for free.
@MrzBatez09 The main point is her complaint was about the residents
You are IGNORANT
Built like prisons. Uggghh Removing "slums" was removing neighborhoods!!
I lived in two different Projects growing up. The rules were strict Till the one who enforce said rules retired. Then they be hard living places.
We didn't have the high rises though. Thank God.
Where's the father's in these families.
*families - Can any of you mouth breathers pass a 6th grade English class?
Incredible film making David.... It's amazing to see how another had the mind to capture the struggle at that time in life . The struggle was obviously real but to see the beginnings of public housing and how it took only two years before they were destroyed . Why not keep the living area decent and maintain it , as a reflection of those who live there doesn't the living conditions and the fact the housing developments were destroyed in just two years ....? Is that not stating a message ?
Most neighborhoods have times where youve got to pick up someone else's garbage, paint over vandalism, talk to parents about their kid's behavior, confront strangers over suspicious behavior. In gvt housing, everyone wants someone else to do these things. In private housing, people just do it.
Are you kidding? This is literally why block clubs/HOA exist is because people don't do that unless they are under threat.
@@bigk24 block clubs/HOA wouldn't form in public housing buildings, since people don't care about the circumstances around their public housing, since there's no personal gain for them. With your response you essentially proved the original poster's point.
@@quitmarck hardly the case. You just said it yourself - what reason would any person have to care about their neighborhood living in these conditions. HOA is a system designed to make you care about exactly that, even if you don’t own the house/apartment you live in.
@@TD-ln2tg Yes and that system exists to maintain people's individual housing prices.
@@TD-ln2tg You just described the tragedy of the commons.
Lived in section 8 for 5 years. It's supposed to be temporary and help to get back on your feet. She seems very ungrateful. You can tell this was filmed in the 60s and not the 90s because there was no mention of gangs or drugs and the constant police presence. The cops were over where I was at every week. They would arrest the troublemakers and then let them out a couple days later and the cycle repeated itself.
I'm glad you noticed the woman did not say anything about drugs and gang activity, yet the info scrolling on the screen at the beginning of the documentary states there were daily drug dealing, gang activity, and every family had someone in prison or returning home from prison.
I'm glad you noticed the woman did not say anything about drugs and gang activity, yet the info scrolling on the screen at the beginning of the documentary states there were daily drug dealing, gang activity, and every family had someone in prison or returning home from prison.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions
David great video !!
Packing too many people in close quarters destroys any sense of community because you don't feel like any space is your own. No one has any responsibility to keep anything nice. And you need some kind of oversight with the power to evict criminals or the criminals will be the only community oversight. Public housing should be nicer and cost more. It was only bad because the free market economists said the government is not allowed to compete with landlords and real estate developers.
The large multi-family condo or apartment high rise is not the enemy here. The problem was a concentration of people in the same paradigm, namely poor, racialized, jobless, and no other social supports. The housing in and of itself wasn't the problem, we actually need more high density housing, the problem was the larger economy and the fact we segregate people within it. Those who can afford, those who can't. Those with jobs and education, those without. This failure exists in low density housing in Detroit or Memphis, which faces similar crime and poverty with low density housing. Social housing works in many countries around the world. It didn't work in the US because of reasons unique to American culture. Part of the reason it didn't work is because of the gentleman at the housing authority that was interviewed. He said the goal is to not make people comfortable so that they want to live in social housing, in other countries this isn't a taboo. This is an American cultural problem. Social housing should be every bit as comfortable as any other housing. This has always been the problem in the United States: to punish those who would seek public accommodation and make it less attractive so that people won't want to use it. There's hope that someday it can change. But for now, the US still operates on this paradigm. I even know political liberals who agree with the message. Yet, in other nations, you can see social housing that works for cities, makes cities livable, and produces results that makes cities inviting places to live. Vienna, Austria is such a place. Social housing should be available AND desirable for ALL: lawyers, doctors, or people who drive a truck or a cashier at checkout, and finally yes even the unemployed (although in a developed economy there's no reason people should be jobless). This shouldn't be about classism. Increasingly, the United States has two political options: the political right, and the political far-right. There is no party for everyday people to represent them. Its just political parties that represent the billionaire class and then others who think they'll someday join the billionaire class so long as they keep taxes low and "government" out of their way. Its a fools' paradise. Its a sad situation. And no, I don't get joy out of my words, it hurts to say this truth.
The establishing shot looks just like the old Pruitt-Igoe projects in St Louis, like they copy pasted it into another city.
The sight of those high rise projects, while riding the Dan Ryan el, back in the 80s, was my greatest motivator. They always served as a symbol of what could happen to me, if I fucked up in life. 20 long blocks of projects. Lol.
To think someone has been improved just because you gave them something with exceptions only to love and forgiveness is quite simply naive. You do great work David.
Public housing is still an issue, I’ve lived in it and the government never has plans to create environments to solve the problems that forced people into those buildings to begin with. Not all people who live in public housing should be allowed to stay, some are addicts and bums who take the neighborhood down with it, but the government does nothing to force these people out and put the hardworking poor in.
I’m unsure if this problem will be solved, but I do hope change happens sometime in the future
Maybe stop having children out of wedlock and you won't end up public housing......just an idea 🤔
@@macneoh7418 why are you talking to this person like you know him/her personally? Lose the attitude.
Beggars can be choosers.
Scariest words … “I’m the government & I’m here to help!”
I did a quick bit of google research. Not only is there not low rise housing there now, there isn't anything.
Where is the father of these children ?
Public housing in the beginning was a stepping stone... now they've become "traps" "prison". People move in and very rarely wanna move out. I try to stress the importance of home ownership to my people and it simply falls on def ears because paying rent is easy and convenient to most.
Hey David, thanks for sharing this clip. I always enjoy the historical footage you share, as it connects a face to these events. Earleen White’s experience in feeling isolated, unwelcome, and uncomfortable in the living conditions of public housing was sadly very common - one which was by design of governing authorities. I think it’s worth sharing this footage from a London housing estate if anyone’s interested in hearing more from the experience of public housing tenants: ruclips.net/video/xHeUj2HjJek/видео.html. People’s homes were torn down during urban renewal and these gargantuan tower blocks were constructed upon their foundations. Sure, these homes lacked modern amenities and were pretty dangerous, but they were people’s homes - they were where people built their entire lives freely, as Ms. White says, just to see them be demolished and replaced with inhumane, compact structures. The impacts and practices of urban renewal continue to be felt today, as people in the political class continue to “develop” poorer areas in favor of commercial purposes and upper-class housing.
Thanks for sharing, David. I always look forward to seeing your uploads.
They destroyed "neighborhoods" in which people had their own space and an identity.
Yet today, high rise residential towers are going up in cities all around the world, and they are seen as desirable and middle/upper class. People are paying half a million dollars for an apartment in a residential, inner city high rise, and they dont feel de-humanized. I think the problems are deeper than just the shape of a building.
All about the money, which in turn leads to dehumanization
@@tubester4567 probably because those people don't know what it means to be human
Great coverage on this absolute disaster of a project. I strongly recommend anyone interested to check out Open Mike Eagle's album "Brick Body Kids Still Daydream"
The album is by a Chicagoan who grew up in the Robert Taylor homes and how it affected his upbringing and community. It's a great album and a unique perspective from someone who experienced some of the worst of public housing in this city and country
So many issues known in 1964, and NYC took that exact same model…
"The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help.”
-President Ronald Regan
Ronald Reagan killed the American Middle Class.
Ronald Reagan, the guy who initialized the outsourcing of industry and the decline of unions and the middle class.
Oh and he imported cocaine and sold weapons to Iran to fund terrorists in Nicaragua.
May he rot in hell
When he was in charge yeah, I've been enjoying my roads, water, vaccine, power grid etc ever sense.
I'm sorry the goverment scared you of the goverment so you stopped realizing they were accountable to you
@@bigk24 I prefer to harken back to September 9-10 1965 when Hurricane Betsy hit New Orleans and less than 24 hours later LBJ was on the ground in the city. He made his airport speech and began a tour that can be summed up with what happened near the end of the day as darkness was falling: Night fell as Johnson toured the city. At one point he came upon a shelter where a large number of blacks had taken refuge. The people apparently did not know that the man visiting them was the President of the United States. Johnson grabbed a flashlight, illuminated his face, and announced into a megaphone, “My name is Lyndon Baines Johnson. I am your president ane I am here to make sure you have the help you need!" Up yours Ronald Reagan, GW BUsh and that last guy.
@@MrDportjoe That LBJ story isn’t true lol.
Wow.. this is like going back in a time machine!!!
Unless there's a commitment to control the street/neighborhood gangs, and put people out if they don't respect the opportunity to live in publicly funded transitional housing, the result will be a disaster. Which is the story of the Robert Taylor Homes.
Such apartments are built successfully around the world.
Chicago's problem was not the buildings but its continued hyper segregation of African Americans from the rest of American society. And housing and school segregation in Chicago and in the rest of America continues to be an absolute social and economic disaster for African Americans and for American society in general.
Marcel
African Americans only represent about 13% of America's total population, yet its astonishing that a substantial number of African Americans still continue to be semi-isolated from American social and economic society.
It was never meant as permanent housing. FYI
the whole idea was for people to live there until they were back on their feet.
But you aren't putting this into proper context. Public Housing was created along with Welfare for white people in America in the New Deal. And they weren't designed or intended to be permanent housing as opposed to temporary housing until people got jobs and could move into homes of their own, which was also subsidized by the government with the home loan act, GI Bill and all the jobs of WW II and the era that followed which black people were mostly excluded from. By the 1960s when black people were fighting for civil rights and economic opportunity they weren't fighting for permanent poverty housing and food stamps. They were fighting for the same programs that lifted white Americans into the "middle class" in the 40s and 50s. But what they got was slum housing that they didn't even participate in building or have contracts to profit from.
Correct, housing projects originally were for elderly and disabled vets and their dependents.
@@CatholicTraditional That isn't true either. Housing projects were created as a result of the Dustbowl and Great Depression where a lot of rural populations moved into cities and lacked affordable housing.
There is a video on youtube called "Housing In Our Times" from the late 1930s showing this.
I’ve found the Pruett-Igoe St. Louis docs. Sad and interesting.
I learned about them via Koyaanisqatsi. A sad tale indeed.
these high rise public houses are still in use in parts of the UK. there are some great documentaries here on youtube about the affects of these buildings on young children.
"We don't want them to get too comfortable..." you could've just gave them the money to fix the shacks... but then you wouldn't be able to breakdown the family unit through years of social engineering.
they would not have fixed the shacks with the money.
@ Chucklmania. Who do you think owned those shacks? Certainly not the occupants.
And, of course, they would not have spent the money on fixing anything.
If they were competent to makes their own decisions and do their own work they wouldn't have needed assistance in the first place.
Lived here in late '6o0s for half a summer when my mother move us (me and my four brothers) to live permanently in Chicago with her sister and her family. Thankfully our mom decided against raising us in Chicago and we went back down south.
Free handouts are not meant to be "LUXURIOUS". This is a tax payer provided welfare program meant to give people a new start or step to have them move on with their lives and become self sufficient. Not a permanent residence.
No easy answers.
Better funding so people don't leave shit broke?
We find money for war every year, chicago finds money for old US military equipment for police. The answer is pretty easy.
The idea of upward mobility in the US is such a joke, the system literally does not work unless we have an underclass like this and there aren't enough "good paying jobs" in the entire economy. Either we give them homes we manage to help them and we hold our goverment accountable or we give them the money via tax rebates and section 8 to do the exact same thing with a backyard.
@@bigk24 the politicians will steal 90% of the money that you throw at it.
The city of Los Angeles has spent six billion dollars to house the homeless over the last 10 years. I think they housed about 20 families. The rest of the money evaporated.
Good intentions, you know the rest. I grew up in the south Bronx, as with most public housing, crime, hopelessness, drugs and misery always follows the best laid plans of well intentioned men. The Bronx went from being and aspirational place to move to, having some of the most beautiful Art Deco building in all of NYC to a place most reasonable people avoid to this day. There are still pockets of beauty ,Van Cortland, Throgs Neck, City Island, Riverdale, Country Club and a few others but for the most part few area are safe or clean. Robert Moses who did more harm than good in light of what the Cross Bronx Expressway did to the working class of the Bronx. I feel nothing but sadness when I think of people trapped in public housing, so few make it out. I got lucky, I turned 18 and moved on my own to Manhattan and made decent go of it. I wish everyone had some of the opportunities afforded to me at that time.
This no bullshit here yall. I'm a white man from southern Georgia. I was raised in a single wide trailer with no ac, no heat, holes in the floor, poor plumbing, everything you can imagine about being poor. I had a job at a local building material store and I had to deliver some supplies to some project apartments in town, holy shit were my eyes opened to Real Poverty!!! I mean atleast in the trailer in the country we owned our land, big huge multi acre yard and the neighbors were all family. The apartments were like the inside of prison cells except that the walls were sheetrock and when a hole was made in the wall they just put up another sheet over it, so that the walls were nearly a foot thick with crumbling sheetrock. The floors had multi layers of nasty carpet and linoleum as well. The electric sockets just hung out by the wires..and the Smell!!! Government supported apartments.
I've actually been inside a few project apartments and although they look rough from the outside, they are actually very well made. Super thick concrete walls practically eliminate neighbor noise. The water, heat and air also were well above average in terms of build quality.
Yeah, but there was a wait to get on the elevators and the apartments were painted the wrong color. The rest of the world will never understand the struggles of the poor in America.