A new feature article on the forthcoming GHS historical markers for University Homes and Techwood Homes is in the SaportaReport (an Atlanta-based news outlet). Thanks to a recommendation by Georgia Historical Society (GHS) colleagues, John Ruch interviewed me for a feature on her historical research, which provided an opportunity to discuss Atlanta as the foundational site of the first federally funded pubic housing in the US, and also the site of the first full-scale demolition of public housing. The interview about the Atlanta Housing Interplay project covered ways in which the past impacts the present. “The story of public housing in the U.S. is really about maintenance and funding,” I noted, describing the bigger picture that emerged from Atlanta’s first efforts, and the perceived failure of public housing in Atlanta. “It [the failure] doesn’t have anything to do with the people who live there. It has to do with the disinvestment — financial disinvestment and political disinvestment — in public housing as a social project.” Let’s hope that Atlanta’s new mayor, Andre Dickens—an affordable housing advocate—can help to turn the city’s efforts around in 2022.
“Atlanta’s pioneering construction and demolition of public housing the focus of markers, exhibit,” John Ruch, SaportaReport.