Explanations for the eclipse of United States public housing development: 1961–80

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Abstract
Despite the Reagan cutbacks in US housing programs, the public housing program's role in housing development had been greatly diminished in the 20 years prior to 1981. The diminution of public housing development over this time was not caused by insufficient need for public housing or because the program had failed in providing decent, affordable housing for low‐income households. Instead, public housing's decline as a source of new subsidised housing appears due substantially to factors external to the program. These factors include: 1) growing acceptance, by both government and business, of direct business participation in the delivery of government social services, including housing; 2) increased use of federal monies, especially in the 1960s, to subsidise the construction industry, with a consequent relative decline in resources for programs housing low‐income households; 3) the faltering image of the public housing program, which loomed much larger than the reality, 4) delays in construction, which were primarily caused by racial and class antagonisms toward public housing tenants; and 5) a decline in support for public housing by those organised groups that had, by the 1960s, become the national housing lobby.

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