Biden-Harris: Timely Dawn Of A New Day For Public Housing? Unlikely

A Biden Harris election sign sits beside on saying 'Hate Has No Home Here'
IMG_5827 photo by Elvert Barnes is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
Far too many Americans currently have no homes from which to banish hate.

For young progressives in America expecting great change from the replacement of a Republican President by a Democratic one, don’t hold your breath while counting on the arrival of a new, equitable era for public housing. The caution holds even if the twin Senate run-off elections in Georgia deliver Democrat victories and the full control of Congress that goes with them.

Older progressives will be aware that the “Thatcherite” small government philosophies born in the 1970s have influenced both Republican and Democratic presidencies as well as congressional majorities over the last half century. The result has been a steady evolution towards public private partnerships in the management of American public housing. Some might prefer the term “dismantling” rather than “management.”

A section of the following article in Next City concerns itself with the possible fate of city public housing initiatives that might be influenced by the changes in national government. It includes sobering descriptions of the Department of Housing and Urban Affairs (HUD) leadership that has evolved across several administrations, Democratic and Republican alike. There will need to be a significant sea change away from the current privatization of public housing initiatives before America cities can look with any confidence towards a constructive new era of public housing. Read more in Next City: Will the Biden-Harris Administration Trust the Ideas of Those in Cities Who Delivered their Victory?