America’s still-existing public housing buildings seem condemned to a role of geriatric zombies. True, their numbers have declined, as have their ghastly appetites, gorging on community flesh, burping out drug addicts and petty criminals, preying upon all that is good and wholesome in urban society.
Nevertheless, public housing buildings still cast the occasional dark shadow over city streets, stark reminders of failed affordable housing promise, their future buried deeply beneath their hellish past.
Most North Americans believe public housing does not deserve to be remembered fondly. And yet, occasional voices can be heard speaking well of the undead.
In Los Angeles, at the heart of America’s unaffordable housing and homelessness nightmare, pressing all the other buttons on the housing elevator is not appreciably slowing the descent into homelessness. And now, inevitably, there are gathering whispers — do it! Press the zombie button! Press public housing!
Read a smorgasbord of enthusiasm for alternate visions of pubic housing that might be freed from the shackles of a mismanaged past. In CURBED LOS ANGELES: Will LA Start Building Public Housing Again?
