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Rejoinder: Alex Schwartz's critique of ‘The end of public housing as we know it’

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  • Jeff R. Crump

Abstract

In this article I argue that the US public housing policy, as codified by the Quality Housing and Work Responsibility Act of 1998 (QHWRA), is helping to reconfigure the racial and class structure of many inner cities. By promoting the demolition of public housing projects and replacement with mixed‐income housing developments, public housing policy is producing a gentrified inner‐city landscape designed to attract middle and upper‐class people back to the inner city. The goals of public housing policy are also broadly consonant with those of welfare reform wherein the ‘workfare’ system helps to bolster and produce the emergence of contingent low‐wage urban labor markets. In a similar manner, I argue that public housing demonstration programs, such as the ‘Welfare‐to‐Work’ initiative, encourage public housing residents to join the lowwage labor market. Although the rhetoric surrounding the demolition of public housing emphasizes the economic opportunities made available by residential mobility, I argue that former public housing residents are simply being relocated into private housing within urban ghettos. Such a spatial fix to the problems of unemployment and poverty will not solve the problems of inner‐city poverty. Will it take another round of urban riots before we seriously address the legacy of racism and discrimination that has shaped the US city? Cet article démontre que la politique du logement public américaine, telle que la réglemente la Loi de 1998, Quality Housing and Work Responsibility Act, contribue à remodeler la structure par races et classes de nombreux quartiers déshérités des centres‐villes. En favorisant la démolition d'ensembles de logements sociaux et leur remplacement par des complexes urbanisés à loyers variés, la politique publique génère un embourgeoisement des centres‐villes destinéà y ramener les classes moyennes et supérieures. Les objectifs de la politique du logement rejoignent largement ceux de la réforme sociale oú le système de ‘l'allocation conditionnelle' facilite et nourrit la création de marchés contingents du travail à bas salaires. De même, les programmes expérimentaux de logements publics, telle l'initiative Welfare‐to‐Work (De l'aide sociale au travail) poussent les habitants des logements sociaux à rejoindre le marchéde la main d'œuvre à bas salaires. Bien que les discours autour de la démolition des logements sociaux mettent en avant les ouvertures économiques créées par la mobilité résidentielle, leurs anciens habitants sont simplement en train d'être déplacés vers des logements privés situés dans des ghettos urbains. Ce genre de solution spatiale aux problèmes du chômage et de la pauvreté ne viendra pas à bout du dénuement des quartiers déshérités du centre. Faudra‐t‐il une autre série d'émeutes urbaines pour que l'on aborde sérieusement l'héritage de racisme et de discrimination qui a façonné les villes américaines?

Suggested Citation

  • Jeff R. Crump, 2003. "Rejoinder: Alex Schwartz's critique of ‘The end of public housing as we know it’," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(1), pages 193-195, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:ijurrs:v:27:y:2003:i:1:p:193-195
    DOI: 10.1111/1468-2427.00440
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Alex Schwartz, 2003. "Comments on Jeff R. Crump's ‘The end of public housing as we know it: public housing policy, labor regulation and the US city’," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(1), pages 188-192, March.
    2. Jeff R. Crump, 2003. "The end of public housing as we know it: public housing policy, labor regulation and the US city," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(1), pages 179-187, March.
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