We Call These Projects Home: Solving the Housing Crisis from the Ground Up
May 18, 2010
Advancement Project is proud to release the report We Call These Projects Home: Solving the Housing Crisis from the Ground Up in partnership with the Right to the City Alliance (RTTC) and the Urban Justice Center’s Community Development Project. The report was unveiled this morning at a legislative briefing co-sponsored by Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) and Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-NY). This unique report was designed and implemented by organizations across seven cities that are members of RTTC, a national alliance of membership-based organizations and allies organizing to build a united response to gentrification and displacement in our cities. The report represents the voices of public housing residents in those cities. As a result, We Call These Projects Home provides evidence directly from the experience of residents – ultimately concluding that public housing is one of the last sources of secure, stable, and permanently affordable housing for the lowest-income people and it needs to be preserved and expanded.
Over the past few decades, the availability of housing that is truly affordable for low-income people has been diminishing at an alarming rate. Now, as the country continues to suffer from the worst recession in decades, the housing crisis has hit a breaking point and those most in need are bearing the brunt. This report shows how decades of ineffective and misguided policies have fueled disinvestment, demolition, and the privatization of public housing, resulting in the mass displacement of residents, namely people of color, and the destruction of their communities. To combat that trend, the Right to the City Alliance offers a new vision of housing along with several policy recommendations for reforming public housing.
Click here to read the report.
