Wrecking Ball for Old Projects

The Clinton administration has taken on the daunting task of transforming some of the nation’s worst urban housing projects from crowded, crime-ridden caverns into smaller, modern housing developments.

The latest commitment, $716 million, will permit 36 cities to demolish thousands of units in notorious high-rise projects like Cabrini Green in Chicago and dangerous low-rise developments like Aliso Village in a poor section of East Los Angeles. The tenants who are displaced will be shifted into a subsidy program that enables participants to find private housing.

Aliso Village, in one of Los Angeles’ most violent neighborhoods, is part of the largest public housing development west of the Mississippi. It will receive more than $7.5 million in new money. The funding was announced on Tuesday, the day before the debate between Vice President Al Gore and GOP nominee Jack Kemp, a popular former secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Whether or not the timing is political, the approach is sound.

By year’s end, HUD expects to demolish 30,000 units of public housing, and 17,000 more apartments are slated to be torn down next year. This massive downsizing is designed to improve conditions by reducing the number of families in each development. Public safety and other experts believe the reduction in density can reduce crime and public health problems. They also advocate reducing the concentration of poor families in a single place.

Displaced families will receive federal housing subsidies, so-called Section Eight certificates, to allow them to escape dangerous, run-down neighborhoods and find housing elsewhere in a city. The Section Eight vouchers require the federal government to pay the bulk of the rent; an eligible family pays the rest to the private landlord providing the quarters.

At Aliso Village, one of Los Angeles’ oldest housing projects, 350 families will receive subsidies, allowing for the demolition of 200 decaying units. The remaining apartments will be modernized, receiving new kitchens and other improvements.

When the original apartments were built in the 1940s, public housing provided temporary and affordable shelter for the poor, including men and women just getting started in their working lives. Public housing since has become the housing of last resort for the poorest of the poor. It is increasingly synonymous with crime and dysfunctional families. The Clinton administration’s plan to modernize and reduce density is sensible and timely. In this case, less is more.