ABSTRACT
In many old cities there are large areas where people who have any choice at all refuse to live. Housing is deteriorating, jobs within commuting distance are hard to find, the schools are ineffective and dangerous, city services are going downhill, law and order are breaking down. The generally accepted explanation for what is happening to the inner-city districts in the United States is a breakdown of community—that is, all the problems of housing, jobs, schools, drug-use, health-care, and crime are interrelated and thus each of them makes the others worse. Private housing in bypassed neighborhoods has become the housing of last resort, and conditions in these buildings often do not meet the building code. Renovation of existing buildings is usually less expensive than new construction; loan funds are needed to help responsible private owners renovate buildings before deterioration makes demolition or complete reconstruction the only alternatives.
