ABSTRACT
Public housing, the government's major effort to provide decent accommodations for the poor, has come under attack from both liberals and conservatives. Public housing became a reality in the United States only in the days of the New Deal. There were some gingerly steps toward public housing during the First World War, and a few more in the states in the twenties, but a serious, living program had to wait for the days of the Great Depression. The public housing law is one of a vaguely defined group of statutes called "social" or "welfare" legislation. From 1933 on, the Public Works Administration had run its own public housing program. In 1935 a federal district court case held that the federal government had no power under the constitution to clear land and build public housing. Public housing, arguably, was no more "charitable" than the free land of the homestead act of 1862—an earlier form of middle class subsidy.
