ABSTRACT
From the cover, she stares out at me – a forlorn looking African-American woman holding a baby. She is slumped in a chair in a room with deep cracks in the wall, peeling plaster and a leaking radiator. A tattered calendar hangs lopsidedly from the wall with the date August 8, 1992 clearly marked. Behind her is a window through which I can see a new two-story building with shiny windows and a front lawn. The number over the doorway reads “8-2000.” On the walkway in front of the building stands the very same woman with her hair neatly combed back. She appears dressed for work. In one hand she carries a briefcase; in the other, she holds the hand of a young child clutching books, ready for school. I am looking at the cover of the Final Report of the U.S. National Commission on Severely Distressed Public Housing. It is a dramatic sketch that speaks volumes about our beliefs on poverty, public housing and place.
