ABSTRACT
The question of who belongs and can afford to live in many major US cities is a crucial housing policy issue. As gentrification pressures and government policies push many low-income residents out of urban centers, the nation’s public housing stock continues to deteriorate, leaving cities’ poorest residents increasingly isolated from the surrounding economic, social, and cultural vibrancy. The growing divide between affluent newcomers and the urban poor complicates decisions around how to redevelop aging public housing as well as how to ensure its tenants benefit from local economic growth. In the mid-2000s, the mayors of Washington, D.C. and San Francisco launched major multisite public housing redevelopment initiatives. We deploy an analytical framework to help examine the tensions and trade-offs of transforming public housing in the context of hypergentrification in these two city-led, multisite initiatives. We then identify key implications for increasing the potential for success in future equity-oriented mixed-income efforts.
