Housing and Slum Clearance: Elusive Goals

William G. Grigsby
Additional contact information
William G. Grigsby: University of Pennsylvania

The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 1964, vol. 352, issue 1, 107-118

Abstract: Urban renewal in the United States had its genesis in legislation to improve the residential living environ ment for low-income families. Despite this fact, housing and slum-clearance goals have gradually lost their priority among those responsible for formulating public policy. The shift away from residential objectives in renewal appears to stem from the fact the goals are not uniformly held, are interpreted in various ways, are frequently in conflict with one another and with nonresidential goals, and apparently cannot all be achieved via means consistent with prevailing political and social at titudes. Housing goals for the low-income population lack politically acceptable programs of implementation; middle- income housing programs lack clear purpose; in the larger urbanized areas, renewal efforts are based in part on a con ception of the metropolis which is at odds with the residential preferences of most families. The most serious barrier to the realization of housing goals is the conflict between central city and suburb. If our housing problems are to be solved within a reasonable period of years, the federal government, which now plays the key role in community renewal and urban development, will have to insert itself in this conflict in a way that will re-establish residential goals and priorities in local programs.

Date: 1964
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/000271626435200112 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:anname:v:352:y:1964:i:1:p:107-118

DOI: 10.1177/000271626435200112

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().