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Between the Idea and the Reality: Public Housing Reform and the Further Marginalization of the Poor

Between the Idea and the Reality: Public Housing Reform and the Further Marginalization of the Poor Between the Idea and the Reality: Public Housing Reform and the Further Marginalization of the Poor Robert J. Chaskin* School of Social Service Administration, The University of Chicago In “US Public Housing Transformations and the Housing Publics Lost in Transition,” Deirdre Oakley and James Fraser argue for a critical rethinking of contemporary hous- ing policy and its reliance on the dominant sociological arguments that undergird it. The focus on addressing concentrated urban poverty, which has been the principal stated rationale driving public housing reform policies for the past two decades, Oakley and Fraser maintain, has contributed to a broader neoliberal project of urban reclamation and regeneration. This “state-led gentrification” has provided a rationale for the large- scale demolition of public housing and the turn to the market to address both the need for affordable housing and the redevelopment of inner-city, high-poverty neighborhoods. Lost in this transition is a focus on the urban poor themselves, except to the extent that reigning assumptions about them as “other”—detached from, and often in opposition to, mainstream society and its values, norms, and expectations—are reinforced. This orienta- tion draws on enduring notions of a “culture of poverty” and the role local environments characterized by http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png City and Community SAGE

Between the Idea and the Reality: Public Housing Reform and the Further Marginalization of the Poor

City and Community , Volume 15 (4): 1 – Dec 1, 2016

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References (17)

Publisher
SAGE
Copyright
© 2016 American Sociological Association
ISSN
1535-6841
eISSN
1540-6040
DOI
10.1111/cico.12209
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Between the Idea and the Reality: Public Housing Reform and the Further Marginalization of the Poor Robert J. Chaskin* School of Social Service Administration, The University of Chicago In “US Public Housing Transformations and the Housing Publics Lost in Transition,” Deirdre Oakley and James Fraser argue for a critical rethinking of contemporary hous- ing policy and its reliance on the dominant sociological arguments that undergird it. The focus on addressing concentrated urban poverty, which has been the principal stated rationale driving public housing reform policies for the past two decades, Oakley and Fraser maintain, has contributed to a broader neoliberal project of urban reclamation and regeneration. This “state-led gentrification” has provided a rationale for the large- scale demolition of public housing and the turn to the market to address both the need for affordable housing and the redevelopment of inner-city, high-poverty neighborhoods. Lost in this transition is a focus on the urban poor themselves, except to the extent that reigning assumptions about them as “other”—detached from, and often in opposition to, mainstream society and its values, norms, and expectations—are reinforced. This orienta- tion draws on enduring notions of a “culture of poverty” and the role local environments characterized by

Journal

City and CommunitySAGE

Published: Dec 1, 2016

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