My first job out of college was to be “Resident Initiatives Coordinator” in a public housing development near Boston.  The plan was, I would interview as many people of the 616 families who lived there as I could, find out what kind of programming and services they would find most helpful, and then make that programming and those services happen.  That’s a big undertaking for a 21-year-old, but I was naive and didn’t understand the bureaucratic impasses and catch-22s people in the neighborhood were navigating, such as the confusing system by which childcare vouchers were dolled out according to hours worked but denied for the very same hours worked if the wage earnings neared minimum — and the vouchers weren’t valid at all for the long-range educational pursuits that would actually help get someone into a higher salary bracket.  This was around the time that Clinton was enacting Welfare Reform and the news was full of stories about “welfare queens” which couldn’t have been further from the truth.

In New York, people criticize the tower-block architecture of public housing and the inconvenient locations far from public transit and employment.  But these critiques still seem to come from the outside.  Which is why I am so thrilled about the new National Public Housing Museum opening in Washington, D.C. which is beginning an oral history project:

Our Stories: Resident Voices of Public Housing

This national oral history-based initiative will enrich the humanities by reflecting on the misunderstood history of public housing residents and communities across America.