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DeliMcPickles t1_j5cgoen wrote

Reply to comment by elizabeth-cooper in A Queens Co-Op Full of Electricians by King-of-New-York

Can you explain that last sentence a little more?

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Entire-Builder-9836 t1_j5ck0fb wrote

NYCHA historically denied non-white people housing until the late 60s/70s. So the “working poor” that they were built for originally were not actually as poor as you see today because of racial disparities in income, education, number of children etc.

On top of this, once the projects went majority black they lost any political goodwill that used to be aimed towards them as uplifting places for working poor, now they became dens of vice and crime for people who get handouts, beginning a self fulfilling prophecy that perpetuates itself even today.

Most of why the projects suck so badly is literally just racism, and trying to have the buildings torn down by the process of neglect, with no replacements in sight for their residents.

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elizabeth-cooper t1_j5d22yk wrote

It wasn't about race, it was about homelessness. They sued to force NYCHA to accept people who were homeless, literally destitute, rather than the "working poor" who simply needed affordable housing.

They always accepted non-white tenants but there was segregation, but that was already being ended in the 1960s.

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