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Public housing was born on New York City’s Lower East Side over 70 years ago when NYCHA opened the First Houses in 1936, the first public housing development in the United States. This was a watershed event in our nation’s history and a culmination of the struggle to bring decent housing to those who could not afford it. Before the First Houses development was built poor people, and those of limited means, had no option but to live in the deplorable and unsafe conditions of tenement type housing. First Houses proved for the first time that a practical means of providing lower income people with decent housing existed. It became the model for public housing in New York City and the rest of the country.

By the late 1800’s, New York City had become the nation’s foremost immigration and domestic migration destination. Hundreds of thousands of immigrants entered through New York’s ports each year and many stayed. Unprepared for such a rapid population boom, New York’s existing housing was urgently converted into multiple dwellings as landlords maximized their profits. Neither the older houses that were subdivided to take in more tenants, nor the new constructions, put up quickly and cheaply, provided running water or electricity. Light and ventilation were nonexistent in back rooms facing the inner courtyards, where waste disposal and lavatories were located and laundry was hung.

No one could ignore the blight and squalor any longer. Critical studies showed that overcrowding and a lack of hygiene in tenement buildings aggravated outbreaks of tuberculosis and other diseases. In 1890, Jacob Riis’, How the Other Half Lives exposed the tenement life to the general public, and New York’s Lower East Side became a focal point for activists from social worker Mary Simkhovitch and nurse Lillian Wald of the Settlement House movement, to labor leader and Councilman B. Charney Vladeck, and to First Lady and champion of Human and Civil Rights Eleanor Roosevelt. On January 20th 1934, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, enforced the mission to replace unhealthy, unsafe and unappealing tenements with quality housing for the working poor and the New York City Housing Authority was established, along with a legacy of public housing in the United States. First Houses is located on East 3rd Street between Avenue A and First Avenue.

As a public servant I had the honor to be part of the 70th Anniversary of the First Houses at Gracie Mansion, sharing in the ceremonies alongside dignitaries and receiving a congratulatory handshake from Mayor Bloomberg for designing the official poster commemorating this special event. Followed by an exhibit at The Brooklyn Museum, it was, and still is, a proud and unforgettable experience for me to be acknowledged with the countless individuals, whose efforts made a dream a reality then, and continue to make New York City the City of Opportunity now and for the future.

Stanley Fine, former Ad Agency Creative Director and CLIO judge is a freelance writer that has written and produced plays and numerous travel adventure stories. finestan@earthlink.net

1 thought on “The Birth Of Public Housing

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      A highly interesting and informative article about the growth of public housing in New York City. In future reports on this topic, it would be good to see the commemorative poster the author mentioned, as well as other NYCHA promotional graphics and themes.

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