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"Moving Three Times Is Like Having Your House on Fire Once": The Experience of Place and Impending Displacement among Public Housing Residents

Department of Landscape Architecture, University of Washington, Box 355734, Seattle, Washington, WA 98195 5734, USA, lmanzo{at}u.washington.edu

Rachel G. Kleit

Evans School of Public Affairs, University of Washington, 209C Parrington Hall, Box 353055, Seattle, Washington, WA 98195 3055, USA, kleit{at}u.washington.edu

Dawn Couch

Community Attributes Inc., 1402 Third Avenue, Suite 390, Seattle, Washington 98101, USA, dawn.couch{at}communityattributes.com

The HOPE VI programme in the US displaces tens of thousands of low-income households to disperse pockets of poverty and transform sites of `severely distressed' public housing into mixed-income housing. A complete evaluation of this programme's impacts on residents must examine the meanings and functions of these communities before they are dismantled. Therefore, this paper examines residents' lived experiences of place in one site before redevelopment. This socially well-functioning community allowed residents to lay down roots, form place attachments and create bonds of mutual support with neighbours, contrary to typical depictions of severely distressed housing. Implications for US public housing policy and parallels with the discourse on social housing and social inclusion in western Europe illuminate overarching trends in housing policy for the poor.

Urban Studies, Vol. 45, No. 9, 1855-1878 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/0042098008093381


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