St. Louis Housing Problem

Words: 511
Pages: 3

Midterm Beginning in the late 1940’s, the most dramatic population growth began to be witnessed in the suburbs, and like many cities, St Louis was experiencing this massive shift. The Pruitt housing project was initially built in response to St Louis's housing problems and was created under the United States Housing Act of 1949. Due to the need for better living conditions, and population decline, the city of St Louis decided it was time for a change. The solution was to build an eleven story, fifty acre high rise apartment building, which consisted of thirty three buildings. The residents of the project were primarily lower class African American residents. The city believed that the housing project would renew their population growth and improve the city, but it was unsuccessful in achieving this solution. The …show more content…
During this period, the major cities of the North began characterizing African American neighborhoods in the North as ghettos (Schaller, et al pg 171). These cities created massive urban renewal projects that tore down black neighborhoods and forced African American people into huge, high rise housing projects. Pruitt-Igoe is just one example of this racial segregation phenomenon. There was also a widespread belief that public housing was viewed as a communist erosion of the free market and labelled as “un-American”. In the 1940's, cities were clearing out and urban flight drained American cities. There was a loss of the middle class and exponential growth in the suburbs. The federal government made it a priority to make the suburbs affordable to the white middle class, while not showing much concern for its lower class minorities. During this period, racial segregation was still active and was viewed as the norm. According to the film,