Urban Versus Low Income Housing: A Study of the Development of the Housing Program in Mount Vernon, New York, 1952–1962

Background of the Study. Shelter is one of the three basic needs of man. Yet millions of families live in indescribable squalor. Slums and blighted areas are common to every community. People do not by choice live in dilapidated overcrowded conditions. If better housing were available for the same low rentals, slum families would move out and the owners would be forced to seek other use for these sites. Slums exist because of segregation and our failure to provide adequate housing for our growing population. Numerous reasons have evolved to account for our lack of housing. World War II has often been cited as the cause of this deficiency but, of course, we realize that this is not a fact. The war merely intensified a long existing deficiency in housing. In New York City, the Puerto Rican migration has been said to be the reason for the city’s shortage of housing. The United States Census shows that 1940 to 1950 the total population increased by 437,000 persons entirely as a result of births among the resident population. At the same time, the New York City Housing Authority found that in 1957 the city needed 900,000 apartments