The New Social Worker Vol. 20, No. 4, Fall 2013 | Page 10

Public Housing: The Social Worker’s Role
by Gerald Boone, BSW

P

ublic Housing is housing owned by
the federal government to provide
for families who would struggle to
afford decent housing otherwise. The
target demographic of public housing
is eligible low-income families, older
adults, and people with disabilities. Public housing comes in all sizes and types,
from scattered single family houses to
high-rise apartments.

The federal government’s interest in housing conditions can be traced
back to the first national investigation of
large urban slum areas in 1892. In the
midst of widespread unemployment and
financial collapse, Congress passed the
Emergency Relief and Construction Act
of 1932, creating the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC). This was the

Beautification efforts at a public housing project.
government’s first major involvement in
the housing field. The RFC was authorized to make loans to private corporations providing housing for low-income
families.

Today, the Department of Housing
and Urban Development (HUD) also
maintains a commitment to increasing
quality affordable rental housing. Working with public agencies, nonprofit, faithbased and community organizations, as
well as private partners, the department
has helped expand the availability of affordable housing and improve structural
and living conditions at HUD-insured
and assisted rental housing projects.
Many HUD program offices offer
specially targeted programs to provide
housing and other essential support to
populations with special needs, including older adults, people with disabilities,
individuals with HIV/AIDS, and the

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The New Social Worker

homeless (U.S Department of Housing
and Urban Development, 2007).

Most local Public Housing Authorities (PHA) receive oversight and funding
through HUD. The HUD office provides
administration for a particular geographical region of each state. If a problem
with a PHA cannot be resolved, the next
step is to contact the office of HUD that
provides administration of the PHA in
that area.

Who Is Eligible for Public
Housing?

A Public Housing Authority determines eligibility based on: 1) annual
gross income; 2) whether the applicant
qualifies as elderly, a person with a disability, or as a family; and 3) U.S. citizenship or eligible immigration
status. If applicants are eligible,
the PHA will check their references to make sure they and
their families will be good tenants. PHAs will deny admission
to any applicant whose habits
and practices may be expected
to have a detrimental effect on
other tenants or on the project’s
environment.

There are approximately 1.2 million households
living in public housing units,
managed by some 3,300 Public
Housing Authorities (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 2012).

How To Qualify To Receive
Public Housing

To qualify to receive public housing,
I recommend thorough documentation
of all the items listed above. Proof of U.S.
citizenship or eligible immigration status,
documentation of credible references,
and any documentation of special needs
or circumstances are helpful.

When my wife and I searched for
our first home, we found many dirty
houses i n neighborhoods that were
subject to crime. Then my wife and I
went to the public housing “projects”
and found a nice, clean, well-maintained
apartment in a neighborhood that had
little crime. My personal experience with
public housing is very positive. We lived

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in a public housing community for more
than three years, leaving when I found
a better job. In our experience, public
housing served the purpose for which it
was designed—we were granted a nice
home at a reduced price when we needed it, and left for someone else to move
in when our financial circumstances were
better. The apartment we lived in was
new, safe, clean, and well-maintained.

Stigma

The media has created a stigma
concerning public housing. This stigma
concerns the association of public housing with crime, filth, and fear. Before
determining that the public housing in
a community is unsafe, dirty, or illmaintained, people need to visit the
apartments themselves and make an
empirical observation. Public housing,
like anything else, should not be subject
to a broad generalization. Housing in
general will be varied. Some areas will
have more or less crime. Some buildings will be newer than others. Some
buildings will be better maintained than
others. The administration of public and
private housing complexes will have
varied competencies. I believe that, in
most instances, what a modern social
worker observes will be quite different
from what the media has portrayed.

Advantages

Public housing allows rent payment
on a sliding scale, determined based on
a “percentage of family income or some
other reasonable system to determine
income-based rents” (Department of
Housing and Urban Development,
2012). In most cities, income-based rent
is calculated based on 30% of adjusted
gross income. This sliding scale can be
especially advantageous to those who
have larger families and are in need of
an apartment with multiple bedrooms.

Easy access to public transportation
is a “win/win” for both the community
and the transit system. The community
benefits from having affordable, safe
transportation to work and shopping
around town; and the transit system is
granted access to a market demographic
that will contain people who pay for the
service.