Now that we have reached the half-century mark since President Lyndon Johnson began passing legislation to achieve his vision of a Great Society, it is worth remembering one momentous law that has been largely forgotten: the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1968. When he signed the act, LBJ declared it to be “the most farsighted, the most comprehensive, the most massive housing program in all American history.” Truly, its goal was breathtaking: to replace within ten years every slum dwelling in the country by building six million homes for low- and moderate-income families.
The 1968 act forever changed the politics and policy of low-income housing in this country, and for that reason it has long fascinated me.
via Housing Perspectives (from the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies).