US Housing programs: A Historical Analysis and Review - Research Paper Example

Section/# Housing: A Historical Analysis and Review A central element in the way that our Constitutional Republic has developed over the past several hundred years is the level to which government has been responsible for fixing the key societal needs and inequalities that develop as a result of economic and social issues. One of the ways in which government has attempted to remedy key shortcomings has been the level and extent to which they have been involved within the housing and development programs of the past 60-70 years. Although the way in which the government has been involved in housing, permitting, and regulation extends far beyond such a brief time period, this essay will analyze the aforementioned years as a means of drawing inference on the research question. Due to the prescient needs that developed shortly after the Second World War, the level and extent to which the government believed it should involve itself in such matters exponentially increased; and has remained high up until and inclusive of the current era. In this manner, this brief analysis will consider the means by which government has involved itself in this issue as well as attempting to draw a value judgment which will help the reader/researcher to analyze whether this level of involvement has been a net good or net evil for the economic system and society as a whole. One of the reasons why the Unite States government become involved within the housing market was due to the fact that the Second World War had created a large disparity of the labor force and had caused there to be a fundamental shortage in housing for the many thousands of returning veterans that were eager to begin their lives, marry, and have children. Due to this inequality and fundamental disparity that the war effort had created, it was the government’s decision to step in and provide the first of many urban developments and housing initiatives whereby many thousands of housing units would be constructed and provided to those within society that required them. Initially, such a decision was not made with the ultimate intention being concentric upon serving the needs of the poor. Rather, it was made as type of stop-gap to avert the deficiency that the war-centric economy had effected upon society as a whole. In this way and to these ends, the government felt marginally responsible for correcting the economic disparity that the war effort had created. As a means to affect such a goal, the government was faced with two fundamental choices. The first of these was whether to allow the private industry to entirely dictate the way and manner in which the housing market would be decided. The second would be to allow the government to intervene in such a process either via a means of directly constructing these units or via a means of contracting the private market to construct them for the government. Ultimately the second option was settled upon as the government found it an amenable means to affect the present goal while all the time reducing waste and cost overruns that the other alternative might have engendered (Bohm 7). By choosing such a means, the government was able to rapidly increase the rate of which this construction could take affect without relying on the slow response that the free market would have dictated in such a regard. However, what ultimately resulted from the government’s intrusion into what would otherwise by the private sphere has had many unintended consequences. The first of these is the fact that the housing units that were built were naturally highly uniform and sterile and did not allow for an adequate representation of individualism or the expression thereof (Donovan 218). Although this seems as something that is of negligible importance, it is of a high importance due to the fact that as these urban environments grew and new demographics came into contact with the setting there was a type of uniformism that developed as function of the very architecture that defined them. As some of the sources that were analyzed within this class noted, the average cost for one of these government housing units was approximately $5,500. At this time, the average salary of the average worker was approximately $3,800. In this way, the reader can adequately compare the fact that although these prices were indeed lower than market prices, they were still oftentimes out of the reach of the very poor. In this way, the fundamental shift that has been evidenced with regards to the means by which those that required such accommodations obtained them. The root issue associated with such low prices for housing is the fact that although many shareholders invested of their time, energy, and money into acquiring such houses, these could be summarily redistributed and or repurposed by the government if and when the housing project was deemed amenable to relocation. Such a situation is evidenced in the reading (Avrasin 41). One of the issues related to the construction of a wide array of government housing is the fact that the total cost associated with the projects is oftentimes not adequately portrayed as a function of the total unit cost of the housing. Rather, the need to build adequate transportation systems, hospitals, schools, and a various array of other infrastructure significantly increased the level of funding that was necessary to make these projects both functional and livable (Neuman et al 183). As the Eisenhower Interstate program fundamentally affected the means by which traffic and commerce integrated into American society, so too did it affect the ways that these projects and urban developments integrated with the industrialization that was taking place at the time. Rather than placing such projects of urban development in the center of a given city, it was now both possible and preferable to locate these outside of the cities and into the suburbs. In this way, cheaper land could be acquired and the way in which workers sought to integrate themselves into the economy could also take on a new dimension. One of the key ways that has helped to differentiate many of these urban housing developments is the fact that the death of American industry has meant that many of these urban developments no longer serve the intended purpose for which they were originally designed. Rather than serving the intended means which they were originally meant, these developments have come to serve as merely societal safety nets (Brendon 338). Although there is nothing wrong with such an arrangement as has been described, it merely helps to highlight for the reader the means by which growth, development, and repurposing has existed within the realm of government housing/urban development within the past half-century. Through the litany of different reasons that have hereto been discussed, the reader and/or researcher can see that the intention and result of the urban housing developments that were begun have fundamentally shifted and evolved. Further, the hardships that this has placed on both the communities in which they are located as well as the key shareholders involved within the process have been extreme. Although the original intent of the housing and urban development programs were to provide a way for individuals to find readily available housing, the way that the situation has evolved has of course been quite different. From a greater understanding of this process, the reader and/or researcher can gain a valuable level of inference upon the way in which the government has sought to correct key housing shortages and inequalities within the economy. Works Cited Avrasin, Maya. "Paving Over Parkland." Parks & Recreation 40.2 (2005): 40-46. Academic Search Complete. Web. 10 Dec. 2012. Brendan Flynn, et al. "Sliding Scale Of Support: Government Intervention In Housing." Housing Studies 17.2 (2002): 337-347. Academic Search Complete. Web. 10 Dec. 2012. Bohm, John. "The Shifting Face Of Federal Involvement In Housing And Community Development." Journal Of Housing & Community Development 62.2 (2005): 6-9. Business Source Premier. Web. 10 Dec. 2012. Donovan, Shaun. "HUD Perspective." Journal Of Affordable Housing & Community Development Law 20.2 (2011): 217-219. Academic Search Complete. Web. 10 Dec. 2012. Newman, Caron, and Richard Newman. "Housing The Workforce In 19Th-Century: Past Processes, Enduring Perceptions And Contemporary Meanings." Post-Medieval Archaeology 42.1 (2008): 181-200. Academic Search Complete. Web. 10 Dec. 2012. Read More