Spatialization of Marginality and the Life of the City: Public Housing in Washington, DC

• In Event: 411 - Section on Inequality, Poverty, and Mobility Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 07. Housing, Poverty, and Inequality.

Abstract

In this paper, I ask, what is public housing and what happens to cities that destroy public housing? I examine the case of the Ellen Wilson Dwellings in Washington, DC, to understand what public housing meant to those involved, how the Ellen Wilson Dwellings came to be destroyed by HOPE VI, and what happened to DC to allow this destruction to happen. This paper is based on interviews and archival research.

Author

• Johanna K. Bockman, George Mason University