Health is a Human Right
Race & Place in America

Public Housing

Photograph taken inside a crowded apartment. A Chinese-American family is gathered around a dining room table. The open bedroom door reveals a chair propped on top of the bed.
Chinese American family in a cramped tenement apartment, San Francisco, ca. 1939
Courtesy of San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library

To ensure that low-income families had access to “decent, safe and sanitary housing,” Congress made a commitment to public housing construction in 1937 by passing the Wagner-Steagall Housing Act. The Act became the basis of the country’s public housing policies in the 20th century. 

The Act allocated funds to housing boards across the U.S. In San Francisco in 1938, Chinese American leaders launched a decade-long effort to build a public housing project to address Chinatown’s cramped tenements. Receiving national attention, the situation was so egregious that one newspaper characterized Chinatown’s housing as a “slum largely unfit for human habitation.”

With progress deferred by World War II and local politics, the San Francisco Housing Authority finally devoted its first federal funds to construction of the Ping Yuen East Housing Project, which was completed in 1951.

Photograph of a large crowd of people gathered at the side of an apartment complex. People stand on the balcony of the building above a sign with English and Chinese writing, "Dedication - Ping Yuen."
Dedication of the Ping Yuen East Housing Project, San Francisco, October 21, 1951
Courtesy of San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library
Poster for the Cleveland Metropolitan Housing Authority advertising low-rent housing at Lakeview Terrace, 1340 West 28th St., featuring art of a sunny apartment building by Stanley Thomas Clough, 1936.
Live here at low rent – Lakeview Terrace, 1340 West 28th St. at Main Avenue bridge,, graphic by Stanley Thomas Clough, 1936
Courtesy of the Library of Congress Work Projects Administration Poster Collection, LC-USZC2-1020
Poster for the Cleveland Metropolitan Housing Authority by the Federal Art Project, 1936, featuring art of children at a playground next to a row of apartments. Caption reads, "Your children like these low rent homes."
Your children like these low rent homes Cedar-Central Apts., 2202 East 30th. Street, graphic by the Federal Art Project, 1936
Courtesy of the Library of Congress Work Projects Administration Poster Collection, LC-USZC2-1085
Poster for the Cleveland Metropolitan Housing Authority, 1936, with art of a family of three looking at a row of houses with people playing outside. Caption reads, "Low rent homes for low income families."
Low rent homes for low income families, Valleyview Homes, West 7th and Starkweather, graphic by the Federal Art Project, 1936
Courtesy of the Library of Congress Work Projects Administration Poster Collection, LC-USZC2-1085
Poster for the Cleveland Metropolitan Housing Authority, 1936, featuring art of a cartoon figure in overalls, smiling and waving overtop a neighborhood of apartment buildings. Caption reads, "Low rent Woodhill Homes."
Low rent – Woodhill Homes, 2567 Woodhill Road, graphic by Earl Schuler, 1936
Courtesy of the Library of Congress Work Projects Administration Poster Collection, LC-USZC2-5660