Bad Housing

For John, BLUF:  Is it the housing or the upbringing of the tenets?  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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"A little more than a year after its opening, a Far East Side Madison low-income housing complex has been declared a chronic nuisance...

"... and its owner could face fines and other charges if it doesn't make changes to improve quality of life and public safety there.... In its April 9 notice declaring the property a nuisance, the city points to three of the most serious incidents: a 4-year-old accidentally shot in the foot on Feb. 26; a tenant's nephew shot in the leg outside the tenant's apartment on March 17, and an argument between two tenants over loud music that escalated into a physical fight on March 31...."

I thought maybe this post from 13 May was a put up by Professor Althouse, but it was apparently real enough.  And it shows some of the issues with public housing.

One of those Commenting caught a big chunk of the problem.  Back in the 1960s President Lyndon Barnes Johnson, with good intent, tried to make up for a hundred years of segregation, but he managed to take a big nick out of the rising Black Middle Class.  His legislative program created a series of perverse incentives.  Perverse incentives that better housing management won’t cure.

During World War Two we destroyed 40% of German housing, yet when I lived there 22 years later housing was plentiful and I was able to rent a nice ranch style house, with detached garage, on a double lot.  Yet we can't, today, do that for our own citizens.

Hat tip to Ann Althouse.

Regards  —  Cliff