Successful Vs. Unsuccessful Public Housing

By Hessa Al Habshi

Collapsing Pruitt-Igoe Buildings (source)

"Public Housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is owned by a government authority, which may be central or local." (Wikipedia)

In Kuwait, as soon as you mention public housing, people's thoughts immediately go to AlSawaber complex, if they have ever heard about it (God knows I hadn't before the start of this semester).  AlSawaber is a Kuwaiti housing project, located in the center of Kuwait City, that was built in 1976. It was supposed to be a beautiful complex but now it’s a breeding ground for vandalism and crime. The economy has deserted it, and now some of the buildings have not been maintained by their residents, leaving it ‘unfit for living’.

AlSawaber (source)

Another failed public housing project is the infamous Pruitt-Igoe, which was supposed to put the modernist ideals of Le Corbusier into action. They knocked down the houses in the ‘slums’ and replaced it with thirty-three buildings, eleven-storeys each and arranged them in the poor Desoto-Carr neighborhood in St. Louis. They wanted a place for all the poor people living in the area.  Although it was a success in the beginning, when it had been constantly maintained by staff, it soon declined. 
            It had been such an upgrade for the people living in it, one woman went as far as to call it the ‘poor man’s penthouse’, and everyone was finally liberated from the slums. But then everything went south when, like AlSawaber, the government abandoned it and no one was taking care of their building. The elevators broke down repeatedly and it was a prime place where people got mugged. The hallways were in disastrous states, and in buildings that were unsafe and unsanitary, slumlords were able to jam a large sum of people in small apartments. The area was notorious for violence, vandalism and chaos. Even though many, including the architect, Minoru Yamaski, thought that the project might bloom, it did the opposite and finally was put out of it’s misery and went boom! The buildings were demolished except for the school, Gateway Institute of Technology.

Aerial view of Pruitt-Igoe (source)

Harlem River Houses (source)

But not all public housing projects were failures. An example of successful public housing is Harlem River Houses, which are actually said to be the most successful public housing in all of New York City.
            The thing is I don't think AlSawaber should suffer the same fate as Pruitt-Igoe. I don't think that it should be demolished... AlSawaber was, and still is, a great idea. If it's maintained, it would be just as successful as the Harlem River Houses. I wouldn't mind living in an apartment, unlike many people in this country, and I can't be the only one.