lagarchivist's video: A Childhood in Public Housing Featuring Stephen Weinstein

1950s Brooklyn still provided working class residents with ample job opportunities and decent wages. New public housing offered returning World War II veterans affordable housing in which to raise a family. The Sheepshead Bay – Nostrand Houses in the far reaches of Brooklyn were erected by the city and were partly subsidized to keep rentals down to $12.50 monthly a room. Tenants of these public housing projects reflected the racial and ethnic composition of the surrounding neighborhood. This resulted in an overwhelmingly white ethnic population of families with young children. In 1960 this housing project population was 95% white and the surrounding area was 99.5% white. The leading historian of public housing in New York, Nicholas Bloom, has written that “New York City Housing Authority had two different public housing systems: predominantly white, higher-income projects in the outer boroughs, and primarily black or Puerto-Rican projects in the rebuilt slums.” Music: "Pursuit of Happiness" by Jared C. Balogh http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Balogh/Modern_Renaissance/01_jared_c__balogh_-_pursuit_of_happiness