The Economics of Public Housing

Professor Wilson who was overseeing Sudhir’s dissertation work and advised him to stop spending so much time with J.T., the leader of the Black Kings a street gang, and his men. Sudhir decided to take his advice and began to focus on the economics of life in the projects. He began interviewing the women of the Robert Taylor housing project. He learned that more than 90% of the households in Robert Taylor were headed by women. Many of these women had protested for civil rights in the 60s and 70s. During the 80s and 90s, their quality of life deteriorated due to the increase in the use and availability of drugs, the gangs that ran drug operations and violence that was a natural by-product of the drugs and gangs.

These societal changes within the housing projects in Chicago and in other large cities...