2015 Theses Master's

Public Housing Redevelopment and Crime: The New Communities Initiative, Washington, DC

Altskan, Alexander

This paper focuses on the intersections of public housing redevelopment, "gentrification," and crime in Washington, DC. Using the four public housing sites that are part of the New Communities Initiative redevelopment program, it examines the changes and trends in crime that these selected sites and their surrounding areas have experienced since the program s inception. Structurally, this study first looks at the history and policies behind the New Communities Initiative, identifying which aspects of the program have had more success than others and why. Next, combining a number of spatial and statistical analysis techniques, it examines the changes in crime that have occurred at the four targeted public housing sites. To end, it attempts to establish what the relationship has been between certain socioeconomic conditions and the changes in crime, assessing how the selected areas have fared in comparison to the rest of the city, and determining the possible influence of redevelopment efforts. Ultimately, this paper produces a historic narrative of the New Communities Initiative and its surrounding neighborhoods, while providing a useful case study of how public housing redevelopment can be applied to combat crime in the contemporary urban setting of the United States.