Atlanta Through the Archives

Great Depression & Federal Housing Programs (1930s)

Summary

In response to the Great Depression, new housing programs and guidelines were launched, creating a legacy of public housing, urban renewal, displacement, and other de-facto means of racial segregation in Atlanta and beyond.

The federal government, attempting to lessen the consequences of the Great Depression, launched dozens of programs targeted at housing. Atlanta became the birthplace of federally funded public housing with two sibling projects: Techwood Homes, for White residents, and University Homes, for Black residents. To make way for these historic complexes, acres of land, mostly inhabited by African Americans, was razed. Many of those displaced were unable to live inside the new residences. These projects would ignite Atlanta’s extensive history of public housing, slum clearance, urban renewal, and displacement.

At the same time, federal programs were created that would cement this pattern, including the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation, which made maps that categorized Atlanta’s neighborhoods into different grades for loan purposes, largely based on their racial demographics. These policies would cement a tradition of in-direct means of segregation.