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Abstract

Public housing construction caused large, persistent increases in Black population shares and substantial declines in median incomes and rents in American neighborhoods. This paper studies these long-term neighborhood effects of the American public housing program using a new national dataset tracking over 1 million public housing units built between 1935 and 1973, linked to neighborhood-level data from 1930 to 2010. I document that projects were systematically targeted towards poorer neighborhoods with higher Black population shares, reflecting the program’s racialized site selection. Using a stacked matched difference-in-differences approach, I compare treated neighborhoods to matched controls within the same county. Geographic spillovers to nearby neighborhoods were modest, with small increases in Black population shares driven by white population decline. Effects were concentrated in neighborhoods with initial Black shares in a plausible tipping range, where public housing triggered substantial white outflows. Finally, children from low-income families who grew up in public housing neighborhoods experienced significantly lower rates of upward mobility. These findings demonstrate that mid-century public housing, despite intentions of slum clearance, reinforced existing patterns of racial and economic segregation with lasting consequences for economic opportunity.