Title says it all mostly. Kind of curious whose “project(s)” these were and/or where the term came from?
Is the “project” the buildings alone or was it a social engineering project or something else? Maybe more possibilities…feel free to fill in the blanks.
A little of both, I think. The buildings were established so that poor people had housing, so that they would become productive citizens.
A detailedhistory of same.
“Urban renewal project” “became > housing projects” became >just “the projects”.
First “project” Starrett City, Brooklyn
I remember hearing about ‘The Projects’ very early on, referring to the housing that Henry J. Kaiser built in Richmond, California, to house shipyard workers recruited from the South during WWII. What was adequate instant housing during the War became slums a few years later.
There was an Oakland Museum exhibit a few years ago dedicated to Kaiser’s works. Here’s a partial blurb:
Kaiser Exhibit - Richmond’s Projects
In this case, the projects referred to the overall Kaiser project, supplying ships for the war effort. To this day the East Bay thinks Richmond housing when ‘projects’ are discussed.