In the 1940s and 50s, the local government built more than a dozen public housing developments throughout Los Angeles, many of which are still standing today.
Back then, government-supported housing was seen as part of a new, utopian society, which would help lift America out of the Great Depression and house thousands of returning veterans who needed a place to live.
“Public housing was seen as something for everyone,” says UCLA researcher Annie Powers. “It encompassed very low-income people, but also middle-class people and veterans returning from the war.”
But that construction stopped abruptly in the 1950s, in part because of a surge in anti-communist sentiment nationwide, which was spurred on by local landlord lobbies.