Top 10 Worst Housing Projects in The United States

What is going on everyone? Let's talk about the  housing projects american history and urban lore   are filled with stories that came out of  the projects every major city has or still   has some form of public housing during the great  depression the united states started looking into   housing projects as a solution to the slums and  the economic troubles the united states was facing   at the time one misconception was that they were  designed and built for minorities and the poor   not originally the middle class was getting  battered during the depression and the government   decided to step in the government-funded housing  projects all began with the mission to end slums   provide affordable safe housing options and  save families from ending up on the streets   it didn't always end up that way since the  1970s some of the worst have been taken down   and replaced by better types of public housing  you see at some point we realized that huge towers   with a whole bunch of people that were struggling  was a nightmare you had ten percent of the   residents being criminals and ninety percent were  decent families living in fear of that ten percent   they became out of control and the only good thing  that really ever came out of them was i don't   know great crime movies great crime tv great rap  and hip-hop normally rapping about great crimes   there is a great video about the history of those  projects from a channel called city beautiful i'll   leave a link below today's video is about 10  of the most notorious public housing projects   in the united states both past and present  they're no particular order i'm just going   to tell you 10 of the worst i mean really how can  you tell which one is the absolute worst just by   reputation if that doesn't really seem right  so we're just going to list all 10. all right   let's take a look at the worst united  states housing projects of all time number 10 the magnolia projects new orleans  when you hear or see things about new orleans it   always seems to be about the saints a hurricane  bourbon street or mardi gras the big easy is   so much more it has cajun food jazz and some of  the most dangerous neighborhoods in the country   new orleans always seems to be a medalist  in the homicide olympics we have here in the   united states the magnolia projects aka cj pete  projects definitely saw their fair share of death   and violence over the years the magnolia projects  were the epicenter for gang activity through most   of the 70s 80s and 90s it was so bad in 1990  the new orleans police department had to put   a police station in the projects when hurricane  katrina hit in 2005 magnolia was evacuated and the   projects were abandoned except for the homeless  that had wandered in after everyone left in 2008   the last magnolia buildings were demolished and  it was replaced by a new housing development   called harmony oaks that sounds so nice and  pleasant harmony oaks sounds like a resort number nine pruitt igo st louis missouri pruitt  igo started off on a good note it was designed by   the same guy who designed the world trade center  so that's kind of cool prudigo started moving   people in in 1954 even though the whole thing  wasn't completed till two years later in 1956 it   was originally designed to be a segregated public  housing yeah really keep in mind this was missouri   in the 1950s and that was sort of normal for this  part of the country back then this was a failure   not too long after opening a lot of it had to do  with the elevators and the design of the buildings   the original design by the architect yamasaki was  for various types of buildings walk-ups high-rises   low-rises mid-rises all of it it was all designed  really nice with parks all that good stuff and   then the government got involved the housing  authority came in and made all kinds of changes   including a uniform 11 story building so they  were all these 11 story buildings the elevators   only went up three floors each building yeah so  it went up three floors you would have to get   out walk to the other end of the building and go  up another three floors walk to the other end of   the building again go up another three floors if  you lived on let's say the 10th or 11th floor yeah   that sucks some people would just take the stairs  all this moving around and people going different   ways led to a big problem people are being mugged  on the regular in the stairwells in the corridors   it became a nightmare the crime was insane and  the buildings were falling apart in 1971 pruitt   igo only had 600 people living in 17 of the  original 33 buildings that same year federal   authorities agreed to demolish part of prudaigo  by 1976 the whole thing was a pile of debris number eight queensbridge houses queens new  york queensbridge has been such a mess over   the years that you could actually take a  walking tour now sort of like one of those   historic battlefield things an organization  known as jane's walk organizes public walking   tours through the queens bridge complex the  tours last about two hours and it covers   projects violent history as well as rappers and  nba stars that lived here at one point i mean i   don't think you lived there once you played in  the nba queensbridge is located in long island   city and is the country's largest government  housing project with over 3 000 units and just   under 7 000 residents it's still open today in  2005 a gang known as the dream team was arrested   in the queens bridge complex they were making ten  thousand dollars a week in pharmaceutical sales in   march 2015 a public elementary school which most  of the students there live in queensbridge had a   tutoring session led by a group of teenagers well  they decided to set up a fight club pitting first   graders against each other while they watched  and placed bets yeah quality education there number seven marcy house's brooklyn if you ever  want to learn about marcy houses just listen to   the music of its most famous past resident jay-z  yeah this is where he grew up and where he got his   start he's pretty much covered the violence and  the you know pharmaceutical trade of this place   quite a bit marcy house's or marcy projects  is in the bed-stuy neighborhood of brooklyn   it has 1700 apartments with more than thousand  two hundred residents marcy houses is known for   being dangerous run down and overcrowded don't go  here i know there's wonderful people living there   but there are some scary people and some scary  things going on there that should probably be   avoided the good news is just kidding  there is no good news about this place   number 6 jordan downs los angeles california  our first stop to the los angeles area is the   projects of jordan downs constructed in the watts  neighborhood of los angeles as temporary housing   for workers during world war ii but converted to  public housing in the early 1950s we had a lot of   people coming in after the war to the los angeles  area everyone was heading west looking for work   and you know better life that meant a lot of the  inner cities were kind of clearing out in chicago   new york st louis places like that and they all  headed west and a lot of them ended up in los   angeles they needed houses and a lot of these  temporary housing units that we put together   for world war ii the shipbuilders or whatever  this was also one of the key places for the   watts riots back in 1965 and throughout the 1980s  and 90s it was just a place for gangs growing up   in southern california you knew this was not a  place you needed to be at night or during the   day the homicide rate in and around jordan downs  is consistently one of the highest in the state   and in the nation sometimes this is also a really  interesting thing it's one of the only places   that's named after long-time residents david star  jordan and samuel elliott downes were two the   area's oldest residents so they named the projects  after them i wonder how they feel about it now   they're not alive in case you were wondering  so i'm sure they're not feeling much about it   number five nickerson gardens staying in the  los angeles area not too far from jordan downs   we have nickerson gardens and it's one thousand  public housing units nickerson garden consists   of 156 town house style buildings made up of  single bedroom units and it was completed in   1955 nickerson gardens is the largest public  housing development west of the mississippi   river yeah pretty big the complex occupies the  blocks of imperial highway and central avenue   and southwest of 111th street and compton avenue  it is on the border of both watts and willowbrook   all those words that i just said describing the  place to anyone from los angeles they're almost   like danger warnings imperial highway  compton avenue watts and willowbrook   those are four words you never want to hear it's  almost like me saying that is a skunk porcupine   with rabies and a switchblade you should stay away  from both of them the complex was one of the many   locations featured in the action thriller film to  live and die in los angeles i've been in this one   i was in the military for the 1990s riots in los  angeles rodney king thing and we had to do patrols   and a couple of the different ones i've been in  this one it the people seemed nice you know at   the time they didn't appreciate us being there but  they were pleasant it's still a pretty scary thing   and it's a dangerous place it's gotten better  over the years but it's still pretty scary   number four robert taylor homes chicago  robert taylor homes opened in 1962 with   16 high rises and about 27 000 occupants at  its capacity over 70 percent were children   90 percent of the units were single parent  households it was only about five years after   completion that chicago realized this place was  a really bad idea the chicago housing authority   called portions of these projects the worst slum  area in the united states yeah they actually   said that chicago's crime rate hit its peak in the  1990s robert taylor homes were a nightmare for the   people that lived there and the city of chicago  they poured a lot of resources into this place   and eventually they couldn't take it anymore in  1993 it was estimated that the likelihood of you   being a victim of a violent crime in the taylor  projects was 1 in 14. that is just violent crime   that's not all crime you know some of the worst  cities right now are like 1 in 30 for violent   crime the demolition of the robert taylor homes  began in 2002 these days just grass fields number 3 john de shields homes east st louis  illinois a st louis is one of the worst cities   in the united states when it comes to violence  and john de shields projects are the worst in   east st louis from 2000 to 2018 there was almost  500 homicides in east st louis and over one-fifth   were within one block of these projects the two  housing projects in this area john de shields   and john robinson have the most shots fired any  other place in st louis or east st louis john   de shields homes had almost double the amount of  homicides than any other project in east st louis   in 2018 and 2019. this place is so dangerous they  put a turnaround on the off ramp of the freeway   yeah if you get off the freeway by  mistake and you realize where you're   heading there's a quick turnaround so  you can get right back on the freeway   number two techwood homes atlanta techwood homes  was the nation's oldest housing project and it   was built to replace a shanty town known as  tanyard bottom or tech flats it was completed   on august 15 1936 one past resident said it  didn't have to be as bad as it was said it   was horrible people were living in overcrowded  run down buildings like animals graffiti trash   and gang violence was part of life in techwood  except for a few historic buildings techwood   homes was demolished in 1996 right before the  1996 summer olympics it is now a mixed-use area   called centennial place the first phase opened  in 1996 right before the centennial olympics   in atlanta see that's where they got the name  centennial place centennial olympics moving on and number one cabrini green chicago illinois this  one is probably the worst while researching this   one i read about some truly horrible crimes that  went down in this place cabrini green comprised of   several sections built over a 20-year period  starting with the francis cabrini row houses   which was 586 units built in 1942 cabrini homes  extension with almost 2 000 units and 15 buildings   was built in 1957 and then finally in 1962 the  william green homes which were a little over a   thousand units were built in total cabrini green  covered 70 acres and was located in the city's   north side not too long after its construction  problems started to develop in the complex poverty   was just horrible here gang violence was just  everywhere it was horrible that's just the gang   violence there was normal violence with just  weirdos in this place like i said i did far   too much research on this one but in 1981 then  mayor jane byrne and her husband decided to move   into the cabrini green projects to display  her solidarity with the residents she lasted   three weeks before moving out the violence that  plagued these projects was horrible the residents   were fearful of leaving their homes in addition  besides the everyday violence in cabrini green   it was also the setting for the 1992 horror  film candyman the director said that he chose   the location to film because it was a place of  such palpable fear yeah that's always nice when   a director directing a scary movie says where  you live is just so scary it's fitting that's   great demolition of karini green began in the late  90s with the final high-rise portion of the failed   housing project coming down in 2011 late 1990s  to 2011. took them a while take those ones down all right that's the video i hope you guys  enjoyed it hope you got some information   out of it do yourself a favor don't look  up any of the crimes that went down on   some of these ones they're really really  bad and yeah they were kind of upsetting   when i read them but if you've ever lived in  one of these i would love to hear about it   anyway don't forget all the links  below give the video a big thumbs up   leave a comment subscribe if you haven't  everybody have a great day be nice to each other you

Channel: World According To Briggs

Views: 2,673,199

Keywords: Travel, where to live in America, Top 10, Top Ten Lists, Move to, Top 10 reasons not to, best cities to live in, worst cities to live in, world according to Briggs, United States, Ranked, Lists, Best States, Best Cities, Relocate, Maps, housing projects in chicago, housing projects in los angeles, housing projects in queens ny, housing projects, poverty in america documentary, poverty in usa, worst place to live in the United States, st louis missouri

Id: _r_bGUPidGQ

Length: 14min 2sec (842 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 30 2020