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Exploring Homeowner Opposition To Public Housing Developments, Joanna Duke

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper examines the beliefs and attitudes of homeowners in two receiving communities of public housing units. Opposition to housing mobility programs is generally attributed to fear offalling property values and increased crime rates. Given the spatial and redistributive nature of the programs, this paper proposes and explores space and liberty-based ideologies as causes ofdormant opposition persisting beyond relocation. Survey data were collected from two neighborhoods where developments containing public housing were located. Results indicate that ideologies about space and liberty are important to understanding receiving community opposition as well as the extent to which members of the receiving community …