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high as it has been for blacks in society
as a whole.
In 1966 only 35.5 percmt
of !he families derived their so/e so11rce
of i12come from employment.
1 would
venture to say it is far less than that now.
Pruitt-Igoe reflects the economic prob–
lems of the black community as a
whole, only compounded. There is no
problem in Pruitt-lgoe that you don't
find in society. Only there is more of it
- more unemployment resulting in
more family separatioo; in turn resull–
ing in more juvenile delinquency -
and the vicious cycle goes on and on.
Q.
Has the high percentage of
youths in the project added to the
overaH deterioration?
A.
Certainly. The vandalism problem
at Pruitt-Igoe was largely attributable to
youths. A few years ago, one study
pointed out that the
average age in the
development was somewhere arormd 13
years of age.
This gives you some idea
of what we were dealing with.
Q.
Has there been any educational
program ro try to educare youths
away from this type of behavior?
A.
This Authority was never staffed
nor equipped to educate the youth, nor
to innovate social programs necessary to
keep them constructively occupied. For
example, Pruitt-Igoe was completed
(1955, 1956
respectively) witb three
built-in day care centers for the benefit
of the residents. For the first nine years
only one of these nurseries was in use
because no agency had the funds to staff
and operate the other two. In
1964
fed–
eral funds made it possible for the Mis–
souri D ivision of Welfare to provide
staff for these two nurseries. But in
order to conform with newer day-care
licensiog regulations, both unused facil –
ities had to be remodeled at consid–
erable expense to the Authority. .Many
of the children who could have benefit–
ted from exposure to the atmosphere of
a well-run child care center were, after
nine years, full-fledged delinquents.
This is a prime cxample of the Author·
ity's past experience with agencies of
the community - and the community
in general - "too late with too little."
In the past two years, however, there
has been some improvement in the
cooperation of ttíe community.
The
PLAIN TRUTH
Q.
Many people feel that large re–
serves of money would have been the
ultimare solurion to Pruitt-Igoe's
many problems. Do you agree?
A.
Well, money is part of the prob–
lem. This Authority has operated on
less than an adequate supply of money
for many things. Money alone, how–
ever, won't solve the social problems
and other problems which must be
tackled. l'm not in favor of doling out
large amounts of money, but properly
and efficiently used, money would help
a
lot.
Q.
Do you feel that one lesson to
be learned from Pruitt-lgoe is rhat
merely providing decent housing that
is new and sanitary is not, in itself,
enough to solve the housing needs
for low-income families?
A.
Yes, that's very true. You can't just
put up a structure and walk away from
it and say to the poor, "There it is, it's
all yours," and expect that to change
the people overnight. The people just
aren't accustorned to new or standard
housing if all they have ever known
is slums.
Q.
In other worcls, the human ele–
ment has to be considered as well?
A.
Right. The human element
is
a
very irnportant element and it wasn't
handled properly, nationally or locally.
Q.
Earlier you mentioned that
Pruitt-l goe was also the result of too
much of the wrong kind of concen–
tration. Could you offer a further
comment on this?
A.
Yes. This was a convenient way
for society to ease its conscience and get
these people out of its hair. But what
resulted was an isolated encampment
that nobody wanted to go near. lt was
not the solution for either the poor who
were forced to live there, nor for society
as a whole.
Q.
What do you feel can be done
for existing public housing projects
such as Pruitt-lgoe?
A.
I feel the answer líes in educating
the people of tbe community to the
problem and gettiog them to believe
that something must be done about it.
January
1972
You are not going to soJve the problem
by the government or some other agency
formulating a policy. Now you've got to
have the right policy, and you have to
get people to believe that policy.
If
most people want to put their heads in
the sand and turn away from the prob–
lems, then there is nothing anybody can
do, no matter what policy you
formulate.
Q.
In other words, the people have
to be sold on the right idea and then
support it?
A . That's right. They have to recognize
that residents of public housing are
human beings and that something must
be done to help them. You can call
them whatever you want, but the fact
remains that they are human beings just
like you and 1, and they have to be dealt
with accordingly.
It
also means getting
rid of the feeling on the part of many
Americans that "because I am better off
economically, 1 am better." It means
mutual respect of others and respect of
the other guy's feelings .
Q .
Do you see tny hope of progress
in this direction unless there are
drastic changes in the attitudes of
many Americans toward wanting ro
help the poor?
A.
Not really. We seem to be going
through times where we are increasingly
polarizing ourselves. This isn't going to
help. What's really needed is a vast re–
educational program to help the caces
understand one another.
1
feel that
many of us know this - politicians
preach it. But as a whole we end up not
doing very much about it. In other
words, we end up not really changing
anything after we finish talking.
Q.
Would solving the problems of
Pruitt-lgoe involve the surrounding
area?
A.
Yes.
If
we had all the resottrces
in
the world, money and everything, and
were able to transform Pruitt into a
utopia overnight by some magic process,
you'd still be confronted with the grue–
some problem of the surrounding neigh–
borhood - one of the worst in the city.
And then what would you have really
accomplished?
o