"We Did It for the Kids," Housing Policies, Race, and Class: An Ethnographic Case Study of a Resident Council in a Public Housing Neighborhood

Author: Tiffany G. Chenault

Dissertation School: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State Universit

Abstract:

HUD emphasizes the word "community" to establish economic development, citizen participations, and revitalization of facilities and services in distressed urban and rural areas. The word is intergraded in the overall administration of the agency. For instance, in their mission statement (HUD, 2003a) strategic goals and planning documents, (HUD, 2003b) and throughout their Web site and information they distribute, you find words such as community development, community empowerment, and self sufficiency through community. Resident councils are one way to develop community, enhance self-sufficiency, build skills, and enable social change among residents of public housing.

Focusing on a resident council of a public housing community in southwest Virginia and building on a 2-year ethnographic case study of the council, the purpose of this research is to describe and analyze from multiple perspectives the effectiveness of the resident council for building community in a public housing setting. Using a conceptual framework that combines critical race theory and social capital and employs Black studies and qualitative methodology, including observations, participate observations, interviews, field notes, analysis of housing legislative documents; I will explore these central research questions with the residents, managers, housing authority executives, and HUD officials:

• In what ways, if any, does the resident council help build public housing communities?
• What are the obstacles present within their community and or HUD policies that are keeping the resident council from being as effective as possible in building community?
• How do various constituencies view the role of the resident council and community building and what do they want the resident council to accomplish in community building?
• Are resident councils a vehicle for building social capital in public housing?

This dissertation research could be used as a guide for community organizations, housing authority's officials and public housing residents for developing, understanding, and improving the effectiveness or resident councils towards building community in public housing.

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