Should The Government Sell The Existing Stock Of Public Housing?

"A Nobel-prize-winning economist, three former officials of the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, the head of one of the city's largest social-service agencies, and the chairman of the tenants council of a Harlem public housing project are among those offering at least guarded support for the idea of turning apartments in the city's public housing projects over to the tenants to own or sell.

The concept, floated on May 15 in a New York Sun editorial, "Paupers to Millionaires," envisions giving about 200,000 residents of the city's low-income public housing units ownership of their apartments, which often sit on high-priced land. The tenants, who average a 17.7-year stay, could then decide whether to keep or to sell their apartments, some of which could fetch as much as $1 million."