星空传媒

The estate, Techwood Homes, was owned by Atlanta Housing Authority. The work it has done since to fight crime and make its estates into safe, mixed-tenure communities has won acclaim from the federal government, which now calls it the best housing authority in the USA (see 鈥淐entennial Place鈥�, page 26). Yet this has been 鈥渢ough love鈥�: its method relies on evicting troublemakers and knocking down thousands of homes with no right of return for the people who used to live in them, and it has shocked liberals even as it is applauded by others (see 鈥淭he Atlanta blueprint鈥�, right).

Clearly, the British housing sector feels it has something to learn from America. Deputy prime minister John Prescott recently visited the USA to get ideas for UK housing and transatlantic study trips like the one on which I encountered Centennial Place are common. We, too, are fighting gun crime and economic exclusion as well as low-level nuisance and the Home Office is promoting tough measures to tackle antisocial behaviour. Are Atlanta鈥檚 methods the reality of what we are striving for, taken to its logical conclusion?

Neighbourhood watch
Since 1996, Atlanta Housing Authority has turned 11 crime-ridden, economically failing neighbourhoods into prosperous, safe communities where people from all income levels are choosing to live, where schools are heading performance tables and where local land values have soared.

US government policy in the past 50 years has seen massive public investment in public housing, provided by 鈥渉ousing authorities鈥� that are roughly equivalent to our council housing departments. But this, says Atlanta Housing Authority chief executive Renee Glover, has built up 鈥渨arehouses鈥� of very poor families, crime, economic decline and educational failure, while reducing public taxes from income, land sales and business activity. 鈥淐oncentrating poor families nourishes social ills like poor school performance, crime, generational poverty and social isolation,鈥� she says.

To Glover, Atlanta鈥檚 role as a provider of homes is merely a vehicle for its main function of making its tenants economically self-sufficient 鈥� getting them off benefits and earning money, turning them from low-skilled unemployment statistics to high academic and social achievers. In most cases, this will result in the tenant buying their own home, and that鈥檚 fine by Glover: one of the training programmes Atlanta offers to all tenants is called Learning to Buy Your Own Home. Atlanta offers its tenants the classic American Dream of homeownership and upward mobility. 鈥淎 social landlord鈥檚 role is to assist the individual through the transition from welfare and dependency to economic independence,鈥� says Glover. 鈥淚t is as important to teach homeownership skills as it is to collect the rent.鈥�

So far, so touchy-feely. But Atlanta鈥檚 blueprint for regenerating communities pulls no punches. Any member of an Atlanta household who commits crimes or causes serious problems in the community will place the whole family at serious risk of being evicted. Recognising that successful communities are built on good schools and employment prospects, Atlanta makes it a condition of tenancy agreements that if the tenant fails to look for work or keep their children in school, they will lose their home.

There is little security of tenure in the USA, as there is in Britain: tenancies are renewable every 12 months and can be terminated by the social landlord at this stage. It can also be terminated within weeks if there has been a serious breach, so there is no need for expensive, time-consuming legal action to resolve antisocial behaviour and crime.

However, for those who do want to try, Atlanta offers dedicated practical support in the form of a specialist team of 25 people to work closely with tenants, called the human services management programme. Their role involves challenging antisocial behaviour, getting single unemployed mothers to attend their life skill classes, sometimes actually driving children to school or making sure a teenage mother does not miss an exam.

It鈥檚 a tough system and, of course, not everyone likes it. Critics accuse Atlanta of dispersing problems rather than tackling them, and are concerned that only a small proportion of the original residents are allowed to return to the communities that have been built on the site of their old homes. At Centennial Place, only one in five of the new homes was earmarked for tenants on welfare and it was never envisaged that all the original residents would return; indeed, there was no 鈥渞ight to return鈥� for any tenant. To add to this low return rate, AHA operates very strict qualification criteria for all new tenants. Those with histories of poor rent payment, criminal convictions or family members with convictions for drugs and violence will not have their applications accepted.

Atlanta鈥檚 human services management programme assists tenants during the demolition and relocation process, finding employment and job training or helping them complete their life skills programmes. And the authority says it finds all tenants homes through its own stock, or in private accommodation using vouchers, and will continue to support these tenants through the human services management programme. But long-time resident Louise Whatley tells a different story. 鈥淔or those of us who can come back, it鈥檚 good,鈥� she says. 鈥淔or those who can鈥檛, a lot are homeless.鈥�

Dennis Goldstein from Atlanta Legal Aid is a fierce critic of Atlantic Housing Authority. He says it spends public money to reduce the number of much-needed public homes, while moving poor families into more and more crowded, unregulated neighbourhoods. He criticises Atlanta for not publicising figures on exactly how many former residents return to the rebuilt communities. Some of Atlanta鈥檚 critics say the figure is as low as one in 20.

Not so far from home
Atlanta鈥檚 methods are dramatic and provocative. But are they really so far from the natural conclusion of our government鈥檚 measures 鈥� Welfare to Work, the promotion of mixed-income communities, regeneration through homeownership, the Home Office鈥檚 antisocial behaviour action plan? Indeed, all five elements of the Atlanta blueprint are familiar to British regeneration professionals and the problems I saw in Atlanta were reminiscent of those I see in several large failing communities in the UK. I believe I saw a working model of where many of the UK鈥檚 reforms are leading us. Could 鈥� and should 鈥� Atlanta鈥檚 methods work for us?

It is an important view that we should scrutinise very carefully. It is not perfect, and there are many lessons Atlanta could learn from us. But as chief executive Renee Glover says, changing decades of welfare dependency and generational poverty involves tough decisions and cannot be done without pain. However, she challenges her critics to come up with a better solution

鈥� or a solution that has not been tried before and failed. She says: 鈥淭he model we are using is not a panacea for all social evils or fiscal woes. It is, however, far better than what preceded it and better than no strategy at all. Regardless of income, individuals work or attend school and all families are pursuing the American Dream.鈥�