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Planet Money
Planet Money

Can transforming neighborhoods help kids escape poverty?

January 28, 2026 • 27m

Summary

⏱️ 8 min read

Overview

Planet Money explores groundbreaking new research from Harvard economist Raj Chetty on the HOPE VI federal housing program. The study tracked over a million families across three decades to determine whether transforming low-income neighborhoods by mixing incomes could lift children out of poverty. The findings reveal that children who grew up in revitalized public housing earned 50% more as adults—but only when those developments were located near higher-income neighborhoods where kids could form connections across economic lines.

Life Before and After: The Richard Allen Homes Transformation

Wysina Williams grew up in the old Richard Allen Homes in North Philadelphia, which she describes as "depressing" and "petrifying." The buildings had no doors facing the street—just brick walls—forcing residents into isolated courtyards. When HOPE VI transformed the development, new two-story homes with front yards replaced the fortress-like structures, reconnecting public housing to the surrounding neighborhood and giving families like Wysina's fresh air, natural light, and dignity.

  • The old Richard Allen Homes were so unsafe that children could only go to school and come home, not play outside
  • Buildings had lead paint, everything was brown, and it wasn't bright or happy
  • Old buildings had no street-facing doors—residents entered through isolated internal courtyards
  • New HOPE VI buildings featured front yards and street-facing doors that integrated with the neighborhood
" It was a relief. It was peace. Our windows open. We have fresh air. We control our heat. I had my own space. I loved it. "
" Like, I call it the pit. Like, you were just in the middle of the pit. "

The HOPE VI Program and Economic Desegregation

HOPE VI was a massive federal initiative launched in the early 1990s to demolish deteriorating public housing projects and replace them with mixed-income developments. From 1993 to 2010, 262 projects were knocked down—including iconic developments like Cabrini Green in Chicago and the Richard Allen Homes in Philadelphia. The program's revolutionary goal wasn't just better buildings, but economic desegregation: creating neighborhoods where low-income families lived alongside higher-income residents, breaking down the isolation that characterized old public housing.

  • HOPE VI demolished hundreds of run-down public housing projects and replaced them with mixed-income developments starting in the early 1990s
  • 262 different public housing projects were knocked down between 1993 and 2010
  • Old projects were essentially isolated islands cut off from surrounding neighborhoods with little interaction
  • New developments mixed public housing with market-rate housing to create economically integrated neighborhoods
" Our country is really segregated economically. Hope Six tried to reverse that. It tried to transform neighborhoods with really concentrated poverty into neighborhoods with mixed incomes. "

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