Capitalism and Freedom

by Milton Friedman

Another gain its proponents expected from public housing was the reduction of juvenile delinquency by improving housing conditions. Here again, the program in many instances had precisely the opposite effect, entirely aside from its failure to improve average housing conditions. The income limitations quite properly imposed for the occupancy of public housing at subsidized rentals have led to a very high density of “broken” families—in particular, divorced or widowed mothers with children. Children of broken families are especially likely to be “problem” children and a high concentration of such children is likely to increase juvenile delinquency. One manifestation has been the very adverse effect on schools in the neighborhood of a public housing project. Whereas a school can readily absorb a few “problem” children it is very difficult for it to absorb a large number. Yet in some cases, broken families are a third or more of the total in a public housing project and the project may account for a majority of the children in the school. Had these families been assisted through cash grants, they would have been spread much more thinly through the community.