![]() Demolition of sections of Lockefield Gardens began in 1983. While local officials and many business leaders in the real estate industry questioned the development of Lockefield Gardens in the 1930s, news reports indicated the initial families who moved into Lockefield Gardens welcomed the new accommodations. It eventually cost, according to other news reports, in excess of $3.2 million. The estimated construction cost was $3,025,000 according to news reports in 1936. The government implemented an investigation into the difficulties. In addition, news articles detailed poor construction that caused cracks in concrete, damage from rain water and related issues. Among the concerns detailed in Indiana newspapers of the time was that the individuals who had lived in the slum that was cleared to build Lockefield Gardens were moved to other “colored neighborhoods” and thus creating new slums that the government was soliciting people living in privately-owned rental units and thus competing directly with private real estate investors that the goal of moving people from substandard housing that had been removed from the site of the complex to new housing at that site was unattainable because the people who had been moved out could not afford the rental rates of the new housing and that the City of Indianapolis would no longer receive tax revenue for the privately-owned property that had been taken by the federal government to build Lockefield Gardens. The federal government had limited involvement in the day-to-day lives of most Americans.Ī number of news articles and editorials in Indiana newspapers at the time of the construction and opening of Lockefield Gardens highlighted negative views of public housing. Prior to the Great Depression, the vast majority of governmental services provided to citizens were ones provided by local, county/parish, and state/commonwealth governments. When Lockefield Gardens actually opened, it appears that the initial rental rates ranged from $18.70 to $28 for three-room apartments and four-room apartments, respectively those rates included the base rent plus all utilities.Īs with a number of New Deal efforts, the concept of the federal government building local low-income housing was not universally welcomed. The initial rental rates were revised on several occasions. It appeared that a number of people were unable to afford the rental rates for the new housing. Those news reports, though, also indicated that few former residents were able to do so. Once completed, those families were then to be given the opportunity to move into the new housing at Lockefield Gardens. News reports at the time indicated that part of the initial plan for Lockefield Gardens was that the people who lived on those 22 acres of land that was acquired by the federal government were to be moved temporarily to other housing within Indianapolis while the public housing was under construction. The first tenants moved into Lockefield Gardens on Feb. Initial plans for the construction of low-cost housing for Black families in Indianapolis were approved in 1934. These Negro citizens lived in slum buildings which were crowded, dirty and barely able to stand.” The report continued by stating “Lockefield was part of the first involvement of the Federal Government in providing low-cost housing for the poorest urban Americans. The exact wording of the text of the survey reflected language of that time period. ![]() “Lockefield was the center of the Negro community of Indianapolis.” That’s one of the statements in a report of the Historic American Buildings Survey issued by the U.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |