Turning public housing into a philanthropic cause

New York

LATE last autumn, Rasmia Kirmani-Frye, a lapsed doctoral student in urban policy and an executive at the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), gave a talk in Chicago, floating the notion that public housing - as if it were a museum or a preparatory school - should present itself as a philanthropic cause.

After the discussion, a political strategist who was in the audience suggested that any fund for public housing omit the phrase itself, because "people hate public housing".