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Eva Davis leans against a telephone pole, the buildings of East Lake Meadows in Atlanta, GA, appear behind her.

East Lake Meadows: A Public Housing Story

East Lake Meadows: A Public Housing Story

Learn the history of East Lake Meadows, a former public housing community in Atlanta. Stories from residents reveal hardship and resilience, and raise critical questions about race, poverty and who is deserving of public assistance.

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Learn the history of East Lake Meadows, a former public housing community in Atlanta. Stories from residents reveal hardship and resilience, and raise critical questions about race, poverty and who is deserving of public assistance.
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In 1956, the government further enabled the middle-class movement to the suburbs through the rise of new infrastructure – the interstate highway system, used as a way to overpass and “erase” areas considered “black slums.”
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Tenants in East Lake Meadows can’t get things fixed; the trash doesn’t get picked up, the grass doesn’t get cut, and raw sewage seeps into houses and playgrounds from open pits.
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