Planning and Public-Private Partnerships: Essential Links in Early Federal Housing Policy

Many historians document the divorce between housing reform and planning. Yet, key advocates for government-supported housing during the early twentieth century considered the two highly interconnected, taking the form of the garden city. Members of the Regional Planning Association of America (RPAA) translated the garden city into a uniquely American vision of complete communities that partnered government and entrepreneurial initiatives. Examining these lesser studied principles through the writings and advocacy of pioneer garden city planner and British government houser Raymond Unwin and prominent RPAA members Clarence Stein and Henry Wright broaden our understanding of early housing programs.