Records of Resilience: Stories from Public Housing

FAIN: PN-295932-24

National Public Housing Museum (Chicago, IL 60601-2424)
Liu Chen (Project Director: May 2023 to present)

The development of a public-facing archive of oral histories from current and former residents of public housing by updating of the National Public Housing Museum’s oral history handbook, updating educational modules and training public housing residents as interviewers, and producing at least 60 new oral histories.

The National Public Housing Museum's(NPHM) project will collect, preserve, and make accessible oral histories of people who have lived in public housing in the United States. These first-voice narratives are vital records of experiences of communities made vulnerable on many fronts. Forced to adapt to changes wrought by housing insecurity, as well as disproportionate impacts of COVID-19, climate change, and environmental harms, public housing culture-bearers bring stories of resilience that are crucial to understanding our nation’s complex history and contemporary challenges. Working collaboratively with current and former residents, the proposed project will enhance our archive and its study, with a focus on narratives from public housing residents who have experienced challenge and change in the face of COVID-19, climate threats, and environmental injustice. A common thread for all of the project’s oral histories is housing precarity, itself a driver of community disruption.