1929 The start of the Great Depression brings worsening conditions to tenements and slums due to a lack of federal funding.

 

1933-36 The New Deal is passed as a response to the Great Depression and provides federal relief, reform, and recovery.

 

1934 The city of New York instates the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), which becomes the first such association in the country.

 

Knickerbocker Village opens.

 

155 “Old Law” tenement buildings are demolished as part of a city-wide slum clearance campaign by NYCHA.

 

1935 The First Houses become the first public housing development provided by NYCHA.

 

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) is established, making the federal government the largest employer in the nation. The WPA was responsible for employing millions of previously unemployed people to carry out public works projects. 

 

1942 Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village construction is started. Located between First Avenue and Avenue C and extending from 14th Street to 23rd Street, the two housing projects were privately developed by Metropolitan Life and strongly supported by Robert Moses and Mayor LaGuardia. They were surrounded in controversy because of the discrimination against black residents, resulting in a lawsuit that reached the New York Supreme Court. The Court ruled that because the development was privately funded, they were within the law to decide who was eligible to live there. 

 

1939-1945 World War II.