Authorised by Congress in 1992 and launched in 1993 as the Urban Revitalization Demonstration, HOPE VI funded the demolition and redevelopment of severely distressed public housing, especially failing high-rise projects. It replaced concentrated towers with lower-rise, mixed-income, more walkable neighbourhoods influenced by New Urbanist design. Between 1993 and 2010 the programme demolished nearly 99,000 public housing units and produced about 97,000 mixed-income units. Critics noted that redevelopment often reduced the number of deeply affordable units and displaced existing tenants.
HOPE VI reversed the high-rise public housing model in favour of mixed-income, low-rise redevelopment, with contested effects on the urban poor.
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