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Comment by apexalpha | Hacker News Reader

Glad to hear you've done well for yourself and found a way out in IT.

Question though: what do you mean with 'raised in projects'? I can't really Google it. Or is this a reference to the song I find?

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> Subsidized apartment buildings, often referred to as housing projects, have a complicated and often notorious history in the United States.

In everyday American English, "the projects" often refers to a very dangerous urban residential area, or at the very least, a non-desirable one.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subsidized_housing_in_the_Unit...

It doesn’t have to be urban or dangerous. Most of the time it is but not always. My father grew up poor in a rural area and was in the projects in his county.

My experience is that public housing in rural areas aren't referred to as "projects."

I'm in NYC and this is what we refer to as the projects here: https://i.imgur.com/UyTKWJg.jpg It's mostly people living on welfare but there's all sorts of people living in these. People that are disabled, poor, people with money but want to be cheap and save money. The buildings and the elevators can sometimes smell like piss. On garbage days, the streets and the walkways in between are covered in litter.

I’ve only heard the word projects in movies. Most people call it section 8 in my area. I’m in the South.

"Section 8" is a different thing, that refers to vouchers that are used to pay rent to private landlords.

"The projects" on the other hand are owned and operated by government.

There is overlap, in project-based Section 8, which is based on government contracts with private landlords for specific housing projects, as opposed to the better known form of Section 8 which follows the individual rather than being locked to a particular housing project.

My understanding is that these are logistically different things. Public housing projects are state owned, whereas Section 8 refers to privately owned housing where rent is paid at least partly by government vouchers.

It's one of those technically different, but functionally the same things.

"Projects" and "Section 8" are two separate government programs, but they both wind up with similar demographics because it only attempts to solve one issue.

And in the case of Section 8, assumes best faith action of a third party. Which is hardly the case. Often, an apartment complex gets built as "Section 8" housing. And since the government is footing the bill, not the tenant, it's built to the least possible standard and service is usually poor. Because the incentive for the landlord is to spend as little as possible on it.

Living in Atlanta, that usually depended on who you were talking to. I've heard both, but "section 8" usually came from middle class+ white people

Ah thank you.

Is it synonymous with a Ghetto?

They are almost equivalent in everyday use, but in actual meaning, they are different.

"The projects" strictly refers to the building developments themselves, but is often used informally to refer to a poor neighborhood in general.

"The Ghetto" refers to a neighborhood of an urban area and not a particular building or group of buildings. "The projects" are often in the ghetto but not necessarily.

Saying "I grew up in the ghetto" and "I grew up in the projects" are more-or-less equivalent. Both only refer to urban areas; there is no such thing as a rural ghetto.

Rural poverty is definitely poverty.

The term rural ghetto can be used.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rural_ghetto

> Rural poverty is definitely poverty.

I didn't say that rural poverty isn't poverty. I'm simply saying that the word "ghetto" almost always refers to an urban context.

”there is no such thing as a rural ghetto.”

”the word "ghetto" almost always refers to an urban context.”

These are not the same thing.

Ghetto technically refers to a neighborhood into which a racial minority tends to be segregated. It comes from Jewish ghettos enforced legally in Europe in the 16th century, but it is also used for neighborhoods where minorities live for other reasons (such as social or economic pressure).

Project refers either to public housing, or more generally any group of buildings where economically disadvantaged people tend to be segregated.

Because these very frequently overlap in the US, people often use them interchangeably.

not really, a ghetto is a larger residential area that may or may not include 'projects' housing

"The projects" means public housing in the US.

And for reference, public housing in the US doesn't have a very good reputation. It's not just the poverty of the residents, it's the management, too. A survey of headlines about the NYC Housing Authority (NYCHA) will find problems with lead paint that the agency tried to cover up, issues with toxic mold, falsified maintenance records, energy-efficiency projects which change out the light bulbs in the apartment for LEDs at a cost of $2000 a bulb, and workers who just sleep on the job — which is in fact a step up from the workers who made headlines about having orgies on the job (no, seriously.)

It comes down to the tenants not being the customer. The customer is the government. And as long as they're paying, you do the least possible to maintain that.

If the government standard says you need to do maintenance on HVAC once every 6 months. You do maintenance once every 6 months, regardless of whether or not it needs it more often.

You should watch the series The Wire. It gives you great insight into projects.

I also recommend this documentary on the Pruitt-Igoe public housing project in St. Louis >> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pruitt-Igoe_Myth

and also this youtuber (donoteat01) has some excellent commentary >> https://youtu.be/xqJbE1bvdgo

Or The PJs

It refers to public housing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_housing

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