In the first two weeks after Lakeside Senior Apartments in Oakland opened its application process for residency last year, more than 2,400 applications poured in. Constructed to house very-low-income and formerly homeless seniors, the building had just 91 units to offer.
As the number of U.S. factory jobs continues to shrink, cities increasingly find themselves with underused or abandoned industrial land. Where these sites border residential areas, the result is blight and increased crime. Read how the Oakland, California, housing authority took aging public housing on a blighted site and remade it to strengthen connections to nearby residences and community amenities.