New York City created First Houses, the first municipally owned public housing project in the United States, opened in 1935.
First Houses was built in Manhattan’s Lower East Side after the city cleared a severely deteriorated group of buildings. The project replaced overcrowded housing with a small complex of renovated and newly constructed dwellings intended for low-income residents.
Its development preceded the major expansion of federally supported public housing under the United States Housing Act of 1937. New York’s municipal experiment helped demonstrate how public authorities could directly provide and manage affordable housing.
First Houses is not the same as the first federally funded public-housing project. That distinction matters: the development was a New York City initiative, while later federal legislation created a nationwide framework and financial support for local housing authorities.