Rosewood Courts – Austin TX

Description

On September 1, 1937, President Roosevelt signed the United States Housing Act of 1937. This created the United States Housing Authority (USHA) and provided $500 million for subsidies to be paid from the U.S. government to local public housing agencies (LHAs) to improve living conditions for low-income families.

The Austin City Council established the Austin Housing Authority on December 27, 1937. The housing authority made an application to the USHA for $500,000 to build 186 units of public housing at three sites. Austin’s housing agency became the first in the country to receive funding and to start construction on its USHA low-rent housing.

Constructed between November 17, 1938 and September 1, 1939, Rosewood Courts in Central East Austin is one of the nation’s oldest USHA public housing developments and is the nation’s oldest constructed specifically for African-American families. Rosewood Courts consists of 25 one- and two-story housing buildings occupying a site of 8.9 acres in the city’s historic Rosewood Neighborhood. Rosewood Courts initially had 60 units built. The city built 70 more units at Rosewood Courts with money from an additional request the city filed, which brought the total amount received from the USHA to $1,158,000 for the three housing projects.

The other two projects were Santa Rita Courts, originally built for Mexican-American families, and Chalmers Courts for white families. The Civil Rights Act of 1968 legally ended segregation in housing. All three housing projects are now integrated and still in operation. They are managed by the Housing Authority of the City of Austin (HACA).