I have never lived in the projects or low income housing so it is good to hear someone sharing that experience. Only someone with that background can know if it works or not or know what's like to live in that situation. That said, affordable housing doesn't have to be a housing block or "project". There has been some success with condo style affordable housing. This makes more sense to me, especially if the residents are expected to accept some ownership of the place they live. There is also a movement called "housing first". It is directed as much at substance abusers as those homeless for other reasons. The idea is to house people first and work on their issues second. Experiments with this have met with mixed success. It does fly in the face of the model that has been practiced for so long.