Masters Theses

Date of Award

8-1987

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Planning

Major

Planning

Major Professor

Joseph M. Prochaska

Committee Members

George Bowen, M. McManus

Abstract

Crowded, broken down, and unsanitary housing conditions are one of the most onerous afflictions endured by the nation's poor. Substandard housing is prominent among several interrelated social ills comprising a perpetual way of life that some would refer to as a "culture of poverty." Though most of the poor live in cities and many poverty-related problems are associated with the urban environment, it is the rural poor who are most likely to be ill-housed.

A comprehensive attack against every aspect of the rural poverty problem (e.g., lack of job opportunities, low educational levels, diminished farm incomes, etc.) may be a preferable approach but the resources and the sheer will necessary for such an undertaking may be lacking. But the rural poor should not be left to languish in the meantime. Rather, some measures should be implemented which will mitigate the most pernicious poverty problems such as inadequate housing, a dominant feature in the daily living environment of the rural poor. This thesis lays the groundwork for the implementation of such an amelioratory measure by developing a plan for low-income housing improvement in rural Hancock County, Tennessee, where incomes are chronically low and over a third of the housing stock is sub-standard.

A thorough analysis of Hancock County's socioeconomic environment is conducted which demonstrates the County's isolation from regional economic progress and the dim prospects for dramatic improvements in the foreseeable future. Against this backdrop of persistent poverty, existing housing conditions are examined and the findings of previous rural housing research are used to develop recommendations for Hancock County. The strategic plan developed is skeletal and can be "fleshed out" according to the desires, abilities, and resources of its local implementors but its basic recommendation is for a locally controlled and coordinated program of housing rehabilitation and single-family housing construction in which those families who are being helped will participate in both decision-making and building.

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