A major part of President Johnson’s Great Society program, it looked to reduce urban blight and poverty through significantly revamping urban planing and design to reduce the economic decline for the residents of cities.

The model cities program was authorized under the  Demonstration Cities and Metropolitan Development Act of 1966, which replaced the Urban Renewal model that started in the late 1940s.  The model cities program was administered through the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) but only lasted to 1974. Model Cities appropriations subsidized projects such as: 1

• a number of objectives including low- and moderate-income housing

• the demolition, renovation, and redevelopment of urban buildings

• the construction of hospitals and schools

• building of community centers and recreation facilities

• modern street and city landscapes.

These investments worked in tandem with social service programs which provided:1

• outreach health care services

• early child and adult education programs

• housing development agencies

• minority economic development councils

• food assistance programs

• well-designed centers for the disabled

The Model Cities program also prohibited housing discrimination. Grants-in-aid mandated local compliance with fair housing laws; noncompliance meant losing 80 percent of funding.

However, in 1969, President Nixon consolidation of HUD and many of its programs. In 1974, the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) initiative replaced Model Cities. The program decentralized decision making, returning it to local authorities such as cities, planning commissioners, service providers, and ideally citizens of neighborhoods.

Endnotes

1. http://encyclopedia.federalism.org/index.php/Model_Cities_Program