Rental Assistance Demonstration And The State Of Baltimore's Public Housing

Over the past 20 years, efforts have been made to replace government-owned high-rises with housing vouchers or rent subsidies in privately owned buildings.  Now there’s RAD, or Rental Assistance Demonstration, which aspires to create a stable source of funding to help private owners repair and maintain public housing units.  RAD’s proponents say it will spark long-overdue investment by private developers in under-funded public housing in poor neighborhoods. But critics say it will let private businesses control a federal program that should remain publicly funded.  Producer Jonna McKone has been following changes to Baltimore’s public housing since early last year. We first aired this story in June, 2015.