This beautiful neighborhood is defying Section 8 housing stereotypes — take a look

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Today's stereotypes of what public housing looks like originated four decades ago.

In 1978, the Jimmy Carter administration created the Housing Choice Voucher program, also known as Section 8, which provides assistance to low- and moderate-income families to rent affordable housing built by local housing authorities.

You've likely seen some of these 1980s-era apartment buildings — characterized by their boxy shapes and shabby brick facades — which come with a number of negative stereotypes. A 2010 analysis points to five major public concerns around Section 8 units: a lack of maintenance, expectation of crime, disapproval of housing as a handout, reduction of property values, and physical unattractiveness.

A redeveloped public-housing neighborhood in Milwaukee, Wisconsin could defy those old attitudes. Called Westlawn Gardens, it features green lawns, a community garden, new sidewalks and stormwater drains, and attractive apartment units with bright exteriors and modern interiors. Milwaukee's housing authority contracted the architecture firms Torti Gallas & Partners and Kindness Architecture & Planning to redesign Westlawn.

The project won a 2018 Excellence Award from the American Planning Association, an organization comprised of urban planners from across the US.

Take a tour of Westlawn below.

The original Westlawn neighborhood formed in the 1950s as Wisconsin's largest public housing project. Spanning 75 acres, it consisted of 726 barrack-style housing units for 1,800 very-low-income residents.

Most of the dilapidated units were not large enough to accommodate the families.

But between 2009 and 2015, the city received grants totaling $260 million from HUD to redevelop the neighborhood.

Westlawn's redevelopment faced some criticism.

In 2015, local outlet Urban Milwaukee wrote that a 2013 HUD review (prompted by residents) found Milwaukee's housing authority did not comply with federal hiring standards for the project.

Section 3 of the 1968 Housing and Urban Development Act requires that 30% of the workforce on HUD-funded projects be either low-income or public-housing residents, but local officials did not hire any Westlawn residents.