36 & 40. Laidlaw Towers & the Walter Chadwick Projects

A Government-subsidized home for those unable to find affordable housing, Newcastle’s public housing has always been a matter of controversy among public officials. Plainly, most mayors want to wash their hands of the whole affair. Although both projects theoretically operate under the “one strike” law that allows the eviction of residents of public housing who are convicted of certain crimes, enforcement is the issue. Too many crimes fall through the cracks. Too many crimes diligently pursued and prosecuted by police disappear into the system after trial or plea. As a result, the projects get worse and worse, and have effectively evolved their own shadow economies revolving around drugs, contraband and food-assistance vouchers. At this point, they’re almost like gated communities, albeit gated communities that have taken shape under a charter of crime, violence and abuse. In addition, about a third of the floors of Laidlaw Towers don’t legitimately receive electricity, bunkering it instead from exterior power lines or oblivious neighbors. And as bad as it is in the projects themselves, the nameless satellite communities are even worse, as they don’t receive the government-sponsored benefits that the developments do.

Background

Both Laidlaw Towers and the Walter Chadwick Projects were established in 1989 under an intended model of Health Realization Projects, and both public housing developments grew out of the worst of Newcastle neighborhoods. Within three years, however, the desperate tenants of the new public housing demonstrated quite amply that they were happy to remain Newcastle’s worst neighborhoods, screw fancy-school ideas like Health Realization, oh, and thanks for the new apartments. Within four years, both Laidlaw Towers and the Walter Chadwick Projects looked like Third World war zones after a nuclear strike.

Alternative Name(s)

Projects

Type

District

Location under

New Castle