That wasn't always the case: when I was a kid, my parents were friends with a Belgian couple who lived in NYC public housing: it was spartan, but clean and safe, because the city enforced standards.
Public housing started during WWII when material shortages and shortages of labor stopped most new construction.
Once public housing became simply "more free stuff for unaccountable minorities," they became crime-ridden s---holes.
True. I know of a couple of families that lived in a post WW2 housing development. In the mid 80’s the development was still in good shape, lawns mowed, houses painted, etc. I don’t know what it’s like today, but I bet it’s still in pretty good shape. On the other hand, some projects built during the 70’s became slums within 5 years. Hard for some landlords to evict troublesome tenants even those destroying property, and hard for some decent tenants to get landlords to fix things, plow snow, heating and air condition problems, etc. For those seeking to rent, they need to do their homework, research the apartment and the same goes for landlords. References don’t mean much, previous landlords will give a good reference just to get rid of bad tenants.