Actually, what that was once true, it is no longer. All over the country welfare project housing has been demolished and replaced by Section 8 housing. Ever since Newt Gingrich's time as Speaker, the US Government has been slowly, methodically, incrementally expanding that program while demolishing 'standard public housing projects'. EVERYWHERE. They now infiltrate suburbia by paying nearly all the rent for a 'client' in nice areas, in houses that nearly always start out as 'nice," too. Most get TANF, WICs (for children under 5), SNAP, EITC, etc. and their incomes aren't really verified. In East Cobb, Georgia the government systematically started changing the demographics as revenge against Newt Gingrich's former district. Today, you have that area with million dollar home enclaves surrounded by big, older subdivisions that are replete with Section 8 recipients. That's one of the main reasons I moved from there 12 years ago.
Here in NJ, a nice town can give its Section 8 money to a poorer town to avoid the nice town going down the drain. There are many reasons Asbury Park went downhill but at least one was the city council grabbing government money and putting drug addicts and derelicts into old housing stock.
Section 8 requires a willing accomplice in a landlord; any that value their properties don’t rent to them (and can seek documentation to filter them). While landlords used to like the program because of the steady checks from the government, most now realize the tenants will wreck the property and demand 5 star accomodations (going to court if necessary to get them).