This effort resonated with the perspectives shared in Alex Kotlowitz' There Are No Children Here, Nicholas Lemann's 'The Promised Land—both of them best sellers—and MacArthur Genius awardee William Julius Wilson's groundbreaking, The Truly Disadvantaged.
In 1987, a prominent scholar William Julius Wilson in his book "The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass, and Public Policy," outlined the problems for those living in neighborhoods of concentrated poverty.
Three specific movements and sets of scholarship converged to influence HUD's specific strategies, policies, and programs: the scholarship of William Julius Wilson in his book, The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass, and Public Policy; the National Commission on Severely Distressed Public Housing report that called for a significant portion of the nation’s public housing be repaired; and the emergence of New Urbanism.