government housing

[InsaneCdn]

oh, the joys of the english language...

Lets see...
If you call them tenements, it implies apartment-style, which precludes row-housing.
If you call them HUDs or ghettos or such, it implies very-run-down and dangerous areas, not always public housing but often is.
BUT... not all public housing is that way.
Canadians would call it subsidized housing... here, it is never "single family dwellings", but could be town-homes, row-housing, or apartments... any of which can be "good" or "bad"...

Maybe you need a bigger thesaurus?

 

[HaoZi]

"Government subsidized" would certainly cover a lot of ground. Good thinking!

 

[Malika]

Enough, enough already Thank you all very much for your help - I have gone with "public housing", partly because it also sounds right and natural in English. Translators have to make quick judgements and in a total word count of 200,000 words (edited down from a whopping 600,000), this one word is not of supreme importance.
Oh, just as an additional note to explain - I don't want to go with a concept such as government subsidized because the politician concerned rented one of these public housing apartments when he was a young man just entering politics: it could imply that as he worked for the government, he got some kind of discounted housing...

 

[witzend]

Of course, every urban area has their own term for their own "public housing project". Here it is "The Villa". The Villa has been razed and rebuilt for 10 years now, but everyone still knows what you mean when you say "The Villa", and it stemmed from housing WWII ship builders.

 

[InsaneCdn]

Enough, enough already

Malika -
When we're having fun, we just don't know when to quit!