Under Quarantine in a City Project: Stories of Fear, Family, Food, and Community

This chapter examines how the COVID-19 pandemic exposed existing gaps within larger systems and urban life. It focuses on how residents of a public housing project reimagined their lives during early phases of the pandemic. It also cites examples that demonstrate structural shortcomings and everyday community practices that emerged and point towards pathways for renewed stability and the reimagining of a more equitable society. The chapter takes a bottom-up approach to examine how city residents in a US public housing neighborhood, the Sun Valley housing project in Denver, Colorado, reimagined their urban life in the early stages of the pandemic, which covered the period of June and July 2020. It points out that Sun Valley public housing neighborhood is a collection of dilapidated townhomes that is home to 1,500 residents who form an economically impoverished yet diverse community.