The HOPE VI programme in the US displaces tens of thousands of low-income households to disperse pockets of poverty and transform sites of `severely distressed' public housing into mixed-income housing. A complete evaluation of this programme's impacts on residents must examine the meanings and functions of these communities before they are dismantled. Therefore, this paper examines residents' lived experiences of place in one site before redevelopment. This socially well-functioning community allowed residents to lay down roots, form place attachments and create bonds of mutual support with neighbours, contrary to typical depictions of severely distressed housing. Implications for US public housing policy and parallels with the discourse on social housing and social inclusion in western Europe illuminate overarching trends in housing policy for the poor.