Maybe "desirable" isn't the right word, but I walked through several public projects recently in my area and they are much safer and better maintained than the historic image. Talking to people there, it was evident that they were not the "freeloaders" so often portrayed by a certain group of politicians either - many were there because of health care costs and other calamities that were beyond the person's control. I was there in the middle of the day and it was obvious that a whole lot of people were out at work - again, not the image so often unfairly portrayed of the unemployed freeloader. The houses and grounds were clean and well-maintained, more so than the poorer neighborhoods surrounding them.