Lol, this is what they did in the USSR. It doesn't really work unless you trap people in this housing because those with means won't be interested, or will move

Lol, this is what they did in the USSR. It doesn't really work unless you trap people in this housing because those with means won't be interested, or will move out once they lived there and experienced living with "mixed income" people. That will make an average resident slightly worse to be around, rinse, repeat. It's not like the old failed public housing experiments failed because they didn't allow richer people to move in... Walter Williams auto-biography describes "the projects" in the 1950ies, when they were still decent public housing. With increased opportunity, people start moving out and the spiral begins. That will be especially true in the US; given that the US is one of the most meritocratic countries, the non-immigrant US poor as a group are probably the least functional large socio-economic group anywhere in the world. I'd personally rather live next to some Haitians or refugees from Taliban than multi-generational American poor, urban or rural. But if you have a choice why live next to poor people at all?