I never had any idea about this, but just now I went to go see what the history of public housing is Austin was. Came to find out that Austin was actually the site of the first public housing under the 1937 Housing Act. I think Atlanta had built one a few years earlier and it was the first actual publicly funded project. It was a young senator from Austin Lyndon Baines Johnson who would later be our President who convinced FDR that under the new deal they should try building public housing. They decided to build three projects in Austin to see how it would work. They were all built in segregated neighborhoods. One in each a Latino, Black and White neighborhoods. Oddly enough I believe it was LBJ who 30 years later as the president desegregated them.
The first one to be built under the 1937 Housing Act which was the Latino one called Santa Rita Courts (40 units), the second was the African American one called Rosewood Courts (60 units), and the third the white one called Chalmers Courts (86 units). All were built in 1939 are still in operation.
Here are their pictures but they aren't as big and fascinating as those other ones from the big cities. Remember in 1930's Austin was just a small town of 50k people.
Santa Rita Courts
http://www.hacanet.org/haca_communit...ita_courts.php
Rosewood Courts
http://www.hacanet.org/haca_communit...ood_courts.php
Chalmers Courts
http://www.hacanet.org/haca_communit...ers_courts.php