Given what I've seen in government-funded low income housing, I think that it generally should be abolished. It's nothing but government-sanctioned freeloading by the majority of the inhabitants.
It's a big country and there can be lots of variation on the pattern, but in general I favor shifting from fixed site projects to vouchers. But that leaves the problem of ensuring that there is enough low- and moderate priced housing spread around in dispersed locations that lower income people can actually afford.
I live in D.C. so I'll use it as an example. We have had the historic pattern of the city being used as the dumping ground for the left-behinds as the middle class fled to the 'burbs. Now gentrification is pushing the poor out of many of "their" traditional neighborhoods. This is good for the city itself, which is sprucing up very nicely in many areas. But where are the poor supposed to go?
Part of the problem is that the suburbs are highly resistant to building low and moderate priced housing. This has been a political issue for years and some suburban jurisdictions have done more than others, but there is simply not enough. Most of the job growth, especially in the entry-level, low skill ranges, is out in the 'burbs. Low income people need to be able to find housing where the jobs are -- and ideally they shouldn't have to have a car to do it.
One occasionally reads stories about the poverty superstar who rises at 5 to drop her kids at her sister's place by 5:30 so she can take metrorail and three busses to get to her minimum wage job by 9:00. Then she does it all in reverse to get back home by 8 that night. My hat is off to such people, but as a social/transportation/housing model, it's bound to fail. So the issue remains: how do we break up the large, toxic concentrations of the very poor? And how do we get enough moderate priced housing spread throughout the metro area and in reasonable proximity to jobs?
I'm not opposed to zoning and occupancy regulations; I don't want poor families tripled up in tiny apartments or absentee landlords operating flophouses on suburban cul de sacs. But the suburbs can't have it both ways. If suburbanites don't want these things, they need to be supportive of a reasonable amount of decent affordable housing in their areas as well. Like, just maybe, a Habitat project in la-la land. Dispersion is important. Every area has to carry part of the load. Every cul de sac doesn't have to have a section 8 unit, but there does need to be more affordable housing near suburban job centers.