New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1920-08-25
The Housing Problem

ments, costing s4oo, 900, are
needed. Plans for only one new
apartment house were filed last
month. The people of the city do not
yet realize the population congestion
which Is upon them.
Last spring the Legislature acted on
the theory that the evil was entirely
in greedy landlords. Warnings that
its remedies would aggravate the evil
fell on deaf ears. But now it is
plain its course brought building to
a stop and that rents, because Of the
induced shortage, are to be higher
than if the Legislature had not
acted. No relief is possible except
through more construction. and the
Legislature, soon to assemble in
special session, may well concentrate
on this basic fact.
At best the outlook is dark. Labor
IS still high, though improving in
quality. The material men are close
" organized and coldly pursue the
policy Of small sales and large
profits. They charge their usual
overhead expenses against a 25 per
cent output, and thus are able to
show they profteer little. Construc-
ton on public account offers no
hope, for the city has not the funds,
even if it had the authority, to
provide more than a few drops of
relief. Cheap barracks might be
erected, on the Yaphank model, but
they would involve d great waste,
and it is doubtful whether large
numbers would go to them. More
over, il The public begins building,
private capital, Of course, will quit,
refusing to compete, thus leading to
another increase Of rents.
What, then, can be done? The
trouble being the consequence of the
fear Of investors, the only certain
way to secure house production is
for the public to remove the fear by
assuming the risk This implies
emergency subsidy in some form, and
Subsidy" is word the politicians
shy from. But what other way Of
fers escape from conditions becom-
ing more and more intolerable? A
negative attitude will not help.
Public aid proposals tend to crys-
tallize into two forms. One is that
income from mortgages secured
wholly by real estate shall be re-
Eeved Of the income tax. The other
is that for definite period no taxes
shall be levied on new dwellings,.
Of the two the second is the more
direct and probably will be able to
secure the larger support AS to
the first it will be said that the in
vestment is already made and adjust
ments effected on the great mass
of mortgages; that as to new money
for houses the tax exemption will be
but partial, and perhaps not large
enough to attract; that the change
would be more in the interest Of
mortgage holders generally rather
than the offer of a prize to induce
capital to enter the apartment field.
vi course, the proposed exemption
would lower mortgage interest rates
and thus stimulate building, but the
process would be slow.
On the other hand, the exemption
of housing improvements from local
taxation would Individually lead to
immediate construction. Other fac
tors remaining the sane, it would
pay better to build new houses than
to put capital into other invest
n.ents. Moreover, the public would
lose nothing in taxation, for the
new houses for the greater part would
be erected on vacant lands. As
things are, the public treasury gets
nothing from Improvements on
these, for there are no improve
ments. At the expiry Of the emer-