New-York tribune., 1921-03-20
ann Requests
assage Of Five
Housing Bills
e enement Commissioners
Says Measures Prepared
BY Mayors Board Will
Relieve City Congestion
Tax Exemption Futile
Asserts More Legislation Is
Needed to Encourage the
Bnilding of Apartments

In statement summarizing the five
bills prepared by the Mayors housing
conference committee and introduced
sn the Legislature by Senator James J,
Walker for the purpose of stimulating
3 the construction of buildings, apart
sac1lts and tenements. Frank Mann,
Tenement House Commissioner, yester-
day declared that this emergency legis-
sation was needed in addition to the
Stax exemption ordinance recently
adopted effectively to relieve the hous-
ing situation in this city. He said
that the tax exemption ordinance was
step in the right direction, but that
( Il WAS not enough.
Surveys Just made by the Tenement
House Department and the Department
of Health indicate that there are prac-
ticRlly no vacant apartments in the city
and that congestion and overcrowding
have reached alarming proportions,
Commissioner Mann said. The number
of instances where two or more fam
lilies are occupying the same apartment
is such as to constitute a growing men,
ace to the health and welfare of the
city, he declared, and something must
be done to meet the situation.
AT least 100000 apartments are
urgently needed to properly house the
people," said Mr.. Mann. Glow can
houses be built, IS still being asked
on every hand. The tax exemption law
was step in the right direction and
will do much to encourage building,
but something more is needed if active
construction is to begin, since the de-
cision of the Court of Appeals has
somewhat retarded matters on account
l.>-I l. III IL l.
in the minds Of investors.
The five Walker bills were very
carefully prepared by the Mayors
housing conference, in collaboration
with the Corporation Counsel, after an
exhaustive study of the whole housing
situation in this city, and will meet
the emergency in most practical man
ner. One of the hills is an emergency
act and provides for system Of re-
lief extending over fifteen years. 1t
is based on the so-called rentes sys-
TEN, long established in France, where
by bonds are issued by the government
and sold to small investors and the
proceeds used to aid, by cheap mort
gage loans, the development Of I'M
provements on real estate.
"The commissioners Of the sinking
fund are constituted trustees of q spe-
cial trust fund, to establish which they
are authorized to provide for the issu-
ance and sale of building loan trust
bonds, s per cent tax exempt bonds
maturing within fifteen years. in de-
Nominations of $3.50 upward. The pro-
ceeds are held by the commissioners
of the sinking fund in q trust fund,
out Of which per cent mortgage
loans, maturing within fifteen years
and paid in installments annually,
graduating in decreasing ratio as the
by the commissioners to the, owners of
vacant land for the construction
thereon of dwellings,. tenements or
apartment houses, up to 80 per cent of
the actual cost of construction. The
net cost of the mortgage is less than 4
per cent because of the tax relief
granted"
The remaining four bills are neces-
sary to render the emergency bill
) operative.