The Washington times., 1929-09-07
HOOVER HOMES
COST FIGURE
MET HERE

Previous to his election to the
Pressdency Of the United States,
Herbert Hoover, as president of the
Better Homes in America" organi.
zation made statement to the
effect that 1t was possible to provide
Government employees and others
with homes of their own at
maximum cost Of $3.50 per room
per month.
With the bare facts of the above
statement as their objective the
Hampshire Gardens DEVELOPMENT
Corporations undertook to find the
solution. This all happened q little
less than a year ago and today
they have attained their goal; in
TACT they have exceeded their own
expectations and are able to offer
homes at a per-room-cost slightly
under that mentioned by President
Hoover.
Innovation In Finance
The cooperative apartment pro-
ject recently erected by the organi.
Eation at New Hampshire Avenue
and Emerson Street Is a testimony
to their success.
1t is believed to be an innovation
In, comparatively owned projects in
that the group OF Individual apart
nnent houses in the development
are to be organized to operate under
the control of one organization. In
brief, the care of each individual
apartment building will be invested
In a board of directors composed of
one representative from each Of
the apartment buildings. At the
time this member is elected, two
other owner occupants are also
elected to act with the first mem
her as house committee to care
for all individual house activities.
The deferred purchase money note
for the individual apartment is
something new and is handled in
the form of a personal note from
the purchaser to the builder, and is
in no way correlated with the de.
ferred purchase money Indebtedness
of the other owners. This places
the operating corporation on an
unusually fine financial footing,
Stockholders apartment owners) are
Indebted only for the first trust
interest and operating expenses,
which amount to less than half OF a
conservative estimate OF rental
value.
The operating corporation has a
prior lien on the stock of the in
dividual owners to that Of the
builder. who is holding the stock as
collateral security for the deferred
purchase-money notes. This adds
to the security of the operating
corporation in that the builder be-
comes an underwater of the stock
and. In the case of default by an
individual owner to his corporation,
the builder would have to step IN
and take the place Of the individual
owner in order to protect his own
interest.
Manager Employed
The legal set-up of the organiza-
ton provides that the directors
detected by the tenantsl, must en-
ploy a manager-agent to handle all
the details of actual operation. such
as keeping books, making collee-
tons, hiring all attendants and
the purchase Of supplies. The ac-
counts of the selected agent are to
be inspected at regular periods by
an accounting firm, also selected
by the board of directors.
The cost of operating the prop
erty includes the above mentioned
services as we'll as payment OF
taxes, insurance, heat, hot water,
requirements, ETC.. and is available
at considerable less than the cost OF
maintaining the same amount OF
floor space in an individual home
without any service.
All may have automobile tra1EpOr-
fakfAn VRhan as Eitt1A "a E10 down