The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-05-07

work. The Housing Division of Pr
after the start OF a project before
The time can not be shortened. *
says. because of the need to start
with exhaustive social and economic
surveys and the need to purchase
large quantities of land i'll con-
gested areas at prices low enough to
make low-cost housing feasible.
When construction does start
these projects rank we'll in the
amount of work provided. The
Housing Division expects to pay for
60 million man-hours of labor out
of the $l50.000,000 it is spending
now. and three times as much out
Of the s450000000 ALLEGATION it will
get from the new works appropria
ton.
SlI Room Cheapest.
Eleven dollars room is the
cheapest rent for which private
capital, even organized into limited
dividend corporations, can afford to
build apartment houses. This means
that only families able to pay S33
and $44 a month can live in such
structures.
The governments slum-replace-
ment projects are going to provide
rooms renting at $3.50 to $3.50 a
month, including heat, light, fuel
for cooking, hot water and laundry
equipment. What's more, their
apartments are going to have more
| conveniences and be better planned
than even the famous structures OF
German and Austrian cities. Eacn
will have central heating, modern
plumbing. electric refrigeratorS and
incinerators, and all will be planned
so that no room will have to be used
as a passage to other rooms or to a
! bath.
European countries subsidized
Fsuch housing to the extent that
rents were required to cover only
maintenance costs. The United
States subsidy is not so large. It's
power to condemn land gives it an
! advantage over private capital, it
can borrow money more cheaply,
and it is donating 30 per cent Of the
cost of construction, but the re-
naming 70 per cent of the cost is
being amortlzed over As years and
rents are fixed at rate which will
retire this debt, with interest at 3le
per cent.
The resulting rate of $3.50 a room,
amounting to $3.50 for three
room apartment, is more than tene-
ment families are paying now, but
the Housing Division thinks the
services it furnishes free will bal
ance the two budgets.
Careful Tenant Selection
It intends to use ScrupulouS care
in selecting families for its apart
ments, III order to make sure that
no one moves in who can afford
higher rents. This is being done to
avoid injuring the private owner
of apartment properties.
Forty Slum- clearance projects are
being worked on by the Housing
Division with its first 100000.
Seventeen of these have been an
nomced and some are already under
construction. Locations of the rest
are being kept secret so that the
Government may negotiate quietly
for acquisition of land, without
having to cope with land specula-
tors.
Two of the announced projects are
in Atnlanta, Ga, one in Indianapolis,
one in New York, with others planned
there, three in Chicago. three in
Cleveland, two in Montgomery, Ala,
and one each in Cincinnati, Detroit,
Louisville. Boston and Milwaukee.
Must Pay Own Way"
! States and cities are being en-
couraged by the Housing Division
to start their own projects, with
loans from the government, and II
states have passed enabling legisla-
ton looking toward such action.
PWA Administrator Ickes consid-
ers slum clearance the most desir-
able part, socially, of the New Deals
program. and he has sharp words
for those who think his Housing
Division moves too slowly.
IF we are to make case for
low-cost housing and slum clearance