Evening star., 1935-11-19
S[UM CLEARANCE
DEFENDED BY CLAS
Director of P. W. A. Housing
Calls for Support in
Forum Address.

Ance program of the Public Works Ad-
ininistration A. r. Clas, p. w. A.
housing director, last night urged
support OF the movement. Clas was
speaking on the National Radio Fo-
rum, sponsored by The Evening Star
and presented over Nation wide net
work of the National Broadcasting Co.
In advancing his viewpoint the ad-
ministrator emphasized three factors:
l. That public housing is vitality
and permanently essential.
Slums Being Subsidized.
2. That you are already SubSidizing
your slums and that public housing is
an incomparably superior alternative
to the maintenance of Slums in their
present miserable state.
3. That the wholesale construction
of public housing will not only tend
to revive one of the fundamental in
dustries Of the country and to re-
habilitate our cities, but 1t will af-
ford an immediate and calculable ben
efiit to as much as a third Of our
urban population"
Opposition of the real estate in
terests to the program, Clas declared,
is unjustifed since they "have done
nothing about it (the low-coSt hous-
ing need because there was no profit
in the construction of decent housing
for slum dwellers. For this do not
blame them. After all, you can con-
duct business at personal loss for
just so long, after which you fold up.
What I do blame them for Is their
refusal to admit the self-evident
truth
The text Of Mr.. Clas' address fol-
lows:
Thank you, Mr.. Kuhn.
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.
To undertake the construction in
one year and one-half Of city Of
100000 population. the size Of Nash
vile, Albany. or Des Moines, Is a size
able job. This is the program Of the
housing division of the Public Works
Administration, the largest Govern
mental department directly charged
with the construction of housing.
Every project Is now under way. Some
are completed, others are under con-
struction and the balance are in the
hands of contractors for bids.
Until recently the housing division
has hid its light under buShel and
for this reason much confusion and
misunderstanding of its purposes and
accomplishment has arisen. Particu-
larly has it been confused with the
Federal Housing Administration, al
though with similarity in name, and
cooperative relations one with the
other. the connection between these
organizations ceases.
The housing division was set up as
q self-contained unit in the Public
Works Administration to make a study
and demonstration of decent housing
for low-income urban workers. If you
will grant the assumption that In the
final analysis no such worker with an
income Of less than $500 per year
has sufficient margin Of economic
security to justify home ownership,
you find that nearly half of all urban
families should always remain on a
rental basis Even In the boom year
of 1929, 81 per cent of all urban fami-
lies in the United States had an in
come OF $4,000 or less.
For those in the lowest income
groups only two types Of housing have
been hitherto available. The first is
the cast-of homes of the well-to-do
which their former occupants vacate,
as q rule, for one OF two reasons:
Either because they are obsolete or
dilapidated. The other type is jerry
built, shoddy housing which was in
adequate to begin with and deterio-r
stes from that point.
Few Good Low -Pficed Homes.
The plain facts are that no really
decent housing has ever been built for
the low = income urban worker. Real
estate and the building industry have
never tackled this problem because
1t offered no profit. Low-income work.
ers cannot pay, and probably never
will be able to pay, the rents neces-
Sary to make their housing an attrac-
tive venture for private enterprise
The product Of this economic stale
mate Is the vast reaches of slum areas
which disgrace almost every city in
the country.
1t has been obvious for many years,
not only from the stagnation of these
areas, but from European experience,
that if anything is to be done to pro-
vide better housing for these people,
1t must be done through some gov
ernmental agency, either national or
local. Years before the United States
began, almost every country In Europe
had recognized the necessity of gcv-
ernmental participation In housing.
At this time the only agency in a
position to tackle the problem in this
country was the Federal Government.
In order to provide a measure of re-
lief for the hard-hit building trades
in conjunction with a demonstra-
ton program of better housing. the
President created the housing division
The division Is constructing 81
projects distributed over the country,
- in the North, % in the South,
Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
They will cost $14S,000,o00 and will
Description Of Projects.
Housing Project" is vague term
and connotes no picture of what we
are undertaking. I should like to give
you some idea of what these housing
projects will provide.
In the first place the bullion area
varies from 10 to 80 per cent of the
total, thus leaving at least 10 per cent
for open gardens. or Fairgrounds. The
buildings. with few projects excepted,
are limited to three stories in height.
In the South the majority are one
story. with some of two stories. No
building is more than two rooms deep
and every dwelling unit has cross
ventilation. Every unit has an indoor
toilet, heating and bathing facilities,
cooking and refrigerating equipment,
and electric light. These are con-
sidered basic fundamentals and an
absolutely minimum standard