The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-05-02

QlNOICe COuIV, more lTIPCOQClldOle col
blind alleys, pitfalls and labyrinths
This is particularly unfortunate bee
ponds on its solution.
There are not enough homes for
the people in this country today.
There are millions of men skilled
in building trades who can't find
work and haven't been able to find
it for seven years. And the peo-
pie who want homes haven't money
enough to hire the people who want
to build homes.
Costs Are Still High
Within the last few weeks build
ing has turned upward. The cost
of a home is still higher, proper
tionately, than the cost of anything
else for which men spend their
money; building materials and
building wage rates are still above
the existing price levels.
To balance this is the fact that
the cost of financing a home is less,
>
quantities for financing home con-
Struction, and that there is a real
shortage of decent habitationS.
Whether or not the balance is true
remains to be seen.
When you talk about the housing
problem you talk about many differ
ent things, so interviewer that you
can't separate them. The list Is
endless, and it takes in almost every
element in modern life.
Biggest Group on Relief
The New Deal first bumped into
the housing problem when it found
that the largest single group of peo-
pie on its relief rolls came from the
building trades. 1t encountered it
in frantic pleas from distressed home
owners for help in staving off fore
closure
NRA found the construction in
dustry one place where the formula
of shorter working hours and higher
wage rates was meaningless and
impossible
PWA learned what an involved,
tedious task it is to build, even when
you have money; how many OBJ
stacles there are to overcome; how
many problems must be dealt with
before you can start paying wages
to men whose purchasing power you
seek to improve.
The Relief Administration and
the Commerce Department went to
work trying to get the first necessary
facts about this gargantuan prob
lem-hoW many homes needed re-
pair, how many should be con-
demned, how many lacked modern
conveniences, how many families
were doubling up. Unemployed men
and women we're sent out to make
count in 81 cities.
On Many Fronts
The Home Owners Loan Corp.
shouldered the task of saving homes
for people who were in danger of
losing them. NRA thrashed out the
problem of high wages and high
building material costs but accom-
plished little-eXcept, perhaps, to
make building material costs even
higher. PWA spent money trying
to make as much work as possible
for builders but did it slowly, and
the debate still RACES as to whether
or not any faster expenditure was
possible. At any rate the men it
employed we're an infiniteSimal part
of those who needed employment.
1t tried to deal with the low-cost
housing problem by lending money
to limited dividend corporations for
construction of inexpensive, health
full, attractive apartments. 1t found
that in spite of its best efforts the
apartments just weren't cheap
enough, and it abandoned this
enterprise and turned to direct fed
eral slum clearance work.
FERA and PWA both expert
mented with subsistence homeSteads
construction of homes in rural
regions where residents could work
part time and till the land part
time.
Swinging Into Stride
And finally the Federal Housing
Administration was created to try
to coax private money back into
housing, and at the same time tc
correct the abuses private money
had imposed upon home financing
After two years of trial and err
ror, falling down and picking them
selves up again, turning back ano
starting up new trails, most of these
efforts seem to be swinging into 0hel1
stride.
Something is helping building AND
the industries that stand or fall with
it, for this particular season at least
TOmOrrOw-The government tries
spending.