Evening star., 1937-06-12
NATIONAL HOUSING
POLICY IS NOTICED
Elements of Comprehensive
Plan Working to Sur
face, Is Claim.
6recial Dispatch to The Star.

0IeSldA DlSpdtCl 10 Inc otdI.
LOS ANGELES, June l2-Asserting
that In our national life the elements
OF a truly comprehensive national
housing policy are beginning gradually
to emerge, Paul E. Stark, Madison,
Wis. president of the National Asso-
citation Of Real Estate Boards, ad-
dressed Southwest regional confer
ence of the association, closing here
last night He expressed the feeling
OF the association that the work of
any Federal housing authority, such as
IS proposed in the Wagner housing bill,
might best be centered on assisting
the individual cities to set up local
housing commissions or authorities
whose task would be to find out Just
what is needed in their own localities.
From their work would arise an un-
derstanding of what is needed in hous-
ing through the Nation, and OF what
measures, practically, would best ad-
vance this need
The association, he stated, suggests
that the Wagner bill might we'll be
modified to emphasize principally such
. plan.
The Federal authority proposed in
the bill could give the localities gen.
eral working plan for careful exami-
nation Of their local situation, so find
ings in one city could be compared
with those in others. Local commits
sions and authorities might then be
called together for suggestions as to
next steps needed, including Federal,
State or local action.
Decent Housing for All Asked.
true national housing program, he
said, must be broad-gauged enough to
have as its objective decent housing
conditions for all our people. and op-
portunity for every family of reason
ably stable income expectation. how
ever small the income, to own its own
home.
ITO open home ownership to the
widest possible sector OF the Ameri-
can people we need not only to cut
unnecessary costs, but also to take
measures against the forces that
are destroying values in the homes
we create" President Stark said.
Greatest such destructive force is
that of urban blight, which creeps
over once promising areas that should
have been home areas, turning them
into deficit districts"
He said that to develop some in
strument with which to stop urban
blight and make possible the reclama-
ton OF rundown areas the associa-
ton has developed a proposed neigh
borhood protection and Improvement
act, through which States might au-
thorlze property owners in a neigh
borhood to plan comparatively for its
betterment, acting through the pres
ent city machinery and in co-ordina-
ton with the existing city plan He
asked members of the association in
every city to study the possibilities OF
some such measure for their own
city needs.
Unity Of Feeling Seen.
John McC. Mowbray, Baltimore,
chairman Of the associations Commit
tee on Housing, speaking before the
recent annual meeting of the United
States Chamber of Commerce, eval-
uated the tentative attack already
ward the creation of comprehensive
national housing. He expressed his
belief that the people Of America
themselves are coming to very con-
siderable unity Of feeling as to what
Its objective must be, and said:
Whatever the policy may come to
be in detail, It's core must be some
thing positive, not something mega
tive. Slum elimination is not enough.
Elimination Of substandard housing
Tor low income groups is not enough"
For broad-gauge program having
rs its objective decent American
housing standards for families OF every
income level and widening of the
possibility of home ownership to put
1t within reach of every stable and
credit-worth family, he pledged for
the association mot only willing but
enthusiastic support for such measures
rs we may need to help the whole
cause"