Evening star., 1938-04-17
BY FREDERICK r. BARKLEY.


- will soon be getting under way in
new style in this country under
the latest Wagner-Steagall Act, and
one definite result already can be pre-
dicted. This is that any one who would
try to understand the financing policy be-
hind 1t is due for an arithmetical head
ache of large proportions unless he shall
have guide.
The agency which will administer this
new attack on the housing problem is the
United States Housing Authority-not to
be confused with the Federal Housing
Administration which helps to finance pri-
vate builders.
The theory behind both agencies, of
course. is the widely accepted idea that
housing boom would answer many of the
problems of recession" and depression
Back of the U. S. H. A. more particularly
Is the frequent assertion of President Roose-
velt that one-tflrd of the Nation is ill
housed" as we'll as i'll fed and i'll clothed
To make at least start in providing
better housing for this ill-housed third,
Congress granted the u S. H. A. the power
to raise s5o0,000000 of capital funds for
low-rent housing construction. In addi-
: ton, the act authorized an annual appro-
priation of s26 900 900 to be used partly for
administrative expenses. but dominantly
for subsidies to bring the rent of the pro-
posed housing down to the sum the "ill-
housed third can pay.
Investment to Be Returned.
r,rtherroore the oft ,,ro,,d.. +La e.oo
100000 investment is to he returned to
the Government at the end of so years
from the revenues of the project. But
the way in which this admirable aim is
to be accomplished involves some of the
fanciest financial legerdemain that the
country has yet heard Of 1t is the
effort which is bound to be made to under
stand this angle of the project that prom
ises the mathematical masmas to the
uninitiated
With the general objectives of the new
program, probably no one can quarrel very
srdently In their arguments for the
desirabilitv Of destroying urban slums and
substituting decent low-rent houses the
advocates Of the new act put their best
feet forward. Slums. it is argued, breed
crime and other social problems which
the community pays high to handle,
through community chests. police budgets,
houses OF correction prisons and dozen
other public and semi-public charitable,
punitive and corrective agencies
Furthermore, 1t is maintained, slums
DO not pay their way even in the more
peaceful and orderly activities of the COM
munity because they cannot produce the
taxes TO meet the burden of the facilities
customarily available to them-fire pro-
lection, sewer and water service, paved
streets, lighting and so on
And finally the lure is held out that
the destruction of one slum housing unit
for every one financed by the Federal
Government-which the act mandatorilv
reouires-will restore many blighted areas
OF the Nations cities. encouraging private
interests to see opportunities for new
buildings of one type or another in the
renovated areas. All these advantages, of
course, are in addition to the obvious one
OF speeding up the economic machine again
by the new housing construction itself.
Decentralized Operation.
II publicly financed low-rent housing
there is to be an obvious improvement of
the new program over previous ones is seen
In the decentralized method of operation.
During the emergency from 1888 on
both the Public Works and the Resettle-
n1ent Administrations went into the low
rent housing field with a view chiefly to
providing employment and a business
stimulus, but the programs were run en-
tirely from Washington. That of the
Resettlement Administration now known
as the Farm Security Administration, pro-
ducel such results as Greenbelt, which
Is being duplicated in two other sections
OF the country
The P. w. A. program, under various
official guises, resulted in a total of 81
projects, OF which more than four-ffths
are now completed and more than two
thirds already occupied. All these P. w.
A. projects have now been turned over to
the o. S. H. A.
The U. S. H. A. program. however, calls
Tor administration {. IL projects, both new
and completed, by local housing authori-
ties" created under State laws The idea
here is that these agencies are likely to
have better understanding of local prob
lens both in construction and operation
Of the Developments As a part of this
program, local agencies already created in
some 80 States are now taking over the
developments built by the p w. A. and
thus offering further aid to the statistical
pencil-sharpening industry
And now to get down to the financial
vizardry of the U. S. H. A. program, where
by rabbits appear to leap out of hats with
out even the aid Of the rolled-up sleeve
Let us first take the system evolved for
financing the new projects, even though
the terms adopted for selling or leasing
the p w. A. developments to the local
"authorities" is likely to produce the first
puzzled and critical repercussions from the
taxpayers.
Perhaps a good place to start would be
with the $4,000, ,ooo-a year appropriation
authorized for the q. 8. H. A. for admin