Evening star., 1938-12-18
New Program
Starts With
IS Millions
Crime and Disease
Are Linked With
Slun Evils
By Nelson NJ. Shepard.

mgton, said an official report prior
to the creation of the Alley Dwelling
Authority in 1884, are not alone a
humanitarian problem.
Their intimate relationship to
government and taxation is too
often overlooked.
bad housing conditions go hand
in hand with crime, juvenile de-
linquency, poverty, disease and SIM
liar evil products of the slums. Heavy
municipal expenditures are made
annually, not to cure this condition
at the source, but to allay the
symptoms which manifest them
selves in law violations and public
welfare cases."
The realization that District tax
payers were paying millions Of dol
lars annually in Subsidizing nu-
merous blighted areas, which could
not possibly pay their own way
fully, was an important factor in
launching a gradual plan of slum
eradication four years ago. An
analytical study of Slum costs, made
for the first time in a single central
area of only 223 square miles, jolted
taxpayers into better understand
ing of what these conditions mean
in dollars and cents.
Indisputable evidence was pre-
sented to show that this single area,
covering 322 per cent of the Dis
trict'S total territory represented
q subsidized cost of at least 100000
more than the taxes derived from
it. The estimate is conservative
one. At least 20 per cent of all
appropriations for public services,
including education, fire protection,
highways, public health and inspec-
tions, were expended in this de-
preciated area.
Officials say that conditions are
Just as bad in that small area today,
If not worse, than they were several
years ago Studies of other scat
tered slum areas, which unfortu-
nately have not been made, would
disclose a somewhat similar record
of disproportionate costs.
The Alley Dwelling Authority
=, started out to penetrate to the
source of these bad housing condi-
tions. The chief contributing factor
was recognized in the city's 200 no
torious and hidden inhabited alleys.
For four years the A. D. A. has COM
bated this problem almost single
handed. Working with only meager
cash reserve, it has reclaimed few
alleys for commercial use and has
substituted good housing for bad
at economically sound rentals within
the reach of income families.
Its work has demonstrated beyond
the shadow of doubt that bal
anced program of slum reclamation
and sound housing can be made a
real asset to the city.
Meanwhile, the Public Works Ad-
ministration, through its former
housing division and economic
studies of bad housing effects, had
spread abroad the doctrine of slum
liability. More than ever before
municipalities became acutely aware
that the increasing cost of subsl-
dizing blighted areas was never
ending. Unless cut out or improved,
these areas have habit of spreading
like rotted core to depreciate
adjoining nelgnDOrnOOdS.
There was instilled in most SUM-
ridden cities an economic incentive
to rid themselves of this tax-bur-
dened problem AS an incentive
1t proved more stimulating to action
than mere sentimentality and civic
shame.
The answer came year ago. Con-
gress appropriated loan fund OF
S8OO,O00 900 for Nationwide drive
to eradicate slums and provide low
rent housing for slum dWellers. The
amount was only drop in the
bucket compared to national needs
but it was start in the right direc-
ton.
The United States Housing Au-
thority was created to administer
this fund and to line up the cities
of the country. In the course of
year practically all the funds at
Its disposal have been allocated.
Now Washington is on the thresh-
hold of a new program of Substi-
tuting good housing for bad. A
total of $15,0O0,O00 has been ear
marked for the District, by Admin
istrator Nathan Straus. An initial
contract to rehouse nearly 1900
families of less than $1,100 annual
income is about to be carried out at
q cost of $7,636, 900 of which 80 per
cent is loan.
The A. D. A. is the agent for
conducting this new crusade against
the slums. The chief obstacle in
the way is limitation of $1.50 a
square foot than can be paid for
land. That limitation Immediately
knocks out of the program such
blighted areas as Kings court, in
the Northwest section, perhaps the
worst large example of slum condi-
=. tions in the city.
Involving as it does a policy of
annual Federal subsidies to bring
rents down to an average of 81 or
below, the U. S. H. A. program, as
1t has become known, presents an
interesting experiment. 1t will prove
more costly to the taxpayers than
the existing A. D. A. program
which has succeeded in breaking
even on its housing.
IN euecC, Inere Will pe dual
housing program in the city. When
Congress convenes next month, it
will be asked to make good on its
authorization for the A. D. A. to
borrow 100000 annually from the
Treasury for the next five years.
In this way the independent and
economically balanced program of
the A. D. A. may be continued.
Even the expenditures of all these
millions will do no more than elm
lnate small proportion of the
estimated 10000 substandard homes
In the District, most of which are
drain upon solvent business and
property owning taxpayers. Re-
sponsible officials hesitate to COM
NIT themselves on paper as to the
ultimate cost.
Experience in the next few years