Evening star., 1939-03-21

Based upon that survey it requeSt5
a loan for 80 per cent of the cos Of
housing project from the United
States Housing Authority. Afte.' in
vestigation of the application and
study of the needs of the city. of The
sites selected and of proposed con-
struction costs and rentals, lne
United States Housing Authority
contracts to make the loan Ten
per cent of the cost is raised locally,
usually by a bond issue at a low
interest rate.
Must Be Paid in 60 Years.
The act requires that all loans
shall be repaid in full with interest
in not more than so years. These
loans will therefore cost the Fed
eral Government and the taxpayer
nothing. If the new homes to be
built by the local housing authorl-
ties were rented at a monthly rental
sufficient to maintain the properties
and repay these loans with interest,
ASiAtS Noold DC Adl dOONC lIIC
OF families from the slums.
To bring rentals of the new homes
down to a figure within the mear.s
of families from the slums. the
Housing Act provides that the U. S
H. A. may contract to make yearly
contributions to local housing au-
thorities. These annual contribu-
tions are made for the sole purpose
OF keeping down rents in the new
projects.
Moreover, no family may occupy a
home in a housing project unless the
family comes from an unfit or slum
dwelling and unless the family
income is less than five times the
gross rent. If the family is very
large one, the act says - if there
are three or more children ."
the family income may be six times
the gross rent.
This provision makes it certain
that only families of the lowest in
come, families now living IN the
slums, will occupy the new projects
Elimination Required.
The Housing Act requires that, in
every case. number of substandard
or slum dwellings equal to the num-
Der OF new homes constructed shall
be eliminated 80 in the locality
or metropolitan area Most of the
housing projects assisted by the U. S.
II. A. are located in Slum areas. But
irrespective of where new project
is located one dwelling in the slums
is eliminated for every new dwelling
built under the U. S. H. A. program.
The U. S. H. A. program is today
actually clearing the slums of
America.
You will observe that the program
I have outlined is completely decen-
tralized. 1t is local program. The
sites are chosen. the buildings are
constructed. the tenants are selected
and the projects are owned and
managed by the local housing au-
thority. The locality contributes its
share toward low rents by exempt
ing the new projects from local
taxation. Many localities are also
making other contributions in the
way OF Fairgrounds, vacated streets
and various municipal services.
Self-Quiz Conducted.
When talk to groups face to face
about the housing program, always
ask Tor questions at the end of my
talk. cannot do this with a radio
audience. Instead l am going to ask
myself the questions that have been
most often asked me. in the hope
that 1 thus will be able to answer
questions you would like to ask if it
were possible.
First, what is the difference be-
tween the United States Housing
Authority and the Federal Housing
Administration? The answer Is that
the Federal Housing Administration
called the F. H. A., and the United
States Housing Authority, called the
U. S. H. A., are two entirely differ
ent agencies working in different
fields by wholly different methods.
The Federal Housing Administra-
ton insures loans to private build
ers. 1t stimulates the flow of mort
gage funds into private building. 1t
promotes higher standards of con-
struction for private building. This
is great and important work.
The United States Housing Au-
thority makes loans and annual
contributions to public housing
agencies only. 1t gives such finan-
cial assistance solely for the purpose
OF clearing slums and providing
decent homes for families now liv-
ing IN the slums. The F. H. A. does
not clear slums. The U. S. H: A.
will never make a loan except to
eliminate a slum and rehouse
families from the slums.
Rentals Within Means.
The second question asked Is:
will families from the slums actu-
ally find homes in the new housing
projects?" The answer Is that
rentals in the new projects are in
every case within the means Of
families now living in the slums in
that same city as determined by
thorough investigation and that
only those families will be eligible
as tenants in the new projects.
The third question is: will this
public housing program hurt pri-
vate building?" In the past, I have
always answered that the experl-
ence of Great Britain, under a
public housing program very similar
to our own, has shown that public
housing invariably stimulates pri-
vate building. In Great Britain more
than 1900, 900 new homes have been
built by public housing agencies
since 1918. During the same period
the private building industry has
constructed more than 100000
new homke-the greatest building