Evening star., 1941-12-06
Vast u. ). HOUSING
Proposal Assai|ed
ByHead Of Realtors
Strous' Suggestion
Called Unnecessary,
Costly and WostefuI


Direct building by the Federal
Government of 4,500000 housing
units. making the Government land
lord to the approximately 1880, 1000
persons they would house, the scope
OF activity which Nathan Straus, ad-
ministrator of the United States
Housing Authority in a recent ad-
dress. stated he envisions for Gov
ernment housing construction over
the next Is years, is assailed by Phil
ip w. Kniskern. president of the
National Association of Real Estate
Boards, as unnecessary. fantastic In
its costliness and fundamentally
wasteful of real opportunities for
housing betterment.
Under such a program the Ma
tional Government as landlord
would control the rents and the
house repairs and other such items
of nearly Is per cent of the national
population. The political implica-
tions of such a situation are fright
full to contemplate" Mr.. Kniskern
said.
Based upon the average cost OF
housing authority units built in the
past" he estimates. the proposed
4,5oOo0O Government-buil homes
would add to our already topheavy
national debt, and add to it unneces-
sarily, a cost Of between $4,000, ,0OO,-
600 and s25 5,OOO,0 900, this at a
time when the defense program is
bound to force the national debt still
higher-how high no one today can
safely predict.
Favors Some L. S. Construction
Defense workers must be ade-
euately housed. In the case of in
dividual communities mushrooming
under the pressure Of war industries
not expected to be permanent, some
direct Government construction may
be the only solution" said the ma
tional realtor president, head of the
First Mortgage Corp, Philadelphia.
But Mr.. Straus, by the very scope
OF his proposal, which We may as
sumo is only his personal version Of
our future, puts us on warning that
in the emergency decisions we are
now making, far-reaching in their
effects, we need sharply to differ
entiate between this unavoidable
Government building in what may
become ghost towns and proposed
Goyory, y,,eot bo,,eir1 yert,,ras IN q
grand scale in the name of slum
clearance and Of housing for low
income families.
1T Is good here to note that Pres
ident Roosevelt in his press confer
ence Of November IA took occasion
TO point out that the problems of
better living conditions for defense
workers is different from the prob
lem of slum elimination. He indi-
Gated his own feeling that defense
needs are more closely connected
with temporary than with perman-
ent housing
Mr. Strauss prediction that di-
rect Government building yet to
come will house one person out of
every seven should warn us that un-
less We make a conscious national
effort to utilize private enterprise
and private capital so far as they
can fill our needs, both in defense
housing and in plans for post-de-
fenSe housing betterment. unless We
give them whatever aids they should
have so they can do this work. we
shall be disintegrating democracy in
America by disintegrating what it
rests upon in our national life.
"Slums We as Nation no longer
can tolerate Urban blight we must
find way to overcome or it will eat
farther and faster into all the values
our cities represent. Deteriorated
districts already comprise approxi-
mately one-fourth of our urban
areas. No Government built subsidy
housing, no competition between
Government and private enterprise
but only good thoughtful teamwork
between them, each taking its OWL
normal role, can open the way 10
large-scale replanning and rebuild
Ing of our decayed city areas. And
that alone can put these old areas
on new feet.
Elimination of Slums
The Governments ventures into
low-cost housing under present di-
rection of U. S. H. A. activities has
dismally failed in the prime objective
the elimination of slums. In far
too many instances it has failed to
tear down existing slums. In virtu-
ally every case it has built housing
beyond the means of the Lowest
one-thrd'. forcing the slum dWellers
to seek living accommodations else
where and thereby creating new
slums and new slum conditions.
Various local housing authorities
have publicly declared that private
enterprise can build better housing
and at a lower cost than the Govern
nent can. Government operations
mean loss in tax income to the mun-
icipality and they accompany this
by loading more heavily the cost of
municipal services.
Because large-scale operate
alone can hope to cure sluRs and
blight, land assembly becomes the
central problem. municipalities, pro-
perty owners. financing institutions
and the building industry are willing
horses that must pull together if we
are really to achieve our purpose
The Federal Government can make
a powerfully effective contribution
by pulling with them, instead of set
ting up isolated sporadic projects OF
its own that in any great volume
tend to put question mark on pri-
vate building plans.
Needed for this teamwork is
some legislative action, municipa