The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-03-15

tklc OCCupduIo SAluAV SAAO Ss@AAAS mon bathroom, in rickety structures into which disease needs no sec- cnd invitation.
 Now another picture
 Those same families living in
 clean, airy apartments, getting a new lease on life away from the
 rodents and the bugs, away from Che contamination of the slums,
 away from the discouraged resig-
 nation of being forced to live in
 filth mad squalOr, being bale to E look their fellow men and, more importantly, their children in the
 eye without apology.
 The choice seems automatic, doesn't 1t? Yet, only two years ago the people of Waterbury, through their elected aldermen, voted to let the novels remain and forbid the benefits of modern housing to low Income families. Now, despite the fact that the city faces one of the greatest shortages of rents in Its history, not a step has been taken toward making more and better homes available to the working people of this key defense city, even though the federal government has been ready and willing to help.
 Two years ago the federal gov- ernment had allOcated the sum
 of S1,OOO,00O for Federal HOus-
 ing Administration Project In this . city. A city Housing Authority was
 set up by the then Mayor Frank
 Hayes, member of the Chase family donated a site to the city, and all that was needed was al- dermanic approval. As you recall,
 the aldermen held a public hear
 ing at Wilby high school, at which
 time real estate agents and prop
 erty owners denounced the plan
 as radical" The proponents of
 the plan were showed under and
 the aldermen, perhaps naturally . enough after hearing the voices
 of important taxpayers, killed the
 whole program. The real estate
 brokers ard property owners, in :. their c0mplacent Omniscience,' declared that Waterbury had ;, enough dwelling units and that all was well with housing here.
 That was two years ago. How do the opponents of Federal Housing feel now about their claim that Wa terbu,y has more than enough dwelling units?' With dozens of new families now pouring into the city each month as result of the national defense program, with many families having increased in- come enough to look futilely for better homes away from the slums, kio they still hide their heads os- trichelike in the sand and proclaim lnat everything is all right? Frankly, as far as the public record $ concerned, they still do.
 Isn't 1t about time that Water ssbury decided that powerful minor- ities shouldn't run the city, that : the common people should have "a voice IS well, that the men and sswomen who aren't in the high wage brackets nevertheless have God sglven right to homes clean and z decent enough for themselves and their children? Shouldn't the city . realize how great was the short ssightedness of two years ago; sshOuldnt the city recognize that amany more new homes are needed \ and that federal aid should be ssought to the last possible dime? sOr is 1t radical to suggest that sAmerican citizens have the right z to cleanliness and decency In the homes in which they and their schildren live?
 The steps to remedy the situation ere obvious. The mayor should al pnce appoint new members of the now defunct Waterbury Housing Authority, application should bt made to Washington for a new bousing grant, and every possible step should be taken to provide bad. N needed homes for the city's thou. sands who now have no choice bu 70 live i'll dirt and darkness.
 { Waterbury's housing situation is $50 bad that the government, on Its town initiative, has been obliged tO <plan emergency housing units for s300 families here. This Is entirely saside from the regular FILA pro- zgram and serves to illustrate the surgency of the city's plight.
 ! Proud of our tolerant American ism, we have all raised our hand n horror at the anti-Negro program of the Ku Klux Klan, yet in ou own city we have allowed negroes tt De segregated into the worst O Eluns. Nor have we limited 1t |, C3lored people; we hace done tn, same with low-income families O eTery race, forcing them to live il Nermin-ridden fire-traps; yet calm " turning down a $l ,000 900 fedora grant to give them better homes.
 . It's time that we did something, Forgetting the inexcusable failures sOf recent years. It's time that Wa sterbury should decide that 1t swants as many clean, modern
 homes as the federal government twill help 1t get. It's time that Waterbury, while racing to record prosperity thanks to the defense
 bOOm. should give at least 8 sthought to the forgotten man." sal0ng with his wife and children. 
 RANG CE v ~ RR