Evening star., 1942-06-28
War Housing
Plans for D. {.
Hit New Snag
Cost Held Too High,
Priorities Are Given
Under Protest
Priorities Are Granted,
But WPB Official Hits
Price Of DemountobIes

Washington's long-delayed de-
mountable house program has
struck another snag, it was learned
last night, in the form of a protest
from the War Production Board
that the average cost Of the dwell
ings was too high
A WPB official finally agreed to
issue preference ratings for mate
rials to build the houses. but he
did so under protest. declaring
that the $4,000 average cost of the
5000 dwellings was too much for
the Government to pay for housing
for workers who earn $1,000 a year
and under
The officials protest, it was un-
derstood, took the form of letters
to Production Chief Donald M. Nell
son and National Housing Admin
istrator John B. Blandford, jr.. in
which he frankly stated his opinion
of the projects.
Funds Made Available.
When, in early February. Presi-
dent Roosevelt produced Sl8.9OO,OO
from his special emergency fund
for the 450O demountable "emer-
gency' housing units, accompanying
announcement from housing Off
clals said the dwelling would be
completed by July l. 1t now seems
unlikely that any of the houses will
q CT orrn l,,-t
The preference rating orders for
construction materials, as nearly rs
could be learned were somewhere
between the WPB and Mr.. Bland
ford's office John Ihlder, executive
officer of the Alley Dwelling Author
lty, which is charged with building
the houses, said there was no doubt
the orders would come through.
A total of 1900 dwelling units
was sliced from the program and
any immediate plans for their COM
pletion abandoned early this month
when Mr. Ihlder was unable to get
materials to carry utilities to the
sites. These were scheduled for out
lying locations, away from the Cap
ltal's center, such as the controver-
| Slal Strait tract near Garrett Park,
Md.
Mr.. 1hlder, admitting the WPB
offlclal had questioned costs. said
ne gave no reason for reaching the
! conclusion. He has asked for the
basis of the officials opinion. It
was pointed out WPB permits pri-
vate operators to build houses to
sell up to $4,000 each.
Contracts Let for 2&.
Last Saturday Mr.. Ihlder an
nounced contracts had been signed
for erection of 2S4 demountables at
two -Forty-sixth street
| and Benning road NE. and at First
and R streets S.W. Construction. he
said, would begin last Monday. The
prlorities problem apparently has
? caused this delay.
An operator, who has followed
the demountable house program
closely because he hoped to build
some Of them, traced developments
Tor The Star since inception of the
idea to build houses quickly so that
wartime congestion could be re-
ieved
/ In December. President Roosevelt
requested of Congress, and received,
a S300000000 fund for emergency
housing. In late January the Pres
ldent determined the need for 4500
demountables to be constructed i'm
mediately in the Washington area.
! int Nf I,,i1
was assigned ADA. A committee
was set up to select builders and
sites, approve plans and award
/ contracts. The committee was COM
/ posed of Mr.. Ihlder, James Cramer
and Teel Williams. The latter two
were from the Office of Housing
Co-ordinator Charles F. Palmer.
which was abolished in the Febru-
ary housing reorganization.
Developments Listed.
Early February. builders were
called in and rated according tc
houses built. They were told the
fabrication program was to start as
soon as sites were selected and pre-
/ pared.
March: Plans for houses pre-
pared and approved by Oscar Vatet,
technical adviser to the commit
tee. Letters of award to builders
were issued A fight within the
committee resulted in the member.
resigning and ADA shouldered the
whole job.
In early April plans and speci-
ficationS prepared by the commit
tee were scrapped and a new start
made. Builders received the first
Typographical maps. ADA disal-
lowed committee commitments and
introduced its own builders.
May: Certain contracts signed,
whereupon the Federal Public
Housing Authority took charge re-
quiring reapproval of all transac-
tions, including review of plans and
specifications.
June: Fifteen hundred units
abandoned due to inability to get
utility extensions. Priority appli-
cations submitted in May had not
been cleared.
The builder had no criticism to
make of Mr.. Ihlder, whom he said
was confronted with nearly insur-
mountable difficulties.
There is not a single official or
agency he said, you can lay a
finger on as the cause for the de-
lay. It's Just been a question OF
too many fingers in the pie"