Evening star., 1942-10-20
BY NORMAN KAHL.

Destiny is slowly creeping up on
Washington's parasites"
The room hoarders of whom Pres
ldent Roosevelt spoke caustically a
few months ago were given an un-
miStakable hint of things to come
when the National Housing Agency
last Saturday night announced it
was about ready to lease and re-
model private homes on "volun-
tary" basis, SO that additional living
quarters can be provided for the
Districts teeming war workers.
This first step is inocuous enough.
Owners of houses conveniently near
downtoWn's Government buildings
will be asked politely to consult with
housing officials if their places could
conceivably be divided into a larger
number of dwelling units. John B..
Blandford, national housing admin
istrator, has already warned, how
ever, that if the voluntary system
doesn't work he intends to ask Con-
gress for legislation which would
permit the Government to take over
SUN llaple houses.
Cooperation Tendency.
Housing officials earnestly hope it
won't be necessary to take this
step. On the basis of the large num-
ber of inquiries they've already been
getting, they say, local home own
ers appear inclined to be co-opera-
tive.
Even though there are still many
knotty problems to be ironed out
in the lease-and-remodel program
within the next few weeks, Wash
ington's New Housing Center, which
opened today in the United States
Office Of Information at Fourteenth
street and Pennsylvania avenue
NV, already Is prepared to receive
applications from homeowners will
ing to talk turkey with the Gov
ernment about conversion.
Essentially, the program will fol-
low these general lines: Local hous-
ing authorities, in line with the
national policy, will designate sew
eral areas in which they would
like to find convertible houses or
abandoned commercial establish
ments. just where these areas will
be has not yet been determined,
except that they will be reasonably
close to Government buildings to
avoid placing an additional burden
on the Capitals already overloaded
transportation system.
Study Comes First.
After homeoWners in these areas
apply to the Housing Center, ex-
perts will be sent out to their homes
to study the possibilities of increas-
ing the unit of capacity. II the
expert is satisfied that the house
can be subdivided to provide more
units, he will be followed by an
NAA representative ready to ne
gotiate deal.
Just what formula is to be fol-
lowed in these transactions is a
matter still being mulled over by
housing officials. Essentially the
Federal Government doesn't intend
to 60 into the real estate business
for profit. In fact, it's going to cost
money, since the price of remodeling
won't be figured in the deal. That
feature OF the program is being
tossed out strictly as bait to home
owners. At the same time the Gov
ernment doesn't intend to let owners
of houses prof1teer under the ar
rangement beyond the premium they
will get in the remodeling.
However equitable this arrange
ment may sound, problems are likely
to crop up. For instance, a land
lord may be renting his house for
500 a month to a single family
when he decides to let the MIA
lease the place and remodel it. After
the renovations have been made, at
no expense to the landlord, there
will be two dwelling units, each
worth $75, on the basis of COM
parable rentals in the same neigh
borhood.
Presumably the MIA might do one