Evening star., 1942-04-09
Houses
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IIOuSCS
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were directed to him. He announced
that his resignation. effective today,
had been sent to National Housing
Administrator John B. Blandford,
jr. Mr.. Williams said he felt he
could give more assistance to Gov
ernment and the prefabricators
from the outside"
Letters Blame Government.
The letters directed to him, Mr..
Williams said, recounted stories of
home building plants standing idle
because of Government delay in
completing contractural arrange
ments. plants on which millions
have been spent for expansion to
handle defense orders.
The letters told of prefabricaters
facing bankruptcy, of completed
home parts piling up taxing storage
space, of materials In huge guam
titles on freight car sidings, of can
collation. Of materials orders, of loss
OF millions in new orders and key
men to other industries. All of this,
the prefabricators declare, was due
to lack of actual contracts. proceed
orders" and proper priority ratings.
Though some prefabricators at
tributed Government delay in clos
ing agreements to the natural re.
suit of the housing reorganization,
many were bitter. and at least one
charged an attempt to sabotage"
the program. He wrote The Star
that he has two sons in the Army,
a third about to be called, and
added:
There are thousands in Austria
liza waiting for planes. guns and
supplies and this essential is wait
ing for boats to carry it to them.
The boats are waiting for ship
builders to build them, the ship
builders are waiting for our houses,
our houses are waiting for some dis
gruntled, selfish officials whose only
desire is to condemn ="
This particular contractor, who
received large Government order
for houses in a letter OF intent"
has bought $4,000 900 worth Of ma
terials which are piled up at his
plant. He spent weeks in WASH
ington trying to close the Govern
ment contract, visiting one ofilcial
after another with little avail. Plans
for the houses were changed numer-
Gus times, although specifications
were once finally" approved by
Government technicians.
Charges Cost $4,000.
1t was learned that the bill for
new plans and blueprints alone of
one prefabricator was $4,000. be-
cause of the many changes Govern
ment technicians ordered in his
house. Another contractor from out
Of the city maintained a staff of six
technicians here for six weeks in
the effort to get his plans in ac-
ceptable shape. His plans. too, had
been approved previously by the
Government.
The experiences of the men de-
scribed here apparently are typical
of nearly all the 81 contractors from
all over the country who were signed
in letters of intent" by Rufe B.
Newman of the Federal Works
Agency. to provide badly needed de-
fense houses, practically none of
which have been built.
The program was taken away from
Federal Works Agency by President
Roosevelt's consolidation order late
in February and assigned to the
Federal Public Housing Authority.
Of1cials of the latter agency say the
program was "muddled" when they
got 1t. They say the necessity Of
making numerous changes in plans
and the inability to obtain suitable
sites in defense areas have caused
the delay.
Another prefabricator said his
plant had been idle a month, with
terrific financial loss, while he has
been in Washington trying to get
his job underway. He told of an
other builder who had been here
nine weeks on a similar mission
when he arrived, and is still here.
There are signs that problems of
some prefa5ricators are being ironed
out. The representative OF a firm
scheduled to erect thousands of
houses in the Norfolk, Va, area, re-
ported he had been authorized to
proceed and has erected 100 houses
in the last few Gays. He said, how
ever. he is still having priority
troubles" and there Is q shortage
of sites. He has been promised
$500 sites by April Is.
Forced to Reject Job.
Still another prefabricator, signed
by the Government, wrote that his
plant has been idle for 80 days and
that hundreds of thousands Of dol
lars in new orders" had been
turned down because a Government
official impressed him with the
urgency of going "all-out" in pro-
ducing the emergency housing. He
said that on February he was led
to believe he would be able to start |
production of his order in two
weeks. He is still waiting for a
proceed order"
"Our plant" he said, sis blocked
out with materials we bought to do
this work, consisting of lumber
which had been machined and cut
to the special patterns and sizes re-
quired; also insulation, plywood and
other items. We have hundreds OF
thousands of dollars tied up in this
material inventory which is just |
simply dead pending a work order"
The prefabricator wrote that the
"Saddest angle Of the whole situa-