Evening star., 1944-05-21
Costly Subsidies
Seen Needed for
Private HOUSING
Gront Agrees NCHA
Should Hundle Rental
Part Of Program
BY DON s. WARREN.

ucSioid dtioii tadI eAIrdVagdnL
subsidies" would be needed IL pri-
vate enterprise were to rehouse the
lowest Income groups In Washing
tons slums was made yesterday by
Maj. Gen. U. 8. Grant, Sd, chair
man Of the National Capital Park
and Planning Commission.
Testifying before the Burton SUBJ
committee Of the Senate In support
OF the Capper slum clearance-re-
housing bill, which has the in
dorsement of the planning body and
the District Commissioners, Gen.
Grant formally agreed with the
National Capital Housing Authority
that the latter should handle the
rental subsidy portion of the re-
housing program.
Makes Detailed Outline.
In a detailed outline of long
studies and negotiations on the
blighted areas redeyelopment issues.
Gen. Grant urged that a wide field
be available to private builders. but
added:
AS the situation seems today.
there will still be limited fieid
that private enterprise will not be
able to undertake, the views of
the Home Builders Association to
the contrary notwithstanding.
To enable private enterprise to
perform this part of the task for
the lowest income groups would in
volye extravagant subsidies and
here he referred to testimony which
had been offered in earlier sessions
by John Ihlder, executive officer of
the NCHA.
Sees Grave Error.
"NCHA has shown its effective
ness in handling this category and
should be continued and imple-
mented with necessary funds. It is
not possible today to fix the upper
limit of its scope for any future
year because this will depend upon
several unforeseeable variables, but
1T would be a grave error to destroy
what has been accomplished to date
and the machinery for the public's
doing for itself what a change in
the real estate or money markets
may, with the winning of the war.
make it economically impossible for
private enterprise to do"
This statement, relating to the
sharpest point of issue between the
NCHA- and the private builders,
came as spokesmen for those groups
continued their lengthy battle as to
which should be permitted to do
the low-rental rehousing work.
While this was going on, Chair
man Bilbo of the Senate District
Committee and Housing Subcom-
mittee Chairman Burton jointly in
troduced in the Senate a bill to
postpone for one year the July
deadline on occupancy of alley
dwellings, to permit time for draft
ing and enactment OF a permanent
new rehousing plan.
House Hearings Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Representative Nc
Gehee, Democrat, of Mississippi,
chairman of the Judiciary Subcom-
mittee of the House District Com
mittee, announced public hearings
would be opened Tuesday at 10 am.
on the Randolph slum clearance
bill which is identical with the free
enterprise" measure offered by Sem
ator Tydings, Democrat, Of Mary,
land.
At 10 am. Tuesday, also, Senator
Burton will continue his hearings,
to take testimony by civic spokes-
men, but he announced that the
transcript of his hearings as well
as the several rehousing bills would
be turned over to tie new "Hous-
ing Bills" Subcommittee named by
Chairman Bilbo to fight out the
issues and speed solution TO the
public private enterprise
battle. This subcommittee is headed
by Senator Walsh, Democrat, of New
Jersey.
James C. Wilkes, spokesman for
the Home Builders Association, led
the fight yesterday to give private
enterprise an exclusive opportunity
to do the rehousing work.
Answers Ihlder Protest.
Answer protests by Mr.. Ihlder
that the private builders had not
accepted a challenge to engage in
test projects to ,-'oye whether pri-
vate builders could do the work as
we'll and as cheap as the NCHA,
Mr.. Wilkes contended
That the NCHA has utterly
failed" in that it houses only about
l Z per cent of those people who
are receiving assistance from the
Public Welfare Board and that only
about IL per cent of the NCHA
permanent housing units, erected for
the lower-income groups, are hous-
ing those unable to pay the rent;
That NCHA is not required to pay
any real estate taxes on it's housing;
That NCHA is not obliged to re-
turn single dollar to either the
District or Federal governments
from rents it is collecting from it's
Sl7,000,000 of Title I and Title II
housing; and
That direct competitive work be-
tween the NCHA and private build
ers Is impossible since private en-
terprise has to pay interest on the
capital invested and eventually pay
back the borrowed capital.
Historical Society to Meet
The Columbia Historical Society
will meet at 8:15 pm. Tuesday in
the Sapphire room of the Mayf1ower
Hotel. Miss Clara Herbert will dis
cuss THE Public Library and Local