Evening star., 1946-01-13
Utmost in Teamwork
Needed in Housing Crisis
Those Charged With Speeding Construction Seek
to Meet Emergency, Yet Provide Materials
for Permanent Homes
By Joseph Hanlon

cent OF building materials into homes
which will be built with priority assist
ance.
Trouble Shooter Provided.
Homes costing more than $4,000 can
be built, but their builders will have to
scramble for the other half of available
building materials competing with in
dustrial and commercial construction,
which is often more profitable than
residential building. Small's aim is to
bring under the priority assistance sys-
tenn at least 100000 of the 475,0O0 new
homes which is the 1916 goal.
To give overall direction to the ho,1s-
ing problem, President Truman has ap-
pointed Wilson Wyatt former Mayor of
Louisville, as housing expedter in the
off1ce OF Reconversion Director John w.
Snyder.
1t will be Wyatt's job to see what can
be done to provide temporary emer-
| gency housing, to search out the bot
| tlenecks," whether they exist in indus
| try or in Government, and to eliminate
these impediments as speedily as DOS
| Sible
| To stimulate production of building
materials, Reconversion Director Snyder
has arranged for price increases in such
critically short items as bricks, cast iron
| pipe, gypsum lath and lumber. The
United States Employment Service, at
his direction, has undertaken special
labor-recruiting drives to deal with man.
power shortages. The Department of
Commerce has set up new construction
division to assist communities in revis-
ing obsolete building codes, which in
many places operate TO restrict building
unnecessarily. The War and Navy De-
partments have been asked to suspend
all construction not urgently needed, so
that the limited supply of materials can
be diverted to housing, and steps are
being taken to expedite release of ma
terlais held by the Army and Navy
which can be declared surplus.
President Truman, at Snyder's recon-
mendation, has asked Congress to enact
legislation which would impose ceiling
prices on both old and new housing to
discourage the inf1ationary speculation
which has accompanied the shortage.
Representative Wright Patman, Demo-
crat, OF Texas has pending a bill which
would impose such ceilings, but it has
made little progress and faces strenuous
opposition.
The price of housing. both Old and
new, has risen since before the war so
per cent or more, varying in different
parts of the country.
Seek 1880 900 New Homes.
For the long pull, the administration
is pinning its hopes on the Wagner
Ellender-Taft housing bill, an omnibus
measure which deals with financing. re-
search, slum clearance and the DISPOSE
ton of permanent public war housing.
II is this measure which, if enacted, as
1t seems likely to be, will implement the
National Housing Agency's program for
construction of 12,6oo,Ooo new homes
over 10-year period.
1t would set up, by statute. a single
national housing agency to bring to-
gether the various Federal instrument
talities dealing with housing. These.
by executive order under the Presidents
war powers, were constituted as the Ma
tlonal Housing Agency. Chief of them
are the Federal Housing Administration,
the Federal Home Loan Bank and the
FEDERAL Public Housing Authority.
The bill would authorize appropriation
OF s25,000,000 over a five-year period to
enable the Federal Government to
match contributions of local public
bodies IN studying and planning their
housing needs, and an additional s12-
100000 for housing research to be con-
Quoted by the National Housing Agency
itself.
To develop the so-called middle mar
ket 1or housing, for families which can
pay from $40 to $40 month as rent or
lnstalments on purchase, the bill would
permit the FHA to insure 32-year first
mortgages carrying per cent interest.
The loans might be as much as 95 per
cent OF the value of the house. This
provision would be limited to loans of
not more than $4,000. There is also a
provision for insuring 4O-year loans at
312 per cent to cooperative housing un-
oertaklngs. These loans, too, could be
Tor as much as s5 per cent of value.
Would Aid Middle Market.
A further step toward meeting the
middle market" demand is a provision
Tor yield insurance" which would
guarantee financial institutions, such as
life insurance companies, a return of
IA per cent year on housing develop
ments If the owner would agree to fix
rentals to bring return of not more
than per cent on invested capital. The
owner would be permitted also per
cent year on invested capital to amor
tie the cost over 50-year period.
There is provision FOR slum clearance
and urban redevelopment The bill
would authorize five-year loans to COM
munities which wish to assemble slum
areas for redevelopment. There could
be up to $500, ,0o0, 900 of such loans. The
bill also provides 45-year loans for the
same purposes, starting with $4,000 600
authorized for the first year, and in
creasing by that amount each year for
five years.
Such areas, when assembled, are to
be reyalued. Normally they cost more
than they are worth, on the basis of
residential use. The Federal Govern
ment would share with local communi-
ties the cost of this valuation write
down. In each of the first five years
the National Housing Authority would
be authorized to contract for Federal
contributions of not more than $4,000
| nm CO hot nff