Evening star., 1946-12-08
WAITS Recommendations on Housing

| wyatt S keCoI
FOLLOWING is partial tert OF
recommendation former Hous-
ing Erpediter Wilson w. Wyatt
sent to President Truman No
pember 20 for the future OF the
ueterans' emergency housing pro-
4 gram:
Dear Mr.. President:
4 You have asked me to chart a
future course for the Veterans Emer-
gency Housing Program in the abb
sence of price controls on building
materials.
4 I recognize the conditions which
led to the removal of price controls,
but I must point out that our pri-
mary goal-the attainment of a large
volume of good homes at prices vet
Grams can affords now in critical
jeopardy.
In only 10 months time, the Vet
Grams Emergency Housing Program
has speeded up the American home
building industry from its low war
time rate to the level of the peak
building years of the middle 20s.
Whether we continue this upward
trend or fall back as we did after
the last war demands upon what we
do now. Emergency action, essen
tial before, is doubly essential now.
The certain price conditions ahead
make vitality important:
Cd Stops to counteract the dan
lgerous upward pressure of uncon-
trolled prices;
(2) Large volume construction of
rental housing, SO that veterans may
find a place to live without obligat-
ing themselves to purchase homes
that many of them cannot afford.
The only way to resist the inf1a-
tionary price pressure on building
materials is to continue to increase
their production. To do this, the
steps now in effect to stimulate pro-
duction of building materials and
channel them into veterans hous-
ing must be carried forward agrees
sively. To end these steps would
mean sharp reduction in the pro-
duction of building materials in
1947, a sharp increase in prices and
a sharp drop in BODYBUILDING.
The problem in rental housing is
high cost, plus price uncertainty.
Investors are unwilling to build at
high unpredictable prices when
competitors may be able to build the
same structures at lower prices a
few years from now. In the building
of homes for sale, this risk is mini
mized by the fact that the builder
sells the house on or before COM
pletion and thus is no longer finan-
cially interested. The risk is fur
ther minimized by the availability
of 100 per cent financing for the
purchaser through the combination
of Federal Housing Administration
and Veterans Administration guar
anteed loans.
This means that rental housing
has not been, and is not now, as at
tractive as sales housing despite the
much greater need for rental hous-
ing. To make rental housing more
attractive, I am proposing 100 per
cent financing for the builder of
rental units through a combination
of FHA-insured first mortgages and
Finance Corporation
second mortgages. This step will, I
am convinced, bring forth rental
construction in unprecedented vol
ume.
The upward pressure of uncon-
trolled prices is doubly serious to
the veteran at this time. 1t comes
as he is faced with rising prices on
every necessity that he must buy
1t writes the word emergency I'M
front of the veterans housing prob
lem in capital letters and under
scores it.
How We Must Approach Problem.
Emergency programs can be car
ried out only by emergency actions.
This means that other sections
of the economy will have to make
sacrifices in favor of housing.
This means that Government
agencies will have>to perform emer-
gency duties beyond their normal
routine.
This means that many manufac-
turers and distributors will have to
postpone returning to their normal
patterns of business activity.
This means that the TOO Mayors
Emergency Housing Committees,
which have been supplying aggres-
sive community leadership in sup
port of the veterans housing pro-
gram, will have to redouble their
efforts to overcome the added prob
lens that lie ahead.
This is the 6nly way we can give
the green light to veterans housing.
And let me add quite frankly that
the job cannot be done by Govern
ment action alone.
The program will succeed only II
at each level of the industry from
the producers of raw materials to
the seller of the finished house, no
advantage is taken of decontrol to
exact extortionate prices.
1t will succeed only If the economy
suffers no upward price spiral such
as followed the last war.
It will succeed only if manage
ment and labor avoid crippling
work stoppages in the building in
dustry or in basic supporting in
dustries.
Let there be no wishful thinking
that the housing emergency can be