Evening star., 1947-05-11
Housing Paralysis :
is Bringing Crisis,
|VFW Head Warns
Byi Robert j. Lewis

The Nation is heading for a crisis
owing to paralysis" now gripping
the construction industry, the head
of the Veterans OF Foreign Wars
said last might in one of the bitter
est statements on the housing short
age ever to come from veterans,
leader.
The whole housing program has
become "a corpse over which labor,
economic and political buzzards may
well starve," said Louis E. Starr,
VIEW commander-in-c -chief,
Mr.. Starr said two Suggestion"
he has made to the White House
which may help in rental, large
scale unit building, and production
of mass produced homes" are:
l. RFC make loans at 2 per cent
over 50-year period to veterans
and builders for multiple housing
rental units for veterans.
2. RFC launch survey with a
view to increasing the number of
loans to producers OF factory built
homes.
Declaring the plight of the vet
Grams seeking homes is worse now
than at any time since the ending
of the war" Mr.. Starr implied the
Administration should never have
permitted former Housing Expediter
Wilson w. Wyatt to leave the Gov
ernment. III.
"I think, at times. that If the
energy expended in Washington last
year trying to get rid of Wilson
Wyatt and his program had gone
into constructive effort in building
homes, we would be better off," he
said.
I'm place of Wyatt-who evidently
tried too hard-we get an expediter
who doesn't expedite. We get paper
talk, talk about rental units, but
no for rent signs
% Mr.. Wyatt left the Government
at the end of last year after losing
dispute over additional RFC loans
to manufacturers of factory-built
housing. Frank r. Creedon was
appointed housing expediter, and
Raymond M. Foley, head of the
Federal Housing Administration,
was named national housing ad-
ministrator. s
Mr.. Starr emphasized that his
organization had attempted to point
out more than year ago ito ad-
ministration housing people, con-
greSsional friends, labor, the build
ing industry and heads Of construc-
ton trade associations what would
happen If the veterans housing
program was not handled as an
emergency.
Since July, 1945, our country has
signed $4,000, 100000 worth Of
foreign loans, with a doubtful re-
turn to the Nation" he said. Sure
ly our leaders will see that returned
veterans are employed and ade-
quately housed, as protection to
our own economic welfare.
Reports now reach me from
around the Nation that building is
coming to standstill"
Apparently in a reference to the
Wolcott bill, which would remove
virtually all controls over building,
including limitations on nonresi-
Dental construction, Mr.. Starr said:
New legislation in the Congress
may help the construction industry
as whole. but it will throw
materials and labor into COM
mercial and industrial building and
further stymie home building"
The Wolcott bill was passed by
the House last week. 1t has been
hailed by representatives of the
National Association Of Real Estate
Boards, National Association Of
Home Builders and other industry
groups as a means of "unShaekling
the industry. The bill also permits a
Is per cent rent increase If tenants
agree to the boost in exchange
for a two-year lease.