Evening star., 1947-06-22

WdS up 6S Pei sOSl4t.
| amounted to more than Is times
control administrator for the Dts
trict of Columbia, says surveys
"show vacancies practically nom
existent"
"a typical walk-up apartment
building of 72o suites has waiting
list of more than 1,o00," Mr.. Cogs-
well says.
New York's Problem
In New York City there Is only
one vacant tenement without heat)
in every 800 Of these poorest type
flats. An annual vacancy check by
the Real Estate Board of New York,
covering 40 tenement blocks of the
city, comprising 15,8o3 dwelling units
in 1,215 old buildings, showed Is
per cent vacant as late as 1914. This
dropped to 1871 per cent in the last
year of the war, fell to 80 per cent
in 1916 when the bulk of the armed
forces returned, and now is near the
vanishing point at .03 per cent.
A couple evicted from chicken
house was among applicants for q
place to live at Chicago's city,
financed housing center, where 5000
requests are received every month,
"preponderantly from veterans"
The center is able to fill only or
Y per cent of the applications.
The Atlanta (Ga.) Chamber Of
Commerce reports a shortage of
81 900 dwelling units in that city
and says that If building Is boosted
to 10000 new units annually for the
next three years, 1850 will still see
a shortage of 10000 units. Atlanta
started only 265 in the first three
months of 1947.
Nebraska's State housing director,
Holger Holm, says Omaha, on
basis of a 2 per cent replacement
yearly among its $1,000 homes,
should be building about 1900 houses
per year. "But we haven't built that
many since 1927 and 1925" Holm
adds, and he sees no easing of pres
sure in Omaha, where only $50
homes and 275 emergency rental
units were erected in all of 1916.
CALIFORNIA; Homeless
California needs 743,568 new
homes as its minimum 1947 require-
ment, according to Senate-Assem-
bly, committee. 1--WE can't take care
of small part of homeless veterans,
let alone civilians" says Frank VIII
kinson of the Los Angeles Housing
Authority. After screening 10000
applications. Mr.. Wilkinson's office
weeded out about so per cent, and of
the remaining 5000 only 1900 could
be placed.
Veterans are still f1ocking to
Southern California" Mr.. Wilkin-
son explained. after Illinois
passed veterans bonus, 40 per cent
of the eligibles were found living
hereabouts." His Office figures there
are 10000 homeless families In Los
Angeles County, OF which $1,000 are
veterans
Two cemeteries, from which the
bodies have been transplanted, have
been turned into subdivisions in
San Francisco. A little relief was
obtained when the California Legis-
lature authorized the sale of surplus
Army barracks to veterans. Com
plete with plumbing, these buildings
are dismantled by the veterans and
moved to their own sites. They are
supposed to yield enough lumber
and fixtures for a five-room house
| for about $500.
| Between 500 and 900 home owners
in Baltimore agreed to convert their
homes into two-fanily dwellings in
a campaign conducted by Vet
erans' Emergency Committee, headed
by William Buckler, jr. "But many
refused to admit children" Mr..
Buckler said, estimating that $4,000
veterans are looking for quarters
in Baltimore-24,00 900 of them classed
as urgent cases."
Many Families Evicted
Only emergency cases" are being
put on the eligible lists in Pitts
burgh, where families burned out of
their homes, evicted, or living in
condemned buildings get priorities
for the Pittsburgh Housing Author
Iity's 5,462 apartments in nine
projects.
Evictions throughout the country
totaled close to 100000 families in
the first quarter of this year,
according to the Federal Public
Housing Administration, citing OPA
records. A large portion of them
had to leave houses that were pur-
chased for owner occupancy. Others
were unable to keep up their rent
payments. About 20 per cent of all
families now living in low-rent
public housing projects in major
cities also are facing eviction be-
cause their incomes exceed the Fed
orally fixed maximums for such
rentals
The loW-rent field naturally Is
the center Of greatest demand. Only
II families out of 1900 seeking
homes for rent in Harrisburg, Pa,
were able to pay more than $50 O
month, reports Maynard Small,
housing expediter for that district.
What we need is more apart
ments and houses renting for about
$40 or s45 a month";" says Stanley
Blesack, housing expediter for
Chattanooga, Tenn.
The average earnings of 1876 "des-
perate" families, evicted from their
former homes and housed in con-
verted barracks at Louisville, KY,
were s4505 weekly. The Louisville
housing center found that 81 of