The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1948-09-09
Wisconsin City
Shows Way With
Little TEW Plan

! Milwaukee (LPA)-Four years
of hard work by civic groups, in
cluding all of organized labor, was
rewarded last week when the
ground breaking ceremonies took
place for two housing projects for
584 veterans families being built
by the Milwaukee Housing Auth
ority.
The developments are unique
these days because they're intend
ed for average-income families, and
are built with a cash grant from
the city of Milwaukee averaging
about $4,000 a dwelling unit. Ac-
cording to Socialist Mayor Frank
Zeidler, the city expects to take
the initiative in getting under way
1400 permanent units of public
housing this year.
In addition, careful plan of Sin
filtrating" new housing into vac
ant lots, junk yard sites, and park
ing lots in the worst slum areas
has been worked out by city
committee which is guiding a vet
erans' housing cooperative.
The two new housing develop
ments on which the ground was
broken last week are called North
lawn and Southlawn, and are at OPP
posite ends of the city. After
lengthy negotiations, the cost per
unit has been reduced from an
original estimate of $4,000 to
about $11, 900. Of this, the city's
cash grant will pay about $4,000
unit. The remaining $1,000 unit
willobe paid back in the form of
rent-at $52 a month.
This $52 a month, Zeidler points
out, is just about what the average
wage Garner in the city can afford,
since most adequate family budgets
call for one weeks pay month for
housing, and average wages in
Milwaukee right now are $52 a
week.
AS for slum clearance, the Gin
filtration" method is being worked
so. that people now living in the
slums won't be dispossessed while
new homes are being built. Three
areas have been chosen by the
urban redevelopment committee as
sites for clearance. In a small part
of one of these areas, the veter-
ans cooperative and the committee
are working out detailed plan,
block by block. The mayor is also
setting up committee which will
prepare a law to exempt new
homes in redevelopment area
from taxes for the first five years
after they're constructed, on the
theory that this will cost less than
the present expense of services to
slum areas.
Milwaukee is already engaged in
a blight elimination project which
will produce 232 units of housing
in a predominantly Negro COM
Half of the project will be
ready for occupancy by Jan. l,
1949.
To cut down costs in the future,
the common council has approved
of 20 experimental homes
on sites that are already develop
ed. These homes are experimental,
Zeidler explains, in the sense that
a basic plan has been developed
which can be used by many pre-
fabricators or the builders of con-
ventional frame or masonry houses.
Once the housing authority has
found what it needs to know from
the 20 experimental homes about
costs, it plans to construct an addi- !
tional 500 units of this sort.
Even without the aid which such
a program could have had from the
Taft Wagner Ellender general
housing bill, Milwaukee is well on
the way to demonstrating what
little TEW" program can mean in !
one community. The prospect of !
l400 permanent moderate-cost,
vell-constructed homes in one year
IS nothing to be sneezed at in a
,ity of about 100000 people.