The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1948-03-04
It's Up To House
To Act Fast Now
On Rent Controls

Washington (LPA) - Attention
Of men and women who depend on
rent controls to keep family bud
gets from going completely in the
red, centers this week on the House
of Representatives. The Senate has
passed a bill extending controls
until April 30, 1949. Both House
aud Senate extended the present
law until March 81 of this year.
Chairman Jesse Wolcott (R.,
Mich. of the House Banking Com
mittee has indicated he'll take his
time about holding hearings on the
Senate bill. Wolcott believes that
prices may go lower in the next
few weeks, and with a perfectly
straight face assures reporters that
initiation may be licked in the next
m-hth. If that happens-and per
haps even if il doesn't-Wolcott
may try to kill the Senate rent con
troll bill in the committee.
AS passed by the Senate, the rent
control bill has these provisions:
Extends rent control until
April 80, 1919.
2-If tenant has already signed
voluntary" lease increasing rent
Is per cent, his rent is fixed at
this figure until April 30, 1949. If
the tenant who agreed to the IN
crease has moved out since Jan. /,
these dwellings were decontrolled;
landlords have been able to charge
whatever they wanted because
now they are placed back under
rent ceilings at the previous 10
per cent rental figure.
3-New voluntary rent boosts
up to Is per cent can be entered
into by landlord and tenant if a
lease is signed running at least to
Dec. 81, 1949.
-Violators of the law are liza
BILE only to civil damage suits
brought by the tenant. An attempt
was made to provide criminal penal
ties up to $1,000 or a year in jail
for violators. This was rejected by
the Senate, 35 to 20.
5-Exempts dwellings renting
| for $400 or more a month from con-
trolls.
6-Does not include rented rooms
in private homes under controls.
This will hit veterans and college
students especially.
7-Continues the limitations on
use of scarce materials in non
residential construction.
S-Permits evictions in order that
the landlord may remove the build
ing from the rental market, or may
replace the tenant with a relative.
Wagner heard from 20 govern
ors, mayors and 80 cities in which
az per cent of the city-dwellers in
the u. S. live, and 1873 prominent
individuals ranging from the AFL
and CIO spokesmen to homebuild-
ing, financing and real estate lead
ers. Here is Wagner's own sum-
mary of their replies:
"Practically all of the mayors
reported that their cities contained
a substantial number of lowincome
families living in slums or other
substandard housing conditions.
"Nine out of 10 governors, may
ors, and prominent individuals
agreed that within the foreseeable
future private enterprise could not
provide decent housing, new or old,
for all these low-income families
at rents or costs they could afford.
"On the other hand, SO per cent
of the mayors of cities with exist
ing low-rent public housing report
ed that these projects, to the ex-
tent that they had been provided,
were adequately serving low-in-
come families. All said that they
had been built and operated effici-
emily, and that conditions of health,
delinquency, and crime had been
improved. More than five-siXths Of
them thought that the cost of city
services in the neighborhoods had
been reduced and real estate val
ues increased. All agreed that the
projects are not presently COM
petitive with private housing of
acceptable standards, and only one
mayor indicated that the project
had ever presented any such compe-
tition.
"Ninety per cent of all replies in
dicated support for publicly assist
ed low-rent housing for lowincome
families, and specifically favored
continuation of Federal assistance
along lines of the United States
Housing Act of 1887
"With only a few exceptions, the
mayors responding reported the in
ability of their cities to undertake
the financial burdens of publicly |
assisted low-rent housing pro-
grams, either as to the capital
funds required or as to the cash
subsidies necessary to reduce rents
to levels which low-income families
can afford to pay. State loan and
subsidy funds for these purposes
were available for low-rent housing
in only four states.