Toledo union journal. [volume] (Toledo, Ohio) 1942-current, 1948-02-13

Last week, there appeared in the local
newspapers story announcing that private
contractor was going to erect large number
of homes to sell in excess of $4,000.
In the light of what have been writing in
the past few weeks, it seems to me that the
erection of another batch of homes selling for
more than $4,000 isn't going to solve the hous-
ing problem here and is merely additional
speculative building to add more empty homes
to the nearly 500 which are still seeking
buyers.
About the only possible thing that the
building of a large number of $4,000 homes
will do, will be to force down the price of
other newly constructed homes which have
gone begging for buyers ever since they were
finished. Eventually, if this goes far enough,
and it appears likely that it will, the banks will
take lot of these places over for the mort
cages.
Low RENTALS
What Toledo needs is not more high priced
homes, but homes that will sell in the $4,000
class and which will rent for between $40 and
S42 a month. These are the homes that no.
body seems to want to build, probably because
the margin of profit is narrower than on
higher priced homes Yet, these are the type
homes that we need if we are going to solve
the housing problem
Very few of the workers in the plants of
Toledo could afford to pay $65 a month rent,
and that is what they would have to pay for
homes priced between $4,000 and $4,000.
Most workers afford to pay $40 or S42
a month rent.
If the same amount of capital manpower
and other essentials to building were placed
in the erection of lower priced homes, it seems
to me that they would sell like hot cakes and
that the builder could realize certain profit
rather than run the risk of losing on specula-
tive building which even now is beginning to
show signs of begging down.
Not only would the builder be taking a {
minimum risk, but he would be performing a
wonderful service to the public which has been
pleading for homes ever since the end of the
war. Such builder, if one could ever be
found, would run much better chance of
making profit than the people who are now
building $4,000 homes which stand idle for
months
THE NEED
There is practically no need for homes in
the higher brackets. Those who build homes
that are over $4,000 usually have the money
to carry through the job. We are not worried
about these people.
Others who purchase homes over
$4,000 (and apparently this class is limited
too based on the number of empty homes in
this price class) are given wide choice of
homes and locations from which to make their
selection
But the people whose take home pay {
ranges between $40 and $50 week, and this
group is in the majority, are unable to find
decent rental homes within the range of their
pocketbooks These are the people we are
concerned about, the only group for whom
little or nothing has been done except lot of
empty conversation.
The real need in Toledo and elsewhere
throughout the nation is for low priced homes
to fit the requirements of low income earners.
And so far, very little has been done locally in
the state, or nationally, to come to the aid of
that vast group of low income people who are
hard pressed by the housing shortage.
1t is my belief that with all the brai&s
which we have in Toledo and the desire which
we all say we have to make Toledo a better
city of good homes and better citizens that we
could get together on some plan to tackle the
housing problem locally. We have given the
country an example in our LMC setup which II
believe we could do again along the housing
line for our people. 1t would be one step
which wuld pay dividends to the city, its mer-
chants and to the people.