Evening star., 1949-07-17
By the Assoeioted Press

IlC llC" RQUllC 1lOuoAl1S ~ OSl uAA1
will start slowly, but in the six
years allotted will cover nearly
every large American city and
many smaller ones in a $1,000
600, 900 building drive. This is in
dicated by an Associated Press
survey.
The. survey showed that 81 cities
in States where laws now permit
subsidized low-rent housing have
plans in varied stages Of readiness
for about 256 900 units.
That is $4,000 more than the
same cities planned at the wars
end in 1945.
If this increase holds for the
other cities which had housing
plans in 1945, about half the
$4,000 units contemplated in the
new housing law already exist on
paper.
The rest are merely a gleam in
the eye of local public housing
authorities.
Only $4,000 units at most will
have been started in the next IL
months, by estimate of Raymond
M. Foley, administrator of the
Housing and Home Finance
Agency. The big cities will be
first to rap on Washington's door
for funds.
$40 to SIS Rentals Seen.
This means that one important
by product of the low-rent shelter
program-its stimulus to the con-
struction and building materials
industry-will not come immedi-
ately into play. 1t will provide
longer-range support into the
middle Of the next decade.
These trends were indicated by
the AP survey:
l. Rentals, based on income anc
not size of family, will range from
$40 a month, the minimum in
Memphis and Phoenix. to a maxi
mum of $55 in Syracuse. They
'. Ill be 20 to 10 per cent below the
cost of comparable private hous-
ing.
For instance: Columbus rents
may range from SIS to $35, as
against private rents of $65: Los
Angeles will be $27 as against SIS
or $l00; while rents in Waltham
Mass, will be $50 as against 500
New York will charge $3.50 to SO
room, as against the lowest pri-
vate rentals of $3.50.
2. The average costs of projects
will range from $1,000 for each
family unit in New York, and
$4,000 in Chicago and Boston,
down to $4,000 in Columbus and
$500 in Phoenix. A medium fig
ure is $500, the cost in Memphis.
3. All but six States have legis-
lation permitting local public
housing authorities to proceed.
The six are Utah. Iowa, Okla
homa, Wyoming. Kansas and
South Dakota. At least five others
have no announced plan-1daho.
North Dakota, Maine. New
Hampshire and Vermont.
Twenty-Five States have no
slunl clearance legislation
73 Cities to Seek Funds.
t., -, a NV noanc nifiac rarnrf al
the housing projects will wait on
the Federally-aided slum clear
ance programs also authorized in
the act signed by President Tru-
man. Once the shacks and tene-
ments are razed, the modern new
dwellings will rise.
The American Municipal Asso-
citation, in a slum clearance sur
vey, reported that 70 of 80 cities
queried plan to seek shares of the
81 500, 100000 authorized in Fed
eral loans and grants.
Some will turn the cleared
areas into low-rent projects.
Some will hand them over to pri-
vate developers. Others will fash
ion new downtown parks, boule-
wards and Fairgrounds.
But here. too, if the new law is
to transform the face of Ameri-
can cities" as municipal officials
have predicted, the process ap-
parently will be gradual.
1t was mainly the larger cities
which reported to Associated Press
that clearance projects are actu-
ally on blueprints. At least II
planned to make redevelopment
surveys before seeking Federal
funds and the bulk of smaller
cities have not yet advanced to
the actual planning stage.
Many, like Atlanta. Syracuse
and New Orleans, are waiting for