Evening star., 1949-03-08
Public Housing Issue Back

l. 1uG OeIldCc Oll odAhAlS dIAo
Currency has dropped the public housing
question back in the lap of Congress. The
| prospects are that the controversial issue
will be accorded a more favorable recep-
ton than greeted it in the Republican
Eightieth Congress. The committee in ef-
feet has salvaged what the Republicans
discarded from the 1948 housing legisla-
ton and reintroduced 1t in fulfillment Of
Democratic pledges on housing.
In reluctantly signing the 1948 meas
ure, President Truman charged that the
previous Congress had deliberately neg
lected those large groups of our people
most in need of adequate housing-the
people who are forced to live in disgraceful
urban and rural slumS." He criticized the
acts failure to deal with what he con-
sidered four major housing problems:
First, the acute shortage of low-rent
housing; second, the need for slum clear
ance and urban redevelopment; third, the
demand for improved housing on farms,
and, fourth, the lack of p comprehensive
Federal research program to devise
cheaper and better methods of providing
shelter for the people.
This four-way program is the heart OF
the new bill reported, with administration
approval to the Eighty-flrst Congress. The
committee submitted it to the Senate with
the comment that it represents unfinished
and unenacted housing legislation" which
should be the first order of business of the
legislators. The same arguments of real
estate and building organizations which
prevailed against passage of the program
in the past have been raised again. In
some respects the arguments have more
force today than they did year ago, for
housing construction is gaining headway
with every passing month. The Commerce
Department reports that home building in
February was up per cent over February,
1947.
But the Senate Committee declares that,
despite the progress made since the war
in producing more houses, it will be neces-
sary to build or repair at least 10000
nonfarm dwelling units and between 200,
900 and 100000 farm units every year for
the next twelve years if Substantial prog
ress" is to be made in bettering housing
conditions. This estimate does not take
into account an estimated 100000 units
in slum areas. Experience has shown that
private industry is more interested In
building homes in the moderate and
higher-priced categories than in the low
cost field. The latter is the field which the
new bill is designed to cover.
Actually, the proposed Housing Act of
1949 is not public housing measure in
the strict sense of the term The Federal
Government would not build any houses or
redevelop any submarginal areas itself
The bill is based on the theory that while
housing is a problem of national concern,
it is fundamentally a local problem" to
be worked out by the local community.
Federal aid in the clearance of slums and
redevelopment of blighted areas would be
extended only upon request of local au-
thorities and upon showing that private
enterprise cannot adequately solve the
problem. AS matter of fact, the basic
principles underlying the low-cost housing
and slum clearance provisions of the bill
already are incorporated in Federal law.
The Housing Act of 1887 laid this founda-
ton. The committee calls it's bill a pro-
posal for continuing and extending the
eleven-year-old program. That program
was stymied by the war. Whether the new
program would relieve the housing short
age to any considerable degree is doubtful.
But if it will encourage local communities
to make a real start toward ridding the
Nation of slum conditions, it is worth a
serious trial.