Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1949-09-11

than $4,000 units to local nous
ing authorities in Al cities, includ.
ing the District, which has beer
authorized to build 1000 units. Ths
job of actually getting construc'
ton under way will be more
formidable, however, and Fedora
officials don't expect that more
than $4,000 units will actually bt
produced by next July-a veal
from the date of passage of thu
Housing Act Of 1949 on July Is
The big housing act authorized
construction of a total of $4,000
public housing units in the mex
six years at the rate of $4,000
a year. This rate, however, car
be-and probably will be-steppec
up by the President to as many
as 100000 units a year as the pro.
gram develops. Economic condi.
lions must be taken into consid.
Grafton in case more, or less, thar
$4,000 units are authorized fol
construction in any one year.
If the Nation should develop 6
sufficiently unhealthy economic
pallor, tie law says that public
housing construction may be useo
to treat the symptoms-this ex.
pedient having been provided ir
spite of the fact that the high
cost of the earliest Fedora
ventures into publicly owned
housing Is blamed on their made.
work" character.
Behind on Plans
A survey recently completed BY
a private research institution in.
dicates that comparatively few
communities have had a chance
even to start planning projects
and that the great bulk will have
no concrete plans ready in les.
than six months. But a number
of the larger cities have had con-
tinuing planning programs o.
their own during the period since
the war when the whole concept
of Federal subsidy of this kind Of
housing was still hanging in the
legislative balance. Therefore
these larger communities are II
better position to get an early
start on big projects than smaller
communities.
John Taylor Egan, white-hairec
former practicing architect who
has headed the Public Housing
Administration for nearly two
years, says. however. that the
agency wants to do an equitable
job of allocating units to commu.
mites where they are needed. anc
that there is no danger that larger
cities will monopolize the program
beyond their needs.
How the geographical distribu-
ton of the $4,000 units author.
lied by Congress will work Out
no one knows as yet. A great de-.
will depend, in a particular COM
munity or region, on how the prob.
lens Of getting under way are
met, and on what sort of a fight
local opponents of the public
housing idea may put up.
When the public housing bill
was passed, the National Asso-
citation of Home Builders made
clear that its fight on the prin-
ciple of the thing was just start
ing. It implied that, having lost
the big battle in Washington. for
the time being. it would start
guerrilla tactics back in the home
towns of the Nation where opinion
is made and actions are carried
out.
Some Sections Object
Federal public housing officials
acknowledge that some areas,
where these officials would con-
tend there is need for public
housing, will file no applications
because the welfare" or social
istic" aspects of the program are
not popular with the local public.
And it is undeniable that fire.
quently the general public in a
community is not always receptive
to the idea that public housing
should find a place there.
This tendency, coupled with OPP
position from veterans groups, Is
generally held responsible at the
moment for the apparent disin-
clination of Congress to permit
the Housing and Home Finance
Agency to transfer certain Lam
ham Act war housing units for use
/ as public housing in many COM
munities throughout the country.
But many local officials, for one
reason or another-and promi-
nently among them the serious
problem faced by low-income
families who cannot find decent
places to live at rents they can
afford to pay-started early to
besiege PHA with requests for in
formation on how they could par
ticipate in the program. These
requests started to pour in soon
after Congress enacted the bill.
Within several weeks, the agency
had application forms and in
structions drawn up and sent out
to 500 local housing authorities in
Al States. Seven States as yet
have not got around to authoriz-
ing the creation of local public
housing authorities for operation
of low-rent projects. but Federal
officials here say that North Da-
kota is considering such legisla-
ton. Requests for information
from that State were received by
PHA, and information was for
warded there also.
Reservations Permitted
Application forms sent out by
the housing agency permit local
authorities to request reservation"
of specific number Of units from
the national program for construc-
ton IN their areas. Under the
law, authorities may also. request
preliminary" loans for develop
mental plans and other uses,
= Il