Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1955-05-03
CoIeAssaiIs
Hoover Units
Plan for FILA
Tells U. S. Chamber
1t Would Break Up
Federal Agency
By FRANCIS p. DOUGLAS

Albert M. Cole, top admin
istrator Of the Governments
housing program, said today
that carrying out a Hoover Com
mission recommendation would
mean the breakup of the Fed
eral Housing Administration.
Mr.. Cole is administrator Of
the Housing and Home Finance
Pictures and Other Chamber Of Com
meFee Stories. Pose AIS
Agency. He said the commits
sion's recommendation raises
the question whether FILA should
continue to serve a public pur-
pose. Or. he added, it would
simply become "a Government
regulated instrument to provide
greater security for private
mortgage investments on their
own terms"
The administrator addressed
business leaders attending the
43d annual meeting of the
United States Chamber of Com
merce.
Housing Policy Keystone
The Hoover Commission rec
ommendation he criticised, he
said. was that "the FILA be re-
organized so that it would not
have to call on the Government
for funds"
If this recommendation is ap-
piled to its full extent, he said
although I don't think the COM
mission so intended tit would
remove a keystone from the
structure of Federal housing
policy. It would also render in
operative a vital part of the
Presidents program" he said.
THE FILA has always operated
without calling on the Govern
ment for funds" he said. "Its
costs and reserves are provided
from mutually owned funds OBJ
tanned through premiums and
fees.
IF the proposal means-as I
think it probably does-that
study should be given to further
protecting this mutualized sys-
tenn consistent with FIA's pub
lie responsibilities, I would
agree, for we are doing that.
But if it means, as some
would like to interpret 1t, that
if the FILA should be recon-
stituted as a separate, privately
owned corporation, with or with
out authority to borrow from
the Government, and that it
should operate on its own cor
porate resources and under its
own policies, subject only to
distant Federal regulation, then
I strongly disagree"
Would Change Purpose
This, he said. would mean a
basic change in the character
and purpose of the agency. He
added that it would accomplish
the augmentation of the agency
and destroy the basis for the CO.
ordinated use of Federal pro-
grams in the housing and COM
munity development field"
He said as a privately owned
corporation without Government
credit behind its debentures, it
could no longer serve a truly
public purpose. The need for
FHA's services is, even greater
today than before. he said.
Under a new section special
mortgage insurance is extended
for housing development and re-
Mobilization in renewal areas.
This is on the basis of values
resulting from the redevelop-
ment.
Another section provides
mortgage insurance for low-cost
housing for families displaced
from SlumS.
He asked who would provide
these types of home financing if
the FILA were converted to
private ownership.
ITO clear and replan a
blighted area is not enough" he
asserted. THE real test comes
in our capacity to redevelop and
rehabilitate these areas for the
kind of use and kind of living
and the kind of business growth
on which the future Of the new
city depends"