In every urban or rural community throughout the United States today conditions of housing exist which are a menace to the health, safety, and morals of large sections of the population. From the Cotton Belt to Canada, and from the Atlantic through every State to the Pacific, there are to be observed thoroughly worn-out dwellings which are the shame of any community in which they stand.
The quality of housing in the slums of our larger cities is well known. It is scarcely necessary to describe at any length the filth, the dark halls, the inconvenient and gloomy rooms, and the stuffy smell of antiquated tenements in the congested and unsanitary areas which are to be found in every section of New York City. Perhaps it is through long association with the conditions of life in run-down neighborhoods that we have become insensitive to their implications. We read the studies of crime commissions and the reports of our Health, Fire, and Tenement House Departments, all of which point to the close correlation between housing and the health and conduct of the people. And yet there is the inclination to feel surprised, perhaps, as we read the opinion of Barry Parker, the British housing expert. With regard to conditions in New York City, Mr. Parker has written:
"The duty has devolved upon me to know Portuguese and Brazilian slums as few know them. I also know the notorious slums of Dublin and Liverpool. I have spent many midnights and other hours in the slums of Edinburgh with those who well know all their intricacies and ramifications. I have been taken to the worst slums in Berlin. I know Italian, French, Belgian, Dutch and Norwegian slums and the conditions of life in any slum I have ever seen are better than they are in the slums of New York."
In a great metropolitan center like New York, with its heavy pressure of population and overtaxed facilities, every economic and social problem assumes extravagant proportions. But the housing problem in other cities differs only in extent.
Recognizing the social importance of housing to all the people, and the value of a home construction program as a medium of reemployment in a great key industry, the Federal government has taken a hand. The removal of blighted areas and rehousing of the lower-income groups at rents which they can afford to pay has not been accomplished by speculative builders or limited dividend corporations. This new policy of the Federal government, as expressed in the terms of the National Industrial Recovery Act, presents an opportunity to make rapid progress toward the solution of our housing problem. In conformity with the provisions of the Act, the Government has made large sums of money available for the purpose of clearing slums and erecting low-rent dwellings. These funds will be advanced in the form of loans and outright grants. Private corporations, including limited dividend companies, can merely obtain loans for their projects. Public agencies, in addition to loans, can obtain subsidies amounting to thirty percent of the cost of labor and materials. The policy of the Government presents an opportunity for a vigorous battle against indecent housing conditions. The Government is doing its part; the next steps must be taken by local communities.
As stated above, the outright grants will be given only to public bodies. Only five States now have the power to create housing boards or authorities with full power to acquire unhealthy areas, clear slums, and construct and operate dwellings. These States are California, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Enabling legislation is pending in a number of extraordinary sessions of State Legislatures. Bills are in process of preparation in other States and are to be introduced in the regular 1934 sessions. In the State of New York, Governor Lehman has committed himself to vigorous support of the legislation necessary to give the cities of that State power to qualify for grants. Major LaGuardia, New York City's new Mayor, rode to his recent victory at the polls with the aid of campaign promises to do all the things possible to secure the creation of a municipal housing commission for New York City. Robert D. Kohn, National Director of Housing, has given the people of many States reason to believe that they can safely hope to receive generous financial assistance from the Federal government as soon as they have provided themselves with the proper instrument for using such funds. Civic and welfare groups, members of the clergy, women's organizations and progressive labor leaders are uniting to promote sentiment in their local communities favorable to the creation of municipal housing authorities.
Most of the municipal legislation is being patterned after a bill prepared in New York City under the supervision of the National Public Housing Conference. Under the terms of this bill, it is recommended that a municipal housing authority be created and that a board be appointed by the Mayor. This board is to have power to issue its own bonds and to sell them to the Federal government. It will have placed at its disposal an effective procedure for acquiring land by condemnation or purchase, for clearing, replanning and rebuilding unhealthy and blighted areas, and finally to manage and operate dwellings when completed. The Government loans will be repaid out of the rents collected.
Given generous and persistent support, there is reason to believe that citywide housing plans will be under way in locations throughout the country before many months pass. Non-profit, low-rent public housing programs now appear to be reasonably certain of development- housing projects developed by public authorities, on publicly owned land, with the aid of public funds. When this rehousing recovery program gets well under way and local communities new support it, the first rays of a new dawn in housing will be seen to break over the horizon
