the Act entitled 'An Act to expedite the provision of housing in connection with national defense, and for other purposes', approved October 14, 1940, as amended”, approved July 15, 1943, is amended to read as follows: "Provided further, That (a) none of the funds authorized herein shall be used to acquire public works already operated by public or private agencies, except where funds are allotted for substantial additions or improvements to such public works and with the consent of the owners thereof, and (b) the total amount allocated for contributions to public and private agencies for the maintenance and operation of public works after July 1, 1943, shall not exceed $120,000,000”. SEC. 3. The paragraph under the head "War public works (community facilities)" in the First Deficiency Appropriation Act, 1945, is amended by striking out "June 30, 1945" and inserting in lieu thereof "June 30, 1946". BITED STATES OF AMERICA JUL 12 45 HOUSING FOR DISTRESSED FAMILIES OF SERVICEMEN AND VETERANS WITH FAMILIES TUESDAY, MAY 22, 1945 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS, Washington, D. C. The committee met at 10 a. m., Hon. Fritz G. Lanham (chairman) presiding. The CHAIRMAN. Gentlemen, the committee will be in order. We are met this morning to consider the matter of the housing of the families of veterans overseas and returning veterans and their families and using for that purpose any vacant war housing that we have to allow them to occupy the housing at reasonable rental. Most of those, of course, will be hardship cases. And also to consider the feasibility of moving some of the surplus housing from one place to another for those purposes. You will recall that I introduced a bill in this regard in the last Congress and reintroduced it in this Congress to permit the families. of these servicemen who are having trouble with reference to housing to occupy empty war housing, and also the same for returning soldiers and their families. There are several phases of this question, and you will recall that some time ago we had an executive meeting with the representatives of the National Housing Agency concerning this problem and it was discussed at that time, and various ones of us have had conferences with them from time to time, and a great many of the Members of Congress have been interested in this general subject. There have been, I think, six different bills introduced, but the purpose of these hearings is to see just what the situation is and what would be appropriate legislation to give relief insofar as possible and practical. Under date of May 4 I had a very interesting and informative letter from Hon. John B. Blandford, Jr., Administrator of the National Housing Agency, with reference to this general subject, and also a suggested bill to meet this situation. Without objection, this letter from Mr. Blandford and the bill that he has suggested will be placed in the record at this point. (The letter and bill referred to follow :) NATIONAL HOUSING AGENCY, Hon. FRITZ G. LANHAM, House of Representatives, Washington, D. C. MY DEAR CONGRESSMAN LANHAM: For your convenience and ready reference, I am outlining the background and present situation relating to the housing problems of certain families of servicemen and returning veterans. As you know, the Lanham Act by its terms limited eligibility for war housing to workers engaged in essential defense activities, enlisted men and certain grades of officers and employees of the War and Navy Departments assigned to duty at naval or military reservations, posts or bases. Very early in the war-housing effort, it became necessary due to the critical shortages of materials and other shortages, to limit the programing and occupancy of war housing to essential inmigrant civilian war workers. This necessary decision represented consultation and agreement among the National Housing Agency, the War and Navy Departments, the War Production Board, and the War Manpower Commission. While this limitation was administrative in its inception it has recurrently received the approval of various committees of the Congress and of the Congress itself through the granting of additional appropriations and authorizations for war housing with full knowledge of this limitation. Shortly after the limitation of war housing to inmigrants took effect it began to be clear that this worked hardship upon the families of military personnel where the military personnel was stationed at centers of congestion in this country. When this became apparent the National Housing Agency was desirous by administrative action to follow a less rigid exclusion of military families than was involved in the immigrant civilian war worker rule. The military authorities however, continue to insist that the housing of families of such military personnel in congested areas was undesirable, and in this matter their views naturally prevailed. At the same time, certain administrative adjustments, particularly in connection with privately financed war housing, have tended somewhat to ease the situation with respect to the families of military personnel stationed in this country. The urgent problem which has prompted our recent discussions with the committee has arisen from two types of needs which have naturally become more pressing from month to month: (a) The distressing situation of families of servicemen overseas who because of evictions or other causes are deprived of the housing which they have been occupying, and cannot find other quarters within their means due to the general housing shortage; and (b) the inability of returning veterans and their families to find places in which to live. Clearly, the Lanham Act does not make families of these types eligible for war housing, unless the families include war workers. Where the family of a serviceman overseas is composed of a wife and small children, it is quite obvious that in many cases there can be no war worker in the family; and all of the veterans released from the services who have families obviously cannot be engaged in war work. For a time, it appeared that the situation of these families might be substantially relieved by steps which the National Housing Agency already has under way. These steps include the revival of privately financed house construction, without occupancy limitation in congested areas (H-2 program) and to relieve cases of individual hardship (H-3 program). In the individual hardship program, returning veterans are almost automatically classified as hardship cases where they have housing difficulties. In addition, following discussions with your committee, when war housing is no longer needed for essential war workers, occupancy controls over privately financed war housing are removed; and when occupancy modifications on publicly financed war housing take place, preference is given to veterans and their families. Despite these steps, it is becoming increasingly clear that they are alone insufficient to prevent extreme hardship in many cases to families of servicemen overseas and to returning veterans and their families. The privately financed house construction under the H-2 and H-3 programs is necessarily quite restricted in amount because of the continuing shortage of materials for permanent housing; in addition, many of the families of servicemen overseas, and even some of the returning yeterans and their families, cannot afford to purchase new houses at this time nor are their circumstances sufficiently stable to justify such purchase. These hardships to the families of servicemen and veterans have been recognized by a series of bills introduced in the House, as well as in the Senate. In the House alone, there have been at least six bills, all upon this problem. Some of these bills propose to stop all evictions of the families of servicemen; others propose to make the families of servicemen and veterans eligible for war housing on the same basis as war workers; some of them are limited to disabled veterans, some of them are limited to those serving in this war, while others extend to those serving in any war. While the congressional interest in this |