analysis 1945 showed approximately 26,000 families in need. Housing authority contemplates 5,000 new low-rent dwellings if housing bill enacted. This housing essential to relocated families living in areas scheduled for redevelopment. Redevelopment areas expensive to acquire and clear. City will need Federal loans and capital-rent subsidies to enable private enterprise to rebuild in blighted areas. San Francisco planning and housing association, citizen's group 1947, compared same size good and bad neighborhoods. Studies showed the following: Bad neighborhood, 100 juvenile delinquents; 762 public-welfare cases; 4,771 adult arrests. Good neighborhood, 17 juvenile delinquents; 38 public-welfare cases; 39 adult arrests. Bad neighborhood had twice the fires, 36 times as many tuberculosis cases; 66 times as many city hospital cases; 3 times as many babies died. Municipal services in bad neighborhood cost $750,000; in good neighborhood $86,000. Tax revenues from bad neighborhood were $370,000; in good neighborhood, $543,000. Bad neighborhood is in area designated for development. Yesterday, April 11, 1949, San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed resolution endorsing S. 1070, Housing Act of 1949. PAUL V. BETTERS, United States Conference of Mayors: ELMER E. ROBINSON, BOSTON, MASS., April 13, 1949. Please record my wholehearted support of S. 1070 which it is expected will reach the Senate floor this week. Boston is 300 years old and possibilities of clearance of substandard areas and erection of new housing for low-income families with Federal aid would be a boon to this city. These twin problems are so great that this city cannot solve its problem alone. The Federal Government with broader tax base is better equipped to give substantial help. Conservative estimates indicate 50,000 substandard homes in Boston out of 210,000 dwelling units or 24 percent, with depreciation and obsolescence growing daily. In this city 14,000 dwellings now standing were built before 1860; 37,000 built before 1880; 80,000, or 38 percent, built before the turn of the century. Only one family out of five owns its own home, making Boston a city of rent payers. Whole areas of the city are in need of clearance, replanning, and redevelopment. Boston housing authority in receipt of 21,200 applications for tenancy between VJ-day and November 1948, at which time applications were shut off because of utter inability to offer hope to sorely pressed citizens, great majority of which are veterans with young families. Ten thousand new families formed in this city between decennial censuses of 1930 and 1940 with 10,000 marriages above average in four war years. Vacancies practically nonexistent here. Courts are clogged with eviction cases and are authorized by legislation to grant up to a year leeway before families are required to vacate. I have authorized expenditure of $20,000,000 city funds for housing and State program in Boston authorizes an additional $48,000,000, which together only begins to solve the problem. Boston can use many millions of Federal aid to help in solving its problem. Urge the honorable, the Members of the Senate to pass S. 1070 substantially as written. Would, however, request that construction cost limits, which finally made United States Housing Act of 1937 unworkable, not be included in legislation. Better that such limits be tied to regional construction costs limits or left to administrative discretion. This is an excellent opportunity for the Senate to enact legislation to provide homes for good Americans, and thus bulwark the Nation against inroads of atheistic communism which nurtures where poor housing conditions exist. JAMES M. CURLEY, Mayor of Boston, Boston, Mass. MILWAUKEE, WIS. PAUL V. BETTERS, United States Conference of Mayors, Washington, D. C.: Estimate need for 5,000 additional units in Milwaukee to ease housing shortage. Estimate additional 35,000 units needed to replace substandard units. Approximately 20,000 units should be low rent. Without Federal aid it is impossible to build housing for those families which are low income. In 2 weeks time received almost 4,000 active applications for 578 units of veterans' permanent housing; also have received almost 1,000 applications for 232 low-rent slum-clearance units. City has almost exhausted its own resources in building veterans' permanent housing. Seventeen thousand veterans' applications on file with Red Cross bureau. Approximately 30 percent of city is blighted. Average weekly wage of skilled labor about $60, meaning worker can afford only $6,000 home. Lowest cost house at present level about $7,000, effectively blocking individual ownership because banks won't lend. Private rental units are $90 monthly and up. Greatest need in 50 to 60 bracket. Private builders not interested in slum clearance unless with Government subsidy. Present vacancy rate about four-tenths of 1 percent. FRANK P. ZEIDLER, Mayor of Milwaukee. KANSAS CITY, Mo., April 12, 1949. PAUL V. BETTERS, United States Conference of Mayors, Washington, D. C.: Kansas City has at present no public housing program. We are greatly in need of such enabling legislation. Housing authority and city plan commission estimate need for 4,500 units low-rent public housing. Kansas City's blighted areas cost city approximately 45 percent of city service costs and contribute only 6 percent real-estate-tax revenue. It is estimated 33 percent of population resides in blighted areas which account for 5 times city average of TB cases, 6 times the juvenile delinquency cases, 3 times the fire calls, and 10 times the police calls above the city average. Sixty-nine and nine-tenths percent of commitments to local penal institutions are of persons residing in these areas and 74 percent of all new parole and probation cases are from same districts. Col. PAUL V. BETTERS, Washington, D. C.: Mayor WILLIAM E. KEMP. CINCINNATI, OHIO, April 13, 1949. Housing shortage here dangerous and unabated so far as low-income families are concerned. Overcrowding in this group at all-time high. Need estimated at four or five thousand low-rent public housing units during next few years. Our public health federation studies show white mortality in our slums three times higher for tuberculosis, pneumonia, and home accidents than in rest of city. In one of our slum-clearance projects, Laurel Homes, tuberculosis, pneumonia, infant mortality rate, crime rate, and fires per 1,000 dwellings less than for city as a whole. PAUL BETTERS, ALBERT D. CASH, Mayor. NEWARK, N. J., April 13, 1949. United States Conference of Mayors, Washington, D. C.: Newark has 118,550 dwelling units of which 38,423 are of slum character. Of our 44,451 residential structures, 4,718 are not fit for human habitation; 98,041 units are occupied by renters, 27.6 percent of our residential structures were constructed before 1900, and 41.1 between 1900 and 1919. Average rental of units in Newark is $33.36. Nineteen percent rent for less than $20 per month per unit and 31.6 rent for between $20 and $30 per month. Only 4,000 private units constructed since 1930 and 3,000 public units. About 8 percent of Newark area occupied by substandard dwellings and total habitable area is only 20 square miles practically none of which is vacant land. Estimated present population, 480,000. We need 10,000 additional low-cost units and 15,000 additional units for moderate-income families. These cannot be supplied without first clearing land by slum elimination. PAUL V. BETTERS, United States Conference of Mayors: Mayor VINCENT J. MURPHY. SEATTLE, WASH., April 13, 1949. Recent Seattle market survey completed this year by city and University of Washington shows 14,750 substandard units in Seattle proper of which 5,300 are tenant occupied by families of two to six persons. Recent study by Seattle Housing Authority based on figures revealed in market survey sets need for units to rent under $40 per month, conservatively, at 8,839. In contrast to this need, survey conducted early this year by VFW shows that of 261 units one to three rooms advertised for rent 74 percent rented for $50 or more while of 241 units four to six rooms 94 percent rented for $60 or more. Our authority still receiving 120 applications weekly on average from veterans unable to afford market price for decent housing. In light of these facts, need for slum clearance to wipe out substandard housing and construction of housing for low income appears obvious. Best wishes to you in your efforts to get facts before Senate. WILLIAM F. DEVIN, Mayor, City of Seattle. PAUL V. BETTERS, United States Conference of Mayors, MINNEAPOLIS, MINN., April 12, 1949. Washington, D. C.: Four years after the war the housing shortage still exists in Minneapolis. Many examples of suffering and crowding still remain. The office of the housing administrator has a backlog of 2,200 applicants for housing. Sixty percent of these applicants are members of the marginal income group, with an annual income below $3,000. Ceiling prices of old homes have not decreased sufficiently for members of this group to make purchases, nor are they capable of buying new houses. The city welfare department with many indigent and others unable to command housing, is hard put to find shelter for those on relief. Families of six and eight people are often housed in hotel rooms. Veterans' groups are grateful for the temporary housing which was established in Minneapolis. However, the discomforts of such housing are more evocative of wartime life than the years of peace. Upon these veterans will fall the continued problems of housing unless permanent housing is provided for them and other people in Minneapolis. Three thousand six hundred and seventy persons now occupy temporary housing units; 2,045 of this group are children, inheritors of the suffering indigenous to life among the prefabs and temporary housing units. Between 1,000 and 2,000 low-rent housing units are needed in Minneapolis. The import of the term "low rent" is best exemplified in the statistics of a survey made by the Minneapolis Housing and Redevelopment Authority. The surveyed area included a blighted section on the near north side of Minneapolis. A income group pays $38 per month rent in this area; B income group pays $30; and C income group, comprising one-fifth of the entire group, pays $21 per month. However, slum clearance cannot be effected without appropriate plans in hand for the establishment of low-rent housing units in the area cleared. Such a program of clearance and of redevelopment is hamstrung in Minneapolis by the lack of Federal funds. The tragedy of this situation is that substandard dwellings will have to remain to provide shelter. Such inadequate shelter has always been the breeding ground of juvenile delinquency. Families who live in such homes are highly susceptible to disease, just as they also become susceptible to criminal activities. Poor housing leads in part to increased cost in maintaining penitentiaries. Three statistics on the Sumner field housing project show that since the establishment of the project the number of fires in the area decreased one-third. Dollar loss per fire decreased between 1940 and 1948 to $36 per fire, as compared to $193 in the area previous to redevelopment. Police cost in the area dropped 90 percent. Prof. Stuart Chapin of the department of sociology at the University of Minnesota in his survey of the project in 1940 pointed out that people living in the Sumner field units developed twice as much social participation in the civic affairs of the neighborhood and city. This increased not only the moral tone of the city but the lives of these people. This comparison was made in terms of the people occupying substandard shelter in surrounding blighted areas. The need for low-rent housing should be considered primarily in terms of the American principle of preserving American family life. Home life is the basis of family life, and the destruction of family life spiritually and materially has too often been caused in the years since the war by inadequate dwellings. Sincerely yours, ERIC G. HOYER, Mayor. PAUL V. BETTERS, United States Conference of Mayors: ATLANTA, GA., April 13, 1949. The city of Atlanta is vitally interested in the passage of a comprehensive housing and slum-clearance bill. There is still great need for housing in the low-income class both white and colored. Also there are still large slum areas which need clearance in the central and semicentral portion of the city. There are thousands of applications for the housing units we now have which cannot be filled. Quite a number of apartment buildings have been built in Atlanta under FHA loans, but they are too far out in the suburbs to serve our working people and those of moderate income. Also the rents are completely above the low-income class. The city of Atlanta has great need for an additional program of slum clearance and low-cost housing. WILLIAM B. HARTSFIELD, Mayor of Atlanta. TOLEDO, OHIO, April 12, 1949. PAUL V. BETTERS, Executive Director, United States Conference of Mayors: We cannot too strongly emphasize the importance of legislation assisting cities with the elimination of slums and construction of housing for persons of low income. Today the most valuable areas in Toledo from the standpoint of facility and proximity to the center of activity are occupied by slums which create real problems in law enforcement and health. PAUL V. BETTERS, MICHAEL V. DISALLE, MEMPHIS, TENN., April 12, 1949. Director, United States Conference of Mayors: Because the central portion of Memphis is traversed by five major bayou systems the adjacent areas invited construction of poorest type of shelter. Most of the so-called housing was provided more than 40 years ago and represents nearly 14,000 units unfit for repair in an area of more than seven square miles. No slums have ever been cleared here except through public improvements and building of five public housing projects. Believe private enterprise would cooperate in redevelopment if slum sites could be made available at reuse values. Memphis needs at least 7,000 low-rent public-housing units and should apply for at least half that number if present legislation is enacted. The existing public housing program of 3,300 units is divided 28 percent for white and 72 percent for Negro occupancy and future programs, based on need, should be apportioned likewise. PAUL V. BETTERS, United States Conference of Mayors, WATKIN OVERTON, Mayor, City of Memphis, Tenn. PROVIDENCE, R. I., April 12, 1949. Washington, D. C. Providence program for slum clearance and redevelopment requires passage of Senate bill 1070 to provide low-rent housing for displaced families of low income. Vital programs for new highways, playgrounds, industrial sites, as well as slum clearance are being delayed by a housing shortage. PAUL V. BETTERS, DENNIS J. ROBERTS, NORFOLK, VA., April 13, 1949. Executive Director, United States Conference of Mayors: Acute shortage exists here respecting housing accommodations at rentals within reach of vast majority of our people. Concern of commandant of Fifth Naval District is indicative of the general situation. Recent survey by commandant discloses 2,347 Navy personnel in Norfolk area who desire to bring their families to this area but who are unable to do so because of housing shortage; 3,077 families of Navy personnel in this area now occupying trailers, rooms, and other inadequate housing. Estimated minimum need for low-rent public housing 3,000 units. Nineteen hundred and forty housing census revealed 9,000 substandard units occupied by Negroes, 6,000 substandard units occupied by whites. While there is no later survey available, this situation has certainly not improved. City now plagued with many blighted areas which we hope to eliminate progressively through redevelopment and public-housing projects. Norfolk's interest in slum clearance and public housing evidenced by recent appropriation of $25,000 to the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority for a study, planning, and programing. Low-rent public housing in Norfolk efficiently operated, but grossly inadequate in scope. Administrative heads of health, fire, and police departments and judge of juvenile court report a very high rate of disease, delinquency, and crime in slum areas with correspondingly high servicing costs and very favorable demonstration of effectiveness of public housing. Study made in 1937 of certain slum areas comprising 1 percent of our total area and containing 14 percent of our population showed that the cost of city services in those areas exceeded the tax returns therefrom by $750,000. City vitally interested in passage of a comprehensive housing bill embracing public housing and urban redevelopment. PRETLOW DARDEN, APRIL 14, 1949. Col. PAUL V. BETTERS, United States Conference of Mayors: City administration of St. Louis urges early and favorable action on Senate bill 1070. Our public housing program originally envisioned 12,000 dwelling units, but only 1,100 have been built. Site has been acquired, ground cleared, and legal obstacles removed for another project to house 550 low-income families; only barrier is lack of Federal funds. Over-all housing situation here still critical. Slum clearance is also mandatory. More than one-third our dwelling units constructed before 1900. City plan commission estimates that our slum and blighted districts cost city $4,000,000 a year. This figure represents difference in cost of various municipal services and tax yield from such district. From both humanitarian and economic viewpoint slums are bad business. Respectfully refer you to my testimony before Joint Congressional Committee on Housing October 24, 1947. What I said then is just as true today. Col. PAUL V. BETTERS, ALOYS P. KAUFMANN, CITY OF ST. PAUL, MINN., Executive Director, United States Conference of Mayors, Washington, D. C. I DEAR COLONEL BETTERS: The housing condition in St. Paul is still acute. cannot see that there is any improvement, and there are indications that it is getting worse. The high cost of construction and the lack of proper financing facilities and arrangements have made it practically impossible for a family in the low-income bracket to build or purchase a new home. There is no rental property available to the low-income group, and families with children have a difficult time in renting any home at any price. We have hundreds of people living in converted stores and office buildings, and many living in our cheap loop hotels under conditions that are far from desirable. These people are compelled to pay fantastic rentals-as much as $210 a month for a family of seven, including five children, for two little rooms without private toilet facilities. Our welfare board, on a check of 23 welfare families, is paying an average of $137.50 per month per family for rent alone, to keep them in these cheap hotels. The quonset huts, which were to provide temporary housing for the returned veteran, are more in demand than ever, and we have a long list of emergency applications from veterans who have no better housing facilities for themselves and families. |