Abstract

Must Defense Wreck Housing?

Public housing is in grave danger of being laid to rest-paradoxically, in the name of defense. The army, the navy, and the Defense Commission say that 200,000 houses are needed at once for workers on the defense program, the houses can be used for slum dwellers when the emergency is over. The United States Housing Authority and the local public authorities acting under it are the only agencies equipped to build and manage them. Responsibility for defense housing is now to be split, and the work is to be parceled out to at least four federal bodies completely unequipped for the job. The War Department, the Navy, and the Reconstruction Finance Corporation have already been authorized to take it over. The Federal Works Administration too will now build houses through other agencies.