Trainman News

30-40 Million Lack Decent Homes: Ewing

WASHINGTON Between 30 and 40 million Americans live in the kind of homes that "are seed-beds of preventable disease, crime, juvenile delinquency and possible dissatisfaction with the American way of life."

This clear statement of the desperate situation of American housing was clearly given the National Association of Housing Officials by Federal Security Administrator Oscar Ewing recently.

It was bolstered by a report from Housing and Home Finance Administration Raymond M. Foley, who pointed out that the present critical situation is the development of the bad housing problem created by the halting of building during World War II.

A tightness of mortgage money that cut across the whole housing picture was blamed by Foley, who said it imposed great strains in the greatest areas of lack of housing--only the luxury level didn't suffer in home construction.

Lack of homes in critical defense areas comes partly from this tightness of money, he said.

Noting the shortage of material, diversion of funds to military programs and concentration of defense as interfering with the dream of a decent home for every American family, Ewing warned against making temporary delays into permanent inactivity.

"Even yet we cannot tell whether we shall have to live thru not a year or two years, but a generation of emergency. If that happens, the needs that we recognize in housing, in public health, in public education, in social security become a key themselves to the nation's survival. We cannot fall into the trap, over the next 20 years, of dealing only with super-emergency situations."

He cited the 1950 housing census to bring home the facts in the critical lack of housing:

The U. S. has 6,600,000 overcrowded dwellings, and 3,400,000 not only dilapidated, but lacking in hot water, private toilet or private bath.

"We also have," said Ewing, "5,300,000 dwellings not recorded as dilapidated but without private bath or toilet. We have 6,900,000 that have no piped running water. Then there are over 12 million dwelling units that have no tub or shower, and nearly two million where the bath or shower facilities are shared."

"We need dwelling places especially for the needs of our older people--places that will satisfy their need for higher temperatures, that will give adequate light for failing eyesight, that will make it easy for them to get around without staircases and high thresholds, that will have floors which are smooth but not slippery.

"These and a thousand other considerations will be needed by older people; and in the next few years it seems to me that we must speed up our planning to satisfy such needs.

By 1980 we may expect to have twice as many men and women 65 and over as we have today.

"And what about the other end of the scale of years--the children of America? Surely I do not have to ring the changes on importance of decent housing for the future of our children."