Atlanta Daily World

Voters League Approves Low Rent Housing Plan With Reservations

C. Housing Plan With Reservations
During the three-hour hearing which led to the vote by the Atlanta Aldermanic Board's urban renewal committee for an additional 1,000 low-rent housing units, the Atlanta Negro Voters League made a presentation through Atty. A. T. Walden, a League co-chairman.

The League declared that it endorsed the request for the additional housing units "with certain reservations." It declared further that "unless these conditions can be met, then as much as we appreciate the need for Public Housing in the City of Atlanta, we would have to disapprove any additional units at this time."

Said the League presentation further:

"We believe that the Board of Aldermen and the City Administration have not fulfilled their responsibility in making available sites for the construction of Housing known as 221 under the F.H.A. Program which is a step up from Public Housing in that it permits people of low income to own their own homes at a very minimum down payment and the rest to be paid as rent.

"At the present time, only approximately a little over 300 units of this housing has been cleared for Negro use which represents only one-tenth of the allocation approved by F.H.A., which is in excess of 3,500 units, while over 600 units have been approved for whites which represents more than 50 per cent of their total allocation of approximately 1100 or 1200 units as approved by F.H.A.

"We also know from the record that all of the certificates of eligibility for this type of housing have been applied for by Negroes while almost none of the 221 Housing has been applied for by eligible white displaces of the Urban Renewal and Slum Clearance Program."