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Atlanta Daily World
Atlanta, Fulton County, Georgia
What is this article about?
A report by the Maryland Advisory Committee to the Federal Civil Rights Commission highlights housing discrimination in Baltimore, where slum clearance displaces colored families without providing them new low-rent options, while new housing is mostly for whites. Only 1% of recent units available to minorities amid financing barriers.
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WASHINGTON, D. C. (NNPA) - Slum clearance in Baltimore has resulted largely in clearing neighborhoods of colored families and providing low-rent public housing for whites in the area, according to the report of the Maryland Advisory Committee to the Federal Civil Rights Commission.
The Commission has published abridged reports of its State Advisory Committees, of which the Maryland report is one. The reports covered such subjects as voting, housing, education, transportation, public accommodations, and employment. But the Maryland report was devoted solely to the subject of housing for colored families.
About 50 per cent of "dilapidated" housing in Baltimore is occupied by colored families, according to the Maryland report. The number of "substandard" dwellings in Baltimore in 1956, the report says, was 55,000, 30,000 of which were occupied by colored families.
Slum clearance, the report continues, has resulted in no return of colored families to the new housing at the Waverly and John Hopkins sites.
At the time the report was written there was question of whether the apartments to be built on the site of the State Office Building would be available to colored families, although the contract called for open occupancy. Rents are expected to be beyond the reach of most colored tenants.
DIFFERENCES NOTED
In other findings with respect to Baltimore, the Committee reported:
1. There is a big difference in quantity and quality of housing available to colored families as compared to that available to whites. Colored families are usually restricted to substandard areas or to changing border areas.
The report credits the Baltimore Housing Authority with replacing quite a few substandard dwellings with adequate housing, but it states, the new housing, in most instances primarily for whites, has often displaced colored families entirely.
"Total dislocation" of colored families, the report says, "resulted through complete demolition" and ...
In the past 15 years, 100,000 new housing units have been built in the Baltimore metropolitan area, only 1 per cent of which has been available for colored occupancy.
2. Builders are hesitant to build for colored occupancy. There are no colored builders in the Baltimore area qualified to finance the job.
3. In segregated areas it is difficult to get mortgage financing, although a Baltimore Urban League study shows that colored purchasers are good financial risks.
4. The Federal Housing Administration in Baltimore continues to insure mortgages on property for white occupancy only.
NO OPERATORS
With respect to Maryland counties, the Committee reported:
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Domestic News Details
Primary Location
Baltimore
Outcome
slum clearance displaced colored families without providing return housing; only 1% of 100,000 new units available for colored occupancy; difficulties in financing and building for colored families.
Event Details
The Maryland Advisory Committee to the Federal Civil Rights Commission reported on housing discrimination in Baltimore, noting that 50% of dilapidated housing is occupied by colored families, slum clearance displaces them without replacement, new housing primarily for whites, builders hesitant to build for colored occupancy, financing difficulties, and FHA insures only white-only properties.