The Unsolved Housing Problem

Report Outline
Renewed Attack on Housing Problem
Federal Aid for Private Construction
Progress of Low-Cost Housing Program
Conflict of Opinion on Housing Policy

Renewed Attack on Housing Problem

Need for a Sound Federal Housing Policy

Renewal of the federal government's drive for low-cost housing and slum clearance, if his administration were returned to power, was pledged by President Roosevelt in two speeches at New York City during the final week of the 1936 campaign. Speaking on the lower East side, October 28, the President said that “an adequate answer” to the housing problem had not yet been worked out. “As a matter of fact,” he said, “we have, for too long, neglected the housing problem for all our lower-income groups.”

We have spent large sums of money on parks, on highways, on bridges. on museums, and for other projects of civic betterment…. But we have not yet begun adequately to spend money in order to help the families in the overcrowded sections of our cities to live as American citizens have a right to live. You and I will not be content until city, state, and federal governments join with private capital in helping every American family to live that way.

We need action and more action to get better city housing. Senator Wagner and I had hoped for a new law at the last session of the Congress. We who believe in better housing have not been defeated. I am confident that the next. Congress will start us on our way with a sound housing policy.