New Types of Housing

Report Outline
Administration Homes-For-Veterans Program
Recent Advances in Housing Construction
Obstacles to Change in Housing Construction
Special Focus

NEW MATERIALS and new methods of construction have an important place in the emergency housing program of the Truman administration. Direct government encouragement to technological advances in housing is counted upon both to reduce high costs of home building and to speed the provision of new dwellings for war veterans.

Formidable barriers must be overcome if this part of the Truman-Wyatt program is to yield maximum benefits. Some of these are the resistance to housing innovations of both labor and management in the construction industry, the outmoded building codes which obstruct the use of new methods and materials in many localities, the conservatism of lending institutions, and the sales resistance of prospective home buyers to unconventional house designs.

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Administration Homes-For-Veterans Program

The administration program calls for the construction of 2,700,000 new dwelling units by the end of 1947. Of these, 1,600,000 would be of conventional design, 850,000 would be prefabricated houses, and 250,000 would be temporary structures. To achieve these goals, Housing Expediter Wyatt proposes that operative builders and suppliers of materials be assisted by priorities, subsidies, tax concessions, and recruitment of labor. Propective home buyers would be protected by price ceilings; prospective home builders would receive government assistance in obtaining land and long-term building loans at low interest rates.