Public Housing, 1955

Report Outline
Public Housing and the 84Th Congress
Public Housing Under 1954 Housing Acts
Dispute Over Need for Public Housing
Special Focus

Public Housing and the 84Th Congress

A Controversy over public housing, dormant since the 54th Congress convened, will burst out within the next few weeks. Hearings are expected shortly, before either the Senate or the House Banking and Currency Committee, on bills to carry out recommendations on public housing made to Congress by President Eisenhower in his State of the Union and budget messages at the opening of the 1955 session. The question of whether or not the federal government should continue to subsidize low-rent housing, which always draws strong expressions of opinion from the opposing sides, thus is in for another public airing at committee meetings and in floor debate.

President'S Recommendations on Public Housing

The President said on Jan. 6 that “We must… authorize contracts for a firm program of 35,000 additional public housing units in each of the next two fiscal years.” A program for 70,000 new public housing units is more than the Republican-controlled 83rd Congress was willing to authorize, but it falls considerably short of what the Democratic leadership of the new Congress believes necessary to meet current needs.

Unless Congress acts to extend the public housing program, the existing authority of the Public Housing Administration to make contracts in aid of new construction will expire on June 30, whether or not the present fiscal year's quota of 35,000 new units has been exhausted by that date. If the authority is allowed to expire, the federal aid program for public housing will be limited thereafter to loans for construction of units approved before the deadline and to payment of annual contributions to local housing authorities to make up losses they incur from operating the low-rent projects already built.