- Project Runeberg -  An American Dilemma : the Negro Problem and Modern Democracy /
348

(1944) [MARC] Author: Gunnar Myrdal
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Note: Gunnar Myrdal died in 1987, less than 70 years ago. Therefore, this work is protected by copyright, restricting your legal rights to reproduce it. However, you are welcome to view it on screen, as you do now. Read more about copyright.

Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - IV. Economics - 15. The Negro in the Public Economy - 5. Recreational Facilities - 6. Public Housing Policies

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348 An American Dilemma
ticularly, it has yet to be recognized that quite special provisions are
required for the Negroes in order to offset some of the economic, cultural
and moral disadvantages from which they suffer.
6. Public Housing Policies®
Before the depression of the ’thirties, there were few attenipts made by
public bodies in this country to improve the housing conditions for low
income people. Moreover, housing credit was rather unorganized: financial
institutions were extremely numerous, there was little integration among
them, and the whole system lacked stability and efficiency to such an extent
that interest costs on mortgage loans were usually much higher than neces-
sary. High property taxes, then as well as now, also had a damaging effect.^®
These and a number of similar circumstances made decent housing econom-
ically unobtainable for millions of families who would have been able to
pay the full price if housing had been more efficiently organized.
The Great Depression, however, brought a change. The breakdown of
private building construction and the widespread unemployment made the
glaring housing needs appear even more irrational than ordinarily. Why let
people go unemployed when there is so much work to be done? On top of
that, there was the near-collapse in housing credit. These circumstances
weakened the resistance against public interference in housing to such an
extent that it was possible to launch some rather significant government
programs.
Recent housing policies, apart from city planning, building control, and
similar activities, have in the main two aspects: making credit available for
private housing and providing public housing for low income groups. Quan-
titatively most important are the credit reforms, carried out by the Home
Owners’ Loan Corporation (H.O.L.C.), the Federal Home Loan Banks,
and the Federal Housing Administration (F.H.A.). The H.O.L.C. was set
up primarily for the purpose of rescuing home owners who were threatened
with losing their homes during the depression. It is now liquidating. In
terms ot long-range policies, the F.H.A. Is the most Important ot these
housing credit agencies. Its many important contributions are so well
known that they scarcely need to be emphasized here.^® The loans are
made by private institutions, but since the insurance eliminates the risk
for the lenders interest rates are kept down to such an extent that F.H.A.
houses are weU Within the reach of middle class and more secure working
dass families. Particd^ly significant is the fact that, year by year, it hJ
been possible to reach deeper down into lower economic strata. In spite of
that, less than 30 per cent of the main category of new borrower on one-
For a fuller treatment of the important problems dealt wifh fl.:. t>- t. j
Sterner and A«ociate, .We, prepared for this studV" OsXclpL

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