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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - IV. Economics - 15. The Negro in the Public Economy - 6. Public Housing Policies
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Chapter 15. The Negro in the Public Economy 351
It seems that the U.S.H.A. program is well planned in many respects.
Yet there are some obvious shortcomings. One is its connection with the
slum clearance program. By law^ slum dwellings eventually have to be
eliminated at the same rate as new units are constructed. It seems that the
purpose of this clause is mainly to appease the real estate owners who are
afraid of an abundance of housing.® It is unfortunate when housing projects
are built on old slum sites, and the slum houses have first to be torn
down. Such practices work particular hardship on the Negroes since there
is usually no place where they can go while the new projects are being
built.
Several housing projects, however, among them Negro projects, have
been located on vacant land. The experiences, in many cases, have been
rather encouraging. Sites for projects have been found where utility services
are complete and where streets are well kept up. When there is additional
vacant land adjacent to the area, there is the opportunity for the develop-
ment of some new private housing for Negroes. It seems that such pro-
cedures should be followed generally for Negro housing projects. They
could and should always be utilized for the purpose of giving the Negro
additional ^4iving space^’ in urban areas—never for binding him with new
ties to the over-crowded sections where he is being kept.
Generally, this connection between slum clearance and new construction
has made it difficult to make new housing projects fit into constructive and
all-inclusive city plans.** In too many cases it has been a question of sub-
stituting good houses for bad ones without enough consideration of how
such piecemeal work can be integrated into a rational city plan. This, of
course, is all right for those individual families who happen to get a new
dwelling, but it scarcely prepares the ground for an ultimate solution of the
housing problem of the entire city. Particularly is this true about Negro
housings Negro sections are almost invariably among the least well-
planned areas in a city.
In city planning, which will be necessary for the continuation of the
subsidized housing program on a larger scale, the issue of housing segre-
gation will have to be faced squarely. This is the one feature which makes
the problem of housing for Negroes different from that of housing for
other low income families. The chances are that, in the South at least,
segregation will have to be accepted in the surveyable future, for the
simple reason that local opposition against subsidized housing projects will
otherwise be so strong that no projects can be built. In such cases, the only
thing that can be insisted upon is that Negroes get, not only new houses,
* From a social viewpoint, the only rational thing to do would be to eliminate slum
houses whenever there is a sufficient supply of adequate houses—regardless of whether the
supply is due to the building of subsidized housing projects or to other causes.
^ This is a criticism often heard among American planners.
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