Housing Act of 1949
The American Housing Act of 1949 (
Background
During the Roosevelt administration the
In his 1949 State of the Union address unveiling the Fair Deal, Truman reiterated his desire to pass comprehensive housing legislation.[6] The Senate had successfully passed bills allocating federal aid for public housing in 1946 and 1948, although these efforts died in the House of Representatives on both occasions.[4]
During the 81st Congress, Republican Sen. Robert A. Taft sponsored the legislation with Democratic backers Allen J. Ellender and Robert F. Wagner.[4] On April 21, 1949, the Senate approved the legislation by a vote of 57–13, with all but two of the "nay" votes coming from Republicans. The House of Representatives voted 227–186 in favor of the bill on June 29, 1949.[7] President Truman signed the bill into law on July 15, 1949.[8]
Legislative history
Date: | Legislative Action: |
February 21, 1949 | Subcom on Housing & Rents, Committee on Banking & Currency |
February 25, 1949 | Reported to the Senate |
February 25, 1949 | Committee on Banking & Currency Senate |
April 13, 1949 | Debated in Senate |
April 21, 1949 | Debated, Amended, Passed Senate |
April 25, 1949 | Referred to Committee House |
May 3, 1949 | Committee on Appropriations Senate |
May 9, 1949 | Committee on Banking & Currency House |
May 9, 1949 | Made special order (H.Res.189) Debated, Amended, Pass House (81 H.R. 2203) |
May 16, 1949 | Committee on Banking & Currency House |
July 6, 1949 | Committee of Conference House |
July 8, 1949 | Conference Report (H.rp.975) Submitted in House & agreed to |
July 8, 1949 | Conference Report agreed to in Senate |
July 14, 1949 | Committee on Banking & Currency Senate |
July 14, 1949 | Presidential Signing Statement |
Provisions
Source:[9]
Title I - Slum Clearance & Community Development & Redevelopment
Authorized $1 Billion in loans to help cities acquire slums and blighted land for public or private redevelopment. It also allotted $100 million every year for five years for grants to cover two-thirds of the difference between the cost of the slum land and its reuse value.
Title II - Amendments to National Housing Act
Amended the National Housing Act of 1934 by reauthorizing the FHA for six weeks and raised by $500 million the amount the FHA was allowed to offer as mortgage insurance.
Title III - Low Rent Public Housing
Required that public housing authorities demolish or renovate one slum dwelling unit for every public housing apartment they built.
Title IV - Housing Research
Provided funds and the authority to conduct extensive research into the economics of housing construction, markets, and financing.
Title V - Farm Housing
Addressed the problems of rural housing by reorganizing and expanding the loan program initiated under the Bankhead-Johns Farm Tenant Act of 1937, which allowed farmer to purchase and improve farms.
Title VI - Miscellaneous Provisions
See also
References
- ^ Peters, Gerhard; Woolley, John T. "Harry S. Truman: "Statement by the President Upon Signing the Housing Act of 1949.," July 15, 1949". The American Presidency Project. University of California - Santa Barbara.
- ^ von Hoffman, Alexander. 1996b. Vision Limited: The Political Movement for a U.S. Public Housing Program, 1919-1950. Working Paper Series, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School for Government, Joint Center for Housing Studies, Taubman Center for State and Local Government.
- ^ McDonnell, Timothy L. 1957. The Wagner Housing Act: A Case Study of Legislative Process. Chicago: Loyola University Press.
- ^ a b c "Public Housing" (PDF).
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-12-12.
- ^ "Annual Message to the Congress on the State of the Union". The American Presidency Project. Retrieved 2022-12-12.
- ^ "The Housing Act of 1949" (PDF). Congressional Quarterly Alamac.
- ^ "Statement by the President Upon Signing the Housing Act of 1949". The American Presidency Project. Retrieved 2022-12-12.
- ^ Bailey, James. 1965. The Case History of a Failure. Architectural Forum 123(5):22-25.↵↵Davies, Richard. 1966. Housing Reform during the Truman Administration. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press.
Further reading
- Clement, Bell. "Wagner-Steagall and the DC Alley Dwelling Authority: A Bid for Housing-Centered Urban Redevelopment, 1934–1946." Journal of the American Planning Association 78.4 (2012): 434–448.
- Congressional Quarterly. "Housing a Nation." (1966).
- Foard, Ashley A. "Law and Contemporary Problems." 25.4 (1960).
- Heathcott, Joseph. "The Strange Career of Public Housing: Policy, Planning, and the American Metropolis in the Twentieth Century." Journal of the American Planning Association 78.4 (2012): 360–375.
- Jenkins, William D. "Before Downtown: Cleveland, Ohio, and Urban Renewal, 1949-1958." Journal of Urban History 27.4 (2001): 471–496.
- Lang, Robert E., and Rebecca R. Sohmer. "Legacy of the Housing Act of 1949: The Past, Present, and Future of Federal Housing and Urban Policy." Housing Policy Debate (2000): 291–298. online
- Orlebeke, Charles J. "The Evolution of Low‐Income Housing Policy, 1949 to 1999." Housing policy debate 11.2 (2000): 489–520.
- Patterson, James. "Mr. Republican: A Biography of Robert A Taft." Houghton Mifflin (1972).
- Radford, Gail, "Modern Housing for America: Policy Struggles in the New Deal Era" (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996).
- Vale, Lawrence J., "From the Puritans to the Projects: Public Housing and Public Neighbors" (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard Press, 2000).
- Vale, Lawrence J., “Reclaiming Public Housing: A Half Century of Struggle in Three Public Neighborhoods” (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard Press, 2002).
- von Hoffman, Alexander. "A Study in Contradictions: The Origins and Legacy of the Housing Act of 1949." Housing policy debate 11.2 (2000): 299–326. online
- von Hoffman, Alexander. "High Ambitions: The Past and Future of American Housing Policy". Housing Policy Debate 7.3 (1996).
- von Hoffman, Alexander. "The Lost History of Urban Renewal." Journal of Urbanism 1.3 (2008): 281–301. [1]
External links
- Housing Act of 1949 section 2 and title V as amended (PDF/details) in the GPO Statute Compilations collection