United States Housing Authority

United States Housing Authority (USHA)
	USHA poster, 1940s
Agency overview
Formed	1940
Dissolved	Abolished pursuant to the Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1947
Superseding agency	Consolidated within the Housing and Home Finance Agency;
Parent department	United States Department of the Interior
Parent agency	Moved under the National Housing Authority of the Federal Works Agency and redesignated as the Federal Public Housing Authority on February 24, 1942
Key document	Housing Act of 1937;

The United States Housing Authority, or USHA, was a federal agency created during 1937 within the United States Department of the Interior by the Housing Act of 1937 as part of the New Deal.

It was designed to lend money to the states or communities for low-cost construction.

History

Units for about 650,000 low-income people, but mostly for the homeless, were started.

slums

, so the Housing Act of 1937 envisioned a long-term federal role under the new agency, the USHA.

This Housing Act of 1937 was strongly influenced by

Catherine Bauer

. She became its Director of Information and Research, a position she held for two years.

The private sector saw an economic danger in nationalized housing, and insisted that there be a clear differentiation between the main

racially segregated. Critics eventually pointed to the culture of poverty

, violence, drugs, crime and hopelessness that thrived in the "vertical ghetto" as a refutation of the original Progressive theory.

Defenders of public housing point out that the program was beset with limitations at its outset, has never been truly fully funded, and continues to serve a limited income population that the private real estate sector has never tried to serve.

Organizational history

slums

"

The Housing Division of the

National Industrial Recovery Act, June 16, 1933.^[1] It assumed, from the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, administration of the limited dividend program under the Emergency Relief and Construction Act

, July 21, 1932. It also administered a program of direct federal grants and loans to local housing authorities.

The United States Housing Authority (USHA) was established in the Department of the Interior by the Housing Act of 1937, September 1, 1937, assuming responsibilities of the Housing Division in 1939. It was transferred to the Federal Works Agency by Reorganization Plan No. I of 1939, effective July 1, 1939.

The USHA was renamed the Federal Public Housing Authority (FPHA) and transferred to the

First War Powers Act), February 24, 1942, also consolidating functions relating to public housing formerly vested in the Public Buildings Administration

, Division of Defense Housing, and Mutual Ownership Defense Housing Division, FWA; the War and Navy Departments; and the Farm Security Administration.

The FPHA was replaced by the Public Housing Administration (PHA) within the Housing and Home Finance Agency pursuant to Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1947, effective July 27, 1947. The PHA was abolished and superseded by the Department of Housing and Urban Development by the Department of Housing and Urban Development Act (79 Stat. 667), September 9, 1965.

References

^ "Records of the Public Housing Administration [PHA]". National Archives. 2016-08-15. Retrieved 2017-10-24.

Aaron, Henry. Shelter and Subsidies: Who Benefits from Federal Housing Policies? The Brookings Institution. 1972.
Fisher, Robert. Twenty Years of Public Housing. Harper and Brothers. 1959.
Friedman, Lawrence M. Government and Slum Housing: A Century of Frustration (1968)
Hirsch, Arnold Richard. The Second Ghetto: Race and Housing in Chicago, 1940-1960 Cambridge University Press 1983.
Huthmacher, J. Joseph. Senator Robert F. Wagner and the Rise of Urban Liberalism (1968)
Moore, William. The Vertical Ghetto. Random House. 1969.
Rainwater, Lee. Behind Ghetto Walls: Black Family Life in a Federal Slum. Aldine. 1970

External links

Media related to United States Housing Authority at Wikimedia Commons

[PHA-records-1] "Records of the Public Housing Administration [PHA]". National Archives. 2016-08-15. Retrieved 2017-10-24.

[1]

v t e New Deal
Causes and legacy	Great Depression New Deal Coalition Brain Trust American Liberty League Criticism
New Deal	Emergency Banking Act Economy Act Agricultural Adjustment Act Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Civil Works Administration Communications Act Executive Order 6102 Homeowners Refinancing Act Farm Credit Administration Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Federal Emergency Relief Administration Frazier–Lemke Farm Bankruptcy Act Glass–Steagall Act National Industrial Recovery Act National Housing Act National Recovery Administration National Youth Administration Public Works Administration (PWA) Public Works of Art Project Reciprocal Tariff Act Railroad Retirement Act Securities Act Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)
Second New Deal	Works Progress Administration (WPA) Federal Project Number One Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Farm Security Administration Judicial Procedures Reform Act National Bituminous Coal Conservation Act National Labor Relations Board (Act) Rural Electrification Act Rural Electrification Administration Social Security United States Housing Authority Fair Labor Standards Act
Individuals	Franklin D. Roosevelt Harold L. Ickes Frances Perkins Harry Hopkins Henry Morgenthau Jr. Huey Long Herbert Hoover Francis Townsend Robert F. Wagner
Category Commons

Authority control databases
International	ISNI VIAF
National	United States
Other	SNAC