Although homebuilding has become a principal victim of the fight against inflation, the Nixon Administration has been resisting many of the industry's pleas for special help. Several Government agencies have poured a total of $13 billion into mortgages, loans and commitments, but even so, housing production has fallen 36% since January 1969, to an annual rate of only 1,166,000 starts. Vacancy rates in many big cities have approached the vanishing point. Last week the Administration took action on several fronts at once to help overcome the nation's worst housing shortage in two decades.
To funnel still more money into private...