SLUM CLEARANCE
DESPITE the biggest construction boom in U.S. history, the nation has notably failed to clear its slums.
Instead of growing smaller, the nation's slums are getting bigger and worse than ever. One reason is that real-estate men have repeatedly raised cries of socialism against Government housing projects that often accompany slum-clearance projects. Another is that do-nothing municipal governments have ducked the problem.
Now mayors and city councils are learning that slums are not only festering eyesores and schools for crimes but heavy burdens on city budgets. For example, Baltimore's slums produce only 6% of the city's revenues but take 45% of all the city's total budget. They account for 45% of Baltimore's major crimes and 55% of juvenile delinquency.
In the past five years the Federal Government has allocated almost $500 million for slum clearance and urban redevelopment. Now President Eisenhower has asked Congress for another $500 million. If Congress votes the money, the funds would spur a partnership program combining public and private spending for the betterment of all.
Slum rehabilitation would give the current construction boom such a powerful boost that it would virtually guarantee a high level of building for decades. The Housing and Home Finance Agency estimates that the federal and municipal governments' share in the cost of slum clearance and urban rehabilitation would run at least to $24 billion. And for every $1 spent from public funds, HHFA estimates that private enterprise would spend $4 to $5. All told, 20 million urban dwellings need to be replaced or rehabilitated. Over a 20-year spread, the bill for public and private spending could reach $5 billion yearly, about one-seventh of what the U.S. spent last year on all construction.
Until last year slum clearance was tried in bits and pieces which, said President Eisenhower's Advisory Committee on Housing, "simply will not work. Occasional thrusts at slum pockets in one section of a city will only push slums to other sections unless an effective program exists for attacking the entire problem of urban decay." Part of the problem lies outside the worst slums, in neighborhoods where middle-income homeowners have let their property become shabby.
To combat the overall problem, the President proposed this package plan: 1) stop the spread of blight by strict enforcement of occupancy and maintenance standards, 2) rehabilitate areas that can be saved by remodeling, repainting, building parks and playgrounds, etc., 3) raze and redevelop slums that cannot be saved. By building centers of health in declining neighborhoods, the Government hopes to spur home and apartment owners to repair, repaint, clean up, fix up.