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The American Housing Act of 1949 () was a landmark, sweeping expansion of the federal role in
mortgage insurance Mortgage insurance (also known as mortgage guarantee and home-loan insurance) is an insurance policy which compensates lenders or investors in mortgage-backed securities for losses due to the default of a mortgage loan. Mortgage insurance can be ...
and issuance and the construction of public housing. It was part of
President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...
Harry Truman Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. A leader of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 34th vice president from January to April 1945 under Franklin ...
's program of domestic legislation, the
Fair Deal The Fair Deal was a set of proposals put forward by U.S. President Harry S. Truman to Congress in 1945 and in his January 1949 State of the Union address. More generally. the term characterizes the entire domestic agenda of the Truman administr ...
.


Background

During the Roosevelt administration the
National Housing Act of 1934 The National Housing Act of 1934, , , also called the Capehart Act and the Better Housing Program, was part of the New Deal passed during the Great Depression in order to make housing and home mortgages more affordable. It created the Federal ...
which established the
Federal Housing Administration The Federal Housing Administration (FHA), also known as the Office of Housing within the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), is a United States government agency founded by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, created in part ...
(FHA) and the
Housing Act of 1937 The Housing Act of 1937 (), formally the "United States Housing Act of 1937" and sometimes called the Wagner–Steagall Act, provided for subsidies to be paid from the U.S. government to local public housing agencies (LHAs) to improve living cond ...
were signed into law, the latter of which directed the federal government to subsidize local public housing agencies. On April 12, 1945 the passing of President Franklin D. Roosevelt propelled Harry S. Truman Vice President into the seat of Presidency. Truman secured the Democratic nomination in
1948 presidential election The following elections occurred in the year 1948. Africa * 1948 Mauritian general election * 1948 South African general election * 1948 Southern Rhodesian general election Asia * 1948 North Korean parliamentary election * 1948 Republic of China ...
, with a platform promising to provide for slum clearance and low-rent housing projects. Truman was elected to a full term in 1948 with the Democrats also reclaiming the
House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...
and the
Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
. In his 1949 State of the Union address unveiling the Fair Deal, Truman reiterated his desire to pass comprehensive housing legislation. 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. During the 81st Congress, Republican Sen.
Robert A. Taft Robert Alphonso Taft Sr. (September 8, 1889 – July 31, 1953) was an American politician, lawyer, and scion of the Republican Party's Taft family. Taft represented Ohio in the United States Senate, briefly served as Senate Majority Leade ...
sponsored the legislation with Democratic backers
Allen J. Ellender Allen Joseph Ellender (September 24, 1890 – July 27, 1972) was an American politician and lawyer who was a U.S. Senator from Louisiana from 1937 until his death. He was a Democratic Party (United States), Democrat who was originally allied ...
and Robert F. Wagner. 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. President Truman signed the bill into law on July 15, 1949.


Legislative history


ProvisionsBailey, 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.

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

*
Housing Act of 1937 The Housing Act of 1937 (), formally the "United States Housing Act of 1937" and sometimes called the Wagner–Steagall Act, provided for subsidies to be paid from the U.S. government to local public housing agencies (LHAs) to improve living cond ...
*
Section 514 loans Section 514 loans are a domestic, farm labor housing program in the United States, authorized under Section 514 of the Housing Act of 1949. They are the only nationwide program to provide housing for farm laborers. The Rural Housing Service (RHS) ...
*
Section 516 grants Section 516 grants are a USDA farm labor housing program authorized by Section 516 of the Housing Act of 1949 (42 U.S.C. 1441 et seq.). Qualified nonprofit organizations, Indian tribes, or public bodies obtain grants for the development cost of farm ...
*
Section 533 grants Section 533 grants are a USDA rural housing rehabilitation program authorized under Section 533 of the Housing Act of 1949 (42 U.S.C. 1441 et seq.). The Rural Housing Service The Rural Housing Service (RHS) is an agency of the United States Depar ...


References

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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

United States federal housing legislation 1949 in law 1949 in the United States Public housing in the United States 81st United States Congress United States federal legislation articles without infoboxes Housing legislation in the United States