Housing: From Blight to Light

The nation is in agreement that its slums must be eliminated, but most solutions to the problem have been be clouded by a deep philosophical and economic schism between the adherents of private redevelopment and those who advocate publicly financed urban renewal. Last week Illinois Freshman Senator Chuck Percy introduced a housing bill that would combine both approaches and, in addition, give the slum dweller a stake in his own environment.

Percy’s plan—a major plank in his 1966 Senate campaign—calls for the establishment by the Federal Government of a nationwide, nonprofit, private housing federation that would buy and rebuild slum dwellings, then sell them to low-income families on a unit-by-unit basis, thus giving the man in the slum a stake in his own neighborhood. Working from a base of a threeyear, $60 million Government outlay and $2 billion in federal debenture bonds, the plan would ultimately generate up to $1.3 billion in rehabilitated housing.

Blast from HUD. Though the bonds would have to be guaranteed by the Government, Percy also provides for an investment from the owner. He calls it a “sweat equity” in which prospective homeowners can throw in their own labor to reduce their monthly mortgage payments. Under the Percy Plan, if a homeowner should rise above a middle-income level of $6,000 a year, he would subsequently contribute a commensurately greater portion of his monthly mortgage payment to the federation’s revolving fund.

For a freshman’s bill, the Percy proposal received unwontedly enthusiastic backing from the Senate’s 36 Republicans—and mild praise from Democratic Majority Leader Mike Mansfield. In the House, Cosponsor William Widnall of New Jersey could count on at least 100 votes. The bill also drew a scathing assault from HUD Secretary Robert Weaver, who blasted it as “totally unsupported by any factual analyses as to the kind and amount of subsidy that would be required for workable home ownership by poor families.” Weaver’s nine-page critique seemed to reflect a possessiveness about the urban problems that no federal program has yet begun to solve.

Two-Day Payoff. As Percy presented the bill on the Senate floor, he had the physical backing of 250 Illinois campaign workers and supporters. As a candidate, Percy had promised them a free trip to Washington if they delivered. Last week he paid off with a two-day itinerary that included not only the Senate session but a briefing by Secretary of State Dean Rusk, a coq au vin dinner with serenades by two musical groups. The celebration cost Percy $15,625 and won him the reputation of a man who delivers on his promises—to slum dwellers and party stalwarts alike.