Harry S. Truman photo

Statement by the President on the Veterans' Emergency Housing Program.

February 08, 1946

WHEN I CALLED Mr. Wilson Wyatt to Washington, I gave him only one instruction: to "make no little plans."

For five weeks Mr. Wyatt has been hard at work preparing his plans in consultation with all government agencies concerned and with the principal business, labor and veterans groups involved.

He has recommended a Veterans' Emergency Housing Program which is bold, vigorous and eminently practical. It has the complete and unqualified support of the Administration. All agencies of the government are directed to use every resource at their command to fulfill this program. The Budget Director has of course been asked to review the budget recommendations in the light of the new housing proposals.

I urge the Congress to enact promptly the legislation necessary to carry out the program.

I call upon every public-spirited organization to muster its forces behind the program. I ask each community leader, each citizen, to do his utmost to make the plans a reality in his community.

Note: The president issued the statement upon making public a report of Housing Expediter Wilson W. Wyatt, dated February 7, 1946, and entitled "The Veterans' Emergency Housing Program" (Government Printing Office, 1946, 13 pp.).

On May 22, 1946, the President approved the Veterans' Emergency Housing Act of 1946 (60 Stat. 207).

Harry S Truman, Statement by the President on the Veterans' Emergency Housing Program. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/232434

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