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Statement by the President on the New Housing and Home Finance Agency.

August 07, 1947

REORGANIZATION PLAN No. 3 of 1947, recently approved by the Senate, groups all the principal permanent housing agencies and functions of the Government, and the remaining emergency housing activities, in a Housing and Home Finance Agency. Under this new overall agency, as constituent parts of it, are the following: A Home Loan Bank Board to administer the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation, the Home Owners' Loan Corporation, and the functions of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board and its members; a Federal Housing Administration with the same functions as now provided by law for that agency; and a Public Housing Administration to take over the functions of the United States Housing Authority and certain remaining emergency housing activities that are being liquidated. Each constituent agency will have its own identity and be responsible for the operation of its program. There is also included a National Housing Council made up of representatives of agencies that are not direct constituents.

I have today made the following recess appointments in accordance with provisions of Reorganization Plan No. 3:

Administrator, Housing and Home Finance Agency--Raymond M. Foley of Michigan.

Commissioner, Federal Housing Administration--Franklin D. Richards of Utah.

Commissioner, Public Housing Administration--Dillon S. Myer of Ohio.

Chairman of the Home Loan Bank Board (term ending June 30, 1949)--John H. Fahey of Massachusetts.

Member of the Home Loan Bank Board (term ending June 30, 1951)--Nathaniel Dyke, Jr. of Arkansas (Democrat).

Member of the Home Loan Bank Board (term ending June 30, 1950)--J. Alston Adams of New Jersey (Republican).

I have said on numerous occasions that the primary responsibility for meeting the Nation's housing needs rests, and must continue to rest, with private industry. But the Federal Government also has the responsibility of assisting and stimulating the efforts of private industry to provide much-needed homes.

The building of sufficient low-cost homes to house our citizens adequately must be one of our most important objectives during the coming 10 years. It is a national problem, and can be solved only through a nationally integrated plan. It is for this reason that I drafted a plan which provided for the integration of the housing functions of the Federal Government into one agency. For the same reason, I have appointed to head the Housing and Home Finance Agency and its constituent agencies, as promptly as possible after approval of the Reorganization Plan, men of imagination, experience, and proved ability in the housing field.

The Federal Government now has a permanent and an effective housing organization to coordinate and supervise the administration of its major housing programs. If the Congress early in its next session enacts the nonpartisan housing program which it has long been considering, the Nation will be well equipped to meet and solve its pressing problem of providing decent homes at low cost for the majority of the American people.

Harry S Truman, Statement by the President on the New Housing and Home Finance Agency. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/232190

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