Message to Congress on War Housing.

Since last I communicated with the Congress on the subject of war housing in May, 1942, much has happened in the war and much has happened in housing.

It is a noteworthy fact in relation to the whole war effort that under the existing war-housing program more than three million workers in intense war production have been provided or are being provided with necessary shelter. In addition to placements in existing structures, the present program embraces more than a million and a half units of construction, approximating twice the total volume of homes built in the United States in a better than-normal building year. The size of this program, founded as it is upon minimum absolute need, affords some measurement of the disastrous impairment of war production that would confront us if war housing were not provided in sufficient volume and on time.

It is hard to build houses in time of war. It is even harder in time of war to combine the building of houses with maximum economy in the use of men, money, and materials. It is therefore encouraging to know that more than half of the necessary war housing accommodations thus far projected is being provided through the more effective use of existing structures; that another substantial portion is being attained through the prudent and economical repair, enlargement, or "conversion" of existing dwellings so that they may shelter additional war workers; that only about two-fifths of the need is being supplied by new construction; and that more than one-half of this new construction is being financed with private funds.

Housing used to be divided among several agencies and several programs. Today, as a product of the reorganization and unification of the housing agencies fourteen months ago, the National Housing Agency is pursuing one unified housing program under which all of our housing resources and techniques are being focused upon the winning of the war. There is no room now for any kind of housing but war housing.

I have been particularly gratified to see that this new spirit with regard to housing activities pervades the Congress. Certain recent and interesting reports of investigatory Congressional committees have emphasized in a most striking fashion the acute continuity of the need for even more war housing in specified critical areas. Generally speaking, proposals in the Congress for the effective use of our manpower are linked with proposals for the adequate provision of war housing wherever needed.

The war is not over. War production and the employment of men and women in war plants have not reached their peak, even where the plants are completed. The constant rearrangements in the nature and disposition of our total working force, produced by the increasing inroads of Selective Service, develop gaps that must be filled in part by the migration of women and older workers, and consequently intensify old needs or develop new needs for war housing.

Even after making every reasonable allowance for the use of local labor supply, including the training of new types of workers, the best estimates indicate an in-migration of 1,100,000 war workers into areas of war-production activity during the fiscal year 1944. These workers must be housed or they cannot do their job.

It is not proposed to house even the majority of these workers with Federal funds. Almost two-thirds of them will be taken care of by placement in existing structures, and a large part of the balance will be served by privately financed construction encouraged and insured by the Government. The Congress will recall that to serve workers in-migrating during the fiscal year 1943, it recently increased the authorization of one branch of the National Housing Agency to insure private investment in war-housing construction by $400,000,000. Likewise, it is contemplated that recommendations for additional authorizations for private financing will be forthcoming, to serve a large portion of the workers who will in-migrate during the fiscal year 1944. This further expansion of private financing will maintain and confirm in the war-housing program the principles which point toward maximizing our utilization of existing resources, and particularly the resources of small enterprise, during the war. We are allocating to private initiative as large a segment of the war-housing program as it possibly can produce under war conditions and war risks.

But in order to meet that portion of the needs of 1,100,000 workers migrating to war centers during the fiscal year 1944, which cannot be met in any other way, some publicly financed war-housing construction is essential. The main vehicle for this purpose has been the Act of October 14, 1940, as amended, known as the Lanham Act. The funds under this Act, and under other acts to provide war housing, are practically all committed to serve needs arising during the fiscal year 1943. I am therefore suggesting to the Congress at this time the enactment of legislation providing an increase of $400,000,000 in the authorization contained in the Lanham Act, as amended. A substantial portion of these funds will be returned to the Government in the form of rents during the emergency and realizations thereafter. In making this recommendation, I am sure that the Congress and the National Housing Agency will continue to look upon all phases of the war-housing problem as part of a total and unified picture.

No expenditure of funds can be too large if that expenditure is necessary to win the war, or to win it with a greater economy in time and lives. But I cannot refrain from pointing out how small a fraction of the cost of the war is involved in all the appropriations of money and use of materials for war housing, particularly when measured against the contribution which the shelter of war workers is making toward the winning of the war. If the total outlays for war housing were regarded as part of the cost of the plants in which the workers produce, or the cost of the munitions and war implements which they fabricate, these outlays would shrink to very minor proportions in this proper perspective. But the cost to the war effort, in delay and blood and treasure, if decent and sufficient shelter were not provided for those who produce, would be great beyond calculation.

In view of the urgency of the need for more war housing now, I suggest that the proposed expansion receive the earliest consideration of the Congress.