1900s-1940s
Summary
Responding to the consequences of the Great Depression of the 1930s, the national government assumes a dominant role in the governance system and initiates a comprehensive program to address economic, housing, and urban development concerns.
From 1941 to 1945, wartime employment creates new opportunities: Women join the workforce, people migrate from rural areas to industrial cities, and blacks move from the South to the North.
Federal policies, programs, agencies, and regulatory institutions direct government resources to the war effort, marginalizing housing and urban development needs. Large corporations, however, build large-scale industrial projects that include housing for workers.
As veterans return to civilian life after World War II, the national government shapes the economic, housing, and urban development sectors.
States and localities look to the national government to provide funds, develop programs, and set standards for housing and urban development activities, and they in turn implement the programs.
Influences
- Communities experience severe housing shortages in the post-World War II period
- Depression results in high unemployment, home foreclosures, financial instability,and social unrest.
- Elevators: Skyscrapers, vertical housing influence design.
- Transportation technology (e.g., automobile boom) promotes urbanization.
- The U.S. Supreme Court supports the power of government to regulate land uses (Euclid v. Ambler, 1926).
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Policies and Programs
- Federal government establishes mechanisms to stabilize and improve financial systems.
- National Housing Act (1949) authorizes construction of 810,000 public housing units and renewal of urban areas by eliminating slum neighborhoods and redeveloping central cities.
- GI Bill (1944) provides returning veterans with college education and loans to buy homes and start businesses.
- Housing Act (1937) creates jobs and provides improved rental housing for working poor (e.g., public housing).
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Institutional Roles
- Federal government provides most of the funding and sets rules; local governments implement programs.
- National Trust for Historic Preservation is established (1949).
- Housing and Home Finance Agency (HHFA, 1947) coordinates housing and urban development programs.
- FannieMae (a government agency created in 1938) purchases Federal Housing Administration mortgages.
- Housing Act (1934) establishes insurance and mortgage institutions:
- Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation (FSLIC) insures savings deposits.
- FHA insures private lenders who provide fixed-rate, long-term, and high loan-to-value mortgages.
- New York City is a leader in strengthening institutional capacity for urban planning and slum improvement.
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Methods, Tools, and Practices
- FHA insures private mortgages against default for a fee.
- Streamlined production techniques are applied to the building of new suburban tract housing.
- The U.S. census produces the first comprehensive survey of the U.S. housing stock (1940).
- Techwood Homes, Atlanta (1936): First public housing project in the nation.
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Lessons and Outcomes
- Federal government investment in infrastructure and housing programs creates jobs.
- FHA mortgage insurance programs support suburban tract development and moderate-income multi-family rental housing projects.
- L'Enfant design provides a structure that continues to influence the future development of Washington, DC.
- Western and southern cities develop and grow as water, electricity, and other basic services expand, while old central cities in the midwest and east require large public investments in housing, infrastructure, and redevelopment.
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