Lesson 14 Housing Flashcards
In the next decade, New York passed the Tenement House Act of 1867
the first major housing code in the U.S. The Act required all rooms within tenements to have windows, but it did not require windows to open to the outside.
the Tenement House Act of 1879 was passed.
This law required that windows open to outside air, which resulted in the dumbbell tenement housing type with open air shafts. This form of housing, referred to as “Old Law Tenements,” was built throughout New York City starting in 1879, but often had poor lighting, little air, and little space.
In 1890, Jacob Riis published How the Other Half Lives,
highlighted the plight of the poor in New York City.
New York State passed the Tenement House Law of 1901
(resulting in “New Law” tenements), which outlawed dumbbell tenements. The new housing code was vigorously enforced by the City. The City required inspection and permits for construction and alterations. It also required wide light and air areas between buildings, as well as toilets and running water in each apartment unit.
The Housing and Urban Development Act of 1968
provided for the construction of six million subsidized housing units. The Act also authorized monthly subsidies for private houses for low-income families.
Titles VIII through IX of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 comprise the Fair Housing Act (FHA).
This was an expansion of previous acts to prohibit discrimination concerning the sale, rental, and financing of housing based on race, religion, national origin, and since 1974, sex. Since 1988, the act protects people with disabilities and families with children.
In 1929, Clarence Perry published the Neighborhood Unit Concept as part of the Regional Plan of New York and Its Environs.
The Neighborhood Unit Concept defines a neighborhood based on a five-minute walking radius, with a school at its center. Each neighborhood is approximately 160 acres.
In 1965, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) was formed through the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1965.
The act also put into place rent subsidies for the poor, home loans at reduced interest rates, and subsidies for public housing projects.
The Housing Act of 1959
made federal matching funds available for comprehensive planning at the metropolitan, regional, state, and interstate levels.
The Housing Act of 1961
provided interest subsidies to nonprofit organizations, limited-dividend corporations, cooperatives, and public agencies for the construction of public housing projects for low and moderate income families to rent.
The Public Works Administration (PWA), created in 1934 following the Great Depression,
provided 85 percent of the cost of public housing projects. This was the first federally supported public housing program.
In 1934, the National Housing Act was passed by Congress.
It established the Federal Housing Administration with the purpose of insuring home mortgages.
In 1935, the Resettlement Administration used New Deal funds to develop new towns throughout the U.S.
Three of these were the “Greenbelt” communities of Greendale, WI, Greenhills, OH, and Greenbelt, MD, which are all in existence today.
In 1937, the U.S. Housing Act provided $500 million in home loans for the development of low-cost housing.
This Act tied slum clearance to public housing. In addition, Section 8 of the Housing Act of 1937 authorized project-based rental assistance where the owner reserves some or all of the units in a building for low-income tenants (later, the 1974 Housing Act amended the 1937 act to create what is known as “Section 8 Housing”).
In 1944, the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act, commonly known as the GI Bill,
guaranteed home loans to veterans. The result was the rapid development of suburbs.
The Housing Act of 1949 was the first comprehensive housing legislation passed in the U.S.
The Act called for the construction of 800,000 new housing units and emphasized slum clearance.
The Housing Act of 1954 called for slum prevention and urban renewal.
Additionally, the Act provided funding for planning for cities under 25,000 population. The 701 funds were later expanded to allow for statewide, interstate, and regional planning
In 1972, Pruitt-Igoe, a public housing development first occupied in 1954, was demolished in St. Louis.
Its demolition marked a shift away from high-rise concentrated public housing.
In 1974, the Community Development Block Grant Program (CDBG) was created under the Housing and Community Development Act.
This grant program provides flexibility for communities to use federal funds for the improvement of blighted areas. The CDBG program consolidated six categorical urban programs into one. Additionally, the Act created the Section 8 housing voucher program (amending the 1937 legislation) that provides rent subsidies for low-income housing.
The National Manufactured Housing Construction and Safety Act of 1974 (and significantly updated in 2000) regulated manufactured housing units (sometimes called “mobile homes”) for the first time.
Local ordinances can be used to regulate manufactured housing in terms of location, size, and appearance. The act applied to all manufactured homes built in 1976 or later.
The Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA, pronounced “HUM-duh”) is a 1975 federal law that requires financial institutions to report mortgage data to the public.
HMDA grew out of concern over credit shortages in some neighborhoods. The law helps track whether banks are serving the housing credit needs of their communities, potentially identifying discriminatory lending patterns.
The Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) is a federal law enacted in 1977 to encourage banks to meet the credit needs of low- and moderate-income neighborhoods.
One of the aims of the CRA was to reverse the effects of redlining, a highly discriminatory practice in which banks restricted lending in areas they deemed too risky (most often this applied to African-American neighborhoods). The CRA requires federal regulators to assess how well each bank fulfills its obligations to low and moderate-income neighborhoods.
The Urban Development Action Grant Program (UDAG) was authorized under the 1977 amendments to the 1974 Housing and Community Development Act.
The UDAG program promoted public-private partnerships for the redevelopment of urban areas. It also required intergovernmental cooperation in the placement of projects. Finally, it cut funding for the Section 701 comprehensive planning program.
