More Help for the Poor

Many suburbs resort to building codes, zoning, planning and subdivision ordinances in a veiled effort to prevent construction of new housing intended for the poor. To encourage such projects, so the tired argument runs, would hurt the neighborhood and overload its schools. Washington has long avoided making a direct challenge to such local rules. But last week the Nixon Administration asked Congress to prohibit local governments from using their power to control land use in ways that thwart construction of federally subsidized housing for low-or moderate-income families. The legislation would hit suburbs hard, because it would apply only to "underdeveloped or predominantly undeveloped" areas--that is, wealthier areas.

Jump in Subsidies. The most controversial item by far in the Administration's 1970 housing bill, the measure would carry the U.S. a step closer to the adoption of a national policy for more rational use of land to control the country's chaotic patterns of growth. The measure not only would empower the Attorney General to file enforcement suits against local governments but also would allow potential recipients of housing aid to sue in either federal or state courts to overturn local rules. Some opponents of the idea contend that Washington lacks authority to override local land controls. Though chances for adoption in this election year seem slim, the proposal will at least focus attention on the conflict between the freedom of localities to organize as they see fit and the social needs of the poor.

The proposal is one more sign of the Nixon Administration's surprising commitment to expand Government-subsidy programs for housing. Last year, housing starts under nine federally subsidized plans rose 15% to a record 223,600 units. This year Housing and Urban Development officials expect the figure to more than double to some 467,000 units, about one-third of the nation's total new housing.

Construction of low-rent public housing is scheduled to rise 43% this year to an alltime high of 117,000 units. More than that, HUD plans a fourteenfold increase, from 8,700 to 119,000 units, in the number of individual homes built for sale to low-and moderate-income families who will pay interest rates as low as 1% on the mortgage. The Government pays the interest in excess of 1%.

HUD Secretary George Romney has campaigned hard for increased aid and, more important, many private-industry groups that for years opposed public housing have lined up in support of the newer subsidy plans. After all, developers can now plan projects themselves and make a profit building or renting the structures.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.