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Show Low-Cost Houses Foundation For Healthy, Happy Home Life ; fsti! SHpii mm A T A I home of the 48 houses being removed above to make room for new homeii which will have comfortable and modern living quarters, similar to the top scene. This slum clearance project is being sponsored by the city of Frankfort, Ky., and will house 61 families who previously occupied the area shown here. WASHINGTON. Pounding hammers, buzzing saws, swishing paintbrushes and rattling plumbing are harmonizing harmoniz-ing in a new song of progress as the nation pushes forward its new-born drive to bring better low-cost housing to millions of families in the smaller cities and towns throughout the land. Hundreds of small communities are swinging into the movement as Uncle Sam and many of his nephews carry on the task of doing something about the 10,000,000 American families living in homes that are considered to be dangerous to health and safety. While the big city slum clearance and rehousing campaigns have been marching along for several years, it was not until recently that the equally important rehousing drive in the smaller towns moved into high gear. Families that had always lived in dilapidated houses without the "decent "de-cent necessities," are getting new thrills by switching on real electric lights, trying out their own bathtubs, bath-tubs, cooking in airy kitchens, while the children play and romp around the landscaped lawns and in the playgrounds. While the living liv-ing conditions of these families have been revolutionized, they pay the landlord about the same rent they paid in the old places, when he comes around every month. Playing the leading role In the growing rehousing movement Is the federal government, -through the United States Housing authority, thanks to the $800,000,000 that congress con-gress dropped in its lap to lend to local communities. Although a sizeable size-able part of this pile of dollars has gone into cleaning up the blighted areas of big cities, an increasing share has been pouring into small cities and towns during the past 12 to 15 months. About 80 communities communi-ties of less than 50,000 population have already benefited by the USHA program. As a part of its rural housing drive, new farm houses for 1,300 low-Income families have been completed within the last year, and 203 housing authorities have been created to speed the program. Twin Houses. A typical example of the USHA program in action in the small town Is found at Mount Hope, W. Va., where the census taker counted 2,361 men, women and children last year. Borrowing 90 per cent of the needed $238,200 from the federal agency, the local housing authority raised the other 10 per cent by Issuing bonds, and proceeded to demolish the rows of 36 tottering shacks that had been the homes of workers for the nearby coal mines. To house the evacuated families, and others In the town, 70 dwelling units are now being built in the form of twin houses extending along a narrow strip of rolling land about three-quarters of a mile long, facing a site being developed as a park. Each family will have a lot of 40 by 210 feet for raising some flowers flow-ers and fresh vegetables in the summer. sum-mer. Government is not the only driving driv-ing force in the new movement. One of the most encouraging developments develop-ments now taking place is the increasing in-creasing interest and financial support sup-port being given by large corporations corpora-tions with plants in the communities. To qualify for a new housing project proj-ect it was necessary for the city of Frankfort, Ky., to agree that a collection col-lection of 48 shanty houses be demolished. de-molished. The Schenley Distillers corporation contributed $25,000 for the purpose, and the way was cleared for 61 families living there. In Chlcopee Falls, Mass., the Chic-opee Chic-opee Manufacturing company undertook under-took to turn a row of century-old dilapidated di-lapidated houses into a clean, modern mod-ern and attractive group of homes. Today the tenants are living In the remodeled houses, with play and garden fields, at rentals running from three dollars a room per month for three rooms, up to four dollars and sixty cents a room per month for five rooms. Government and corporations are also digging Into their pockets to put up money to speed the building activities for poor groups. And local citizens are stepping up to shoulder some of the load in many towns. Iij Vincennes, Ind., for instance, a group of 25 leading men and women, joined as the Vincennes Emergency Relief committee, decided decid-ed that something had to be done about a squatter settlement of nondescript non-descript hovels that stood along the river bank. Known as "Pearl City" because the inhabitants depended on mussel fishing for a livelihood, and sometimes found valuable pearls, j the settlement had stood for 30 years as an eyesore, and a menace to health. The Vincennes group arranged for the demolition of Pearl City, and erected "Sunset Court" for the families. fam-ilies. Here are 20 houses, arranged in a quadrangle, with a four-acre court in the center; 14 are two-room houses, and the other six are three-room three-room houses. Every home has a small porch, facing the center court, a drilled well, a coal shed and chicken chick-en house, and modern sanitary unit Each tenant has signed a lease to pay one dollar a year as rent, agreed to keep the house and surroundings clean and in good repair, and works two days a month on the site. |