Show Lo cooperative operative ac action athon nets M homes some cities tall T alk housing mem memphis aphis actually builds by news analyst and commentator NU service 1616 kye eye street N W washington D 0 this is the fourth of a series describing how bou american ingenuity in is is helping to solve one of Arne americas ricas biggest problems the ga G I 1 housing shortage washington thirty five hundred d red new homes r started it arted in one year Is s a pretty good record for any fair siz sized d community especially when thee the year Is 1946 and the city memphis tenn had never started more than 2400 2 units a year before some two thousand of last years starts were completed in 1946 now in the spring of 1947 while some communities still talk about 11 and n wish tor for housing memphis is going right ahead finishing up the rest of the 1948 1940 starts and undertaking more the an answer s to this old southern cites sue success cess in housing lies partly in the compera tive live attitude of city officials who are very conscious of the vete r a n a housing problem and partly to In divid jual lual builders who have been will ing to m make a k e price sacrifices work lo 10 long ng hours and d do 0 whatever r s was ne necessary to overcome short baukhage age es 0 f materials rials 8 take wallace E J johnson 0 anson tor for example a 4 builder who started in december 1939 to construct one house and who now has to his credit severa several 1 thousand abd he I 1 is s devoting all his energy and ingenuity to housing veterans these days it takes energy and ingenuity too but this man who during the war was completing a house for a war worker every two and a halt half hours has what it takes for example last september when lumber t be bought for love or money johnson bought land with standing merchantable timber and a sawmill camp near potts camp miss close io to memphis this purchase made possible a triple play which has paid off in savings of 0 time and money johnson cuts his own timber hauls it to his own sawmill for sawing drying and cutting then hauls it direct to his own building sites in size and amount wanted so much was waste te I 1 is s eliminated that the leftover lumber be r from a whole house can be hauled away in one wheelbarrow when brick be had in the memphis area johnson still managed he got brick on a swap basis obtaining critical materials and labor for a brick making concern which used the items thus supplied to make brick tor for johnson projects if he find the materials he needed around memphis he went where he could buy them ile he has sent gent employees by air all the way to the west coast to pick up windo windows w and doors even paying retail prices for them when be had to but johnson do a as we well as he does nor keep his costs to a ve veterans t so low without cooperation of the community in memphis the c city ity repays builders of approved su subdivisions tor for their expense in installing 5 utilities the memphis light gas and water division which ch is publicly owned has gone so far as to permit utility connections even w when hen no meters were aballa available ble thus quite a number of houses were finished and fa families milles were housed without having to wait tor for the hard to get meters As a result of this cooperation johnson last fall fail had completed 55 two bedroom houses which went to bemp memphis his vets for other prices are comparably low to and even in the lowest brackets johnson tries tor for good design deign he switches roof lines or the set of a house on a lot and utilizes other means to avoid the sameness generally characteristic of 0 rows of houses in developments incidentally he recently was awarded a prize by national home builders builder association tor for meritorious house design in 1947 the tenants appreciate this not long ago one couple the first tenants in a new subdivision gave a sunday night supper tor for all of johnsons workers the shipping clerks timekeepers time keepers the general manager the truck drivers and all the people who helped build the house Z community cooperation aids home builders of 0 memphis tenn in completing badly needed housing projects these homes are typical of the low cost projects completed by wallace E johnson |