Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 205, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 August 1919 — Million Homes Needed in U. S. [ARTICLE]

Million Homes Needed in U. S.

More Houseless People in This Country Today Than Ever Before.* SITUATION DUE TO THE WAR Great Scarcity and High Cost of Materials Check Building Operations —Little Work Done During Past Four Years. Washington.—The United States today is facing the greatest shortage of houses since man ceased to live in caves and huts of brush and made for himself and family the hearth and home that became the temples of civilization. During the recent session of the National Association of Real,Estate boards, In Atlantic City, Secretary Redfield of the department of commerce, declared that the nation, will require 1.000,000 additional homes during the current year to care for the growing population, for whose shelter no provision was made during the four years of war in Europe. In addition to the needs of the United States, Secretary Redfield declared that, in December, England. and Belgium also will need 1,000,000 homes, not to mention the requirements of Russia. Austria, Italy, Serbia, Roumania, Turkey and other nations in which millions of buildings were laid in ruins during the period of hostilities. War Caused Lack of Building. The perplexing situation now existing in the United States is said to be due entirely to the war. During the years of hostilities, the scarcity and high wages of labor and the scarcity

and high cost of materials prevented the construction of houses which the natural growth of population rendered necessary. Then came Secretary McAdoo’s appeal for the restriction of building operations to a minimum during the war. For a time building virtually stopped. Funds that otherwise might have gone into homes, business blocks, and factories were invested in Liberty bonds. Nor have some of the causes which checked building operations disappeared with the war. Materials- are almost as scarce and in many cases more costly than they were during the strug-' gle. Whatever reduction of wage* may 'have occurred in some of the countries, there is none in the United States, and as a result there appears to be no definite program for the prompt and speedy erection of homes in the United States.