federal-housing-policy Timeline

Decades

1930s

July 22, 1932 - Federal Home Loan Bank Act

  • Intended to lower the cost of home ownership
  • Established the Federal Home Loan Bank Board and Federal Home Loan Banks
    • To charter federal savings and loans, and lend to financial institutions to indirectly finance home mortgages
  • "Public Law 304 was ineffective."
  • "...to establish a credit reserve for mortgage lenders and thus to increase the supply of capital in the housing market."
  • Source: Kenneth T. Jackson, "Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States", 1985, pp194.
  • Tags: federal-housing-policy hoover

1933 - Home Owners' Loan Corporation

  • Refinancing for nonfarm home mortgages in default
    • To prevent foreclosure
  • Borrower offered loan over longer period with lower interest rate
  • HOLC purchased mortgage loans from lenders and refinanced for the borrowers
    • Was favorable for lenders because entire remaining purchase price was bought, plus taxes
  • Tags: fdr federal-housing-policy new-deal

1937 - Housing Act of 1937

  • Also called Wagner-Steagall Act
  • Created the United States Housing Authority within Department of the Interior
  • Lent money for low-cost construction to states and localities
  • Tags: federal-housing-policy new-deal

1940s

1949 - Housing Act of 1949

  • Part of Harry Truman's Fair Deal
  • Five main elements
    • Federal financing for slum clearance
    • Increased authorization for FHA mortgage insurance
    • Federal funding for public housing units
    • Funding for research on building techniques
    • Financing for farm housing
  • Direct inspiration from Blighted Areas Redevelopment act of Illinois
    • Created a Land Clearance Commission
      • Could acquire land in blighted areas, demolish structures, and sell at a discount to private investors who would bulid profitable structures
    • Illinois Relocation Act was passed at the same time
      • Provided money to build public housing for 15% of those displaced by urban renewal
  • Source: Beryl Satter, "Family Properties: Race, Real Estate, and the Exploitation of Black Urban America", 2009, pp47-49.
  • Tags: fair-deal federal-housing-policy

1950s

1954 - Housing Act of 1954

  • Series of amendments to Housing Act of 1934
  • Based on the Illinois Urban Community Conservation Act of 1953
    • Radical because for the first time blight prevention, not just removal was defined as a "public purpose" and cause for invoking eminent domain
  • Drafted by University of Chicago and Chicago Metropolitan Housing and Planning Council (MHPC) leaders to provide federal funding for their local urban renewal projects
  • Source: Beryl Satter, "Family Properties: Race, Real Estate, and the Exploitation of Black Urban America", 2009, pp50-51.
  • Tags: federal-housing-policy

results matching ""

    No results matching ""