Housing & Urban Problems

• Johnson's Suggestions for Improvements
• 1.

  New government of housing and urban development was established in 1965- co-ordinated the various programmes to combat housing shortages and decay in the urban areas where over two thirds of Americans lived
• 2.

  • Suggested- Chicago, Detroit, Houston, LA, Philadelphia and Washington DC be designated ‘Demonstration Cities’ or ‘Model Cities’ in which the local community and all levels of government would work on the lack of cheap housing, good transportation and recreational facilities and on slum clearance
  • Congress passed the Demonstration Cities Act- 1966- but at $1.2 billion the programme was underfunded - Johnson estimated funding prices was $2.4 billion but the New York Times said New York City alone needed $6 billion
• 3.

  • Tried to improve ghetto housing- Omnibus Housing Act 1965- financed rent supplements and $8 billion worth of low-and moderate-income housing in the ghettos
  • Through federal loans and house framed powers of persuasion he was successful in encouraging builders to construct reasonably priced housing. 
  • But the ghettos remind dire and white taxpayers remain unwilling to help
  • In 1968 Johnson focused in obtaining an end to discrimination in housing- cost taxpayers nothing but hopefully alleviate the overcrowding in the ghettos- Congress responded with the Fair Housing Act