Slum Clearance

The first piece of Fair Deal social legislation to come under heavy attack when the 83rd Congress meets for its first session in January seems likely to be the public housing title of the National Housing Act of 1949. Related slum-clearance provisions of the present law have met little opposition from any quarter; they provide federal subsidies for clearing slum areas, which may then be redeveloped by private enterprise. But the public housing provisions are condemned by the building and real estate industries as “socialism” and a prime expression of the “collectivist philosophy” of the Roosevelt and Truman administrations.