CHAPTER II. SPECIAL HOUSING NEEDS AND PROBLEMS OF 1. QUALITY AND QUANTITY OF HOUSING OCCUPIED BY OR AVAILABLE TO MINORITIES, COMPARED WITH THAT AVAILABLE GENERALLY The 1950 United States Census of Housing and the 1956 National Housing Inventory by the Bureau of the Census both graphically document the inferior quality and quantity of housing for the nonwhite minority in this country. Statistics tell much of the story. In 1950 nearly 70 percent of nonwhite families lived in dwellings that were dilapidated or had inadequate plumbing.1 This is nearly three times the proportion of white families then living under such conditions. More than 60 percent of all urban Spanish-name households in the Southwest were in these substandard dwellings, against less than 20 percent of urban white households. Moreover, a third of all nonfarm dwellings occupied by nonwhites had more than one person per room, and half of such dwellings occupied by Spanishname households were "crowded", but only one-eighth of all such white-occupied dwellings were similarly crowded." "Overcrowding" was four times as great for non-whites as for whites." The Commission's staff studies of the 1956 National Housing Inventory showed that such conditions still existed in the nation's 168 standard metropolitan areas. Over 23 percent of the nonwhite owneroccupied dwelling units either lacked plumbing facilities or were dilapidated, as contrasted to 6 percent of the white owner-occupied dwelling units in the same condition. Some 42 percent of the nonwhite renter-occupied dwelling units either lacked plumbing facilities 1"Dilapidated"—"A dwelling unit was reported as dilapidated when it had serious deficiencies, was rundown or neglected, or was of inadequate original construction, so that it did not provide adequate shelter or protection against the elements or endangered the safety of the occupants. A dwelling unit was reported dilapidated if, because of either deterioration or inadequate original construction, it was below the generally accepted minimum standard for housing and should be torn down or extensively repaired or rebuilt." National Housing Inventory 1956, U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Bureau of Census, 1958, Vol. I, pt. 1, p. 5. 2 Report of the President's Advisory Committee on Government Housing Policies and Programs, 1953, pp. 256–7. Some 31 percent of non-farm homes occupied by non-whites were dilapidated compared to some 6 percent for whites (Washington Hearing, p. 7). • Where Shall We Live, Report of Commission on Race and Housing, U. of Cal. 1959, pp. 4-5. • Washington Hearing, p. 7. "Overcrowded"—"An average of more than 1.5 persons to each room is often considered an effective statistical measurement of overcrowding in dwellings. By that criterion, 1 non-white household out of every 5 (20.2 percent) in the U.S. was overcrowded whereas only 1 out of every 20 (4.7 percent) white households was overcrowded." Non-white Population Changes, FHA Division of Research and Statistics (Washington Hearing, pp. 175–181, 180). Reproduced by courtesy of Commission on Race and Housing CHART XVI. Rented Dwellings, Percent Standard by Gross Rent and Color (Houston and New York) or were dilapidated, as contrasted to 14.7 percent of the white renteroccupied dwelling units in the same condition." Conditions vary from city to city but the gap between the quality and quantity of housing available to nonwhites and to whites appears to be nationwide. Practically every State Advisory Committee report noted this. Further evidence of this gap between housing conditions for whites and nonwhites was presented in the Commission's public hearings. The charts reprinted here, based on Census figures, were introduced at the New York Hearing to illustrate some of the findings of the extensive three-year research of the Commission on Race and Housing, headed by Mr. Earl B. Schwulst, president of the Bowery Savings Bank. These charts and reports of the Commission's State Advisory Committees confirm the statement of the Administrator of the Federal Housing and Home Finance Agency, Mr. Norman Mason, that minorities are "generally able to buy less housing value and secure less home financing service on poorer terms per dollar than whites." " Charts XVI and XVII compare the percentage of rented dwellings classified by the Bureau of the Census as standard for whites and nonwhites by different rental brackets in four cities: Houston, New York, New Orleans, and Detroit. In each case, the whites are found to have a much higher proportion of standard dwellings in the same rental bracket. Although the differential is less in New York and See heretofore unpublished tables from the Census Bureau's 1956 National Housing Inventory printed in the appendix of the Commission's Washington Hearing. Washington Hearing, p. 7. PER CENT Reproduced by courtesy of Commission on Race and Housing CHART XVII. Rented Dwellings, Percent Standard by Gross Rent and Color (New Orleans and Detroit) Reproduced by courtesy of Commission on Race and Housing CHART XVIII. Owned Dwellings Valued at $6,000-$7,500 Percent Standard by Color Detroit than in the southern cities, the nonwhite in each case gets less for his rental dollar than the white. Chart XVIII shows that in eight major cities the nonwhite buyer of a house valued at $6,000-$7,500 also gets less for his dollar than the white person who buys a house in the same category, although the percentage of nonwhite-owned dwellings in this category that are standard is closer to the white percentage than in the case of rented PER CENT Reproduced by courtesy of Commission on Race and Housing CHART XIX. Rented Dwellings, Percent Standard by Income Reproduced by courtesy of Commission on Race and Housing CHART XX. Owned Dwellings, Percent Standard by Income and Color Chart XIX shows that in Birmingham, New Orleans, New York, and Los Angeles the nonwhite in every income group gets considerably less standard rental housing in relationship to his overall income position than does the white renter of similar income. Chart XX shows that in New Orleans the same is true of owned dwellings, while in New York the differential between whites and nonwhites in this situation is relatively small. $2000-3000 $7000+ $2000-3000 $7000+ $2000-3000 $7000+ $2000-3000 $7000+ BIRMINGHAM NEW ORLEANS NEW YORK LOS ANGELES Reproduced by courtesy of Commission on Race and Housing CHART XXI. Rented Dwellings, Percent With 1.01 or More Persons Per Room by Income and Color Chart XXI shows that in the above four cities there is substantially more overcrowding in rented dwellings of nonwhites than of whites in the same income category." Evidence introduced in the Commission's hearings bears out these general conclusions. In Atlanta, for instance, the whites who comprise 64 percent of the population occupy 84 percent of the developed residential land, and the Negroes with 36 percent of the population live on 16 percent of this land. In New York State, according to a State official, surveys in various cities indicate that the degree of Negro overcrowding, already several times higher than white overcrowding, has increased sharply since the 1950 Census. In Chicago in 1957, despite improvement over 1950, some 35 percent of nonwhite households were estimated to live in substandard dwelling units, compared with 16 percent of the white households. Over 50 percent of all housing units in the almost solidly nonwhite area were substandard whereas substandard housing for the city as a whole was about 15 percent.10 This is not surprising in view of the rate of construction of new homes for nonwhites as contrasted to that of whites. It is estimated that between 1935 and 1950, over nine million new private dwelling units were constructed, of which about 100,000, or slightly over 1 percent were available to the nonwhite 10 percent of the population. While Negro urban families occupied 11 percent more dwelling units |