ing equality of opportunity in housing acquisition. *

There is difficulty in getting real estate firms to admit that discriminatory practices [against Jews] are widespread, even though subtle in some instances."

Spokane

"Negroes find greater difficulty in obtaining home loans than do others in the community. *** It is significant that when these situations [nonwhites being barred from a community] have been called to the attention of the real estate board, firm denials of discrimination are made, which leads us to believe that a closer examination into the practices of real estate men in that city are in order."

WEST VIRGINIA

[I]t is evident there is definitely discrimination practiced on a universal basis. This particularly applies to real estate brokers, sellers of property and subdivision developers. The subtlety used in such practices has thus far kept them from becoming a public issue."

WYOMING

"So far as the Advisory Committee has been able to determine, there is no discrimination so far as financing home buying, either in the financing itself or in the areas where homes are purchased.”

At the Commission's National Conference of State Advisory Committees, former Governor Charles A. Sprague of Oregon presented a synopsis of the findings and conclusions of the six housing roundtables. The following is an excerpt from that presentation:

"The means by which *** discrimination is practiced is, first, the practice among real estate agents not to introduce a colored person into white neighborhoods on the grounds that it would be offensive to the neighbors and, further, on the fear that an influx of colored residents would result in a depreciation of the property value. Another practice, which is reported in some States, is the refusal of lending institutions to finance the purchase of homes in better residential districts occupied by whites or to finance the building of new homes in suburban areas. Financing, however, was reported to be available where segregated housing was proposed."

"With reference to possible remedies, various ideas were offered in the several sections. Considerable emphasis was put on education of the people as to the unfairness of discrimination in housing. It was urged that religious and civil organizations could do a great deal to promote a better understanding between races and thus reduce the impact of discrimination in housing. This education could be directed against those agencies such as real estate boards and financing institutions to persuade them to drop the practices of racial discrimination."

"Discussion of the relative virtue of campaigns of education and special legislation seemed to resolve itself into an agreement that both are needed. Education is needed to obtain legislation, and to obtain compliance after legislation is enacted. Also, that legislation, itself, is a primary educational factor so that the two can well go hand in hand. It was remarked, too, that suitable policing is needed when legislation is enacted lest it prove to be a dead letter. "The report might very well be concluded with a hopeful note deriving from the fact that this problem of discrimination in housing is receiving general and serious concern in all parts of the United States, which is bearing fruit in programs of action to solve the problems."

CHAPTER VI

HOUSING: FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY TO SECURE DECENT HOMES

Background

It is the public policy of the United States, declared by the Congress and the President, and in accord with the declared purposes of the Constitution, that every American family shall have equal opportunity to secure a decent home in a good neighborhood. Since the home is the heart of a good society it is essential that this aspect of the promise of equal protection of the laws be fulfilled forthwith. From the Commission's study of housing, two basic facts were found to constitute the central problem.

First, a considerable number of Americans, by reason of their color or race, are being denied equal opportunity in housing. A large proportion of colored Americans are living in overcrowded slums or blighted areas in restricted sections of our cities, with little or no access to new housing or to suburban areas. Most of these Americans, regardless of their educational, economic, or professional accomplishments, have no alternative but to live in used dwellings originally occupied by white Americans who have a free choice of housing, new or old. Housing thus seems to be the one commodity in the American market that is not freely available on equal terms to everyone who can afford to pay. It would be an affront to human dignity for any one group of Americans to be restricted to wearing only hand-medown clothing or to eating the leftovers of others' food. Like food and clothing, housing is an essential of life, yet many nonwhite families have no choice but secondhand homes. The results can be seen in high rates of disease, fire, juvenile delinquency, crime and social demoralization among those forced to live in such conditions. A nation dedicated to respect for the human dignity of every individual should not permit such conditions to continue.

Second, the housing disabilities of colored Americans are part of a national housing crisis involving a general shortage of low-cost housing. Americans of lower income, both colored and white, have few opportunities for decent homes in good neighborhoods. Since most suburban housing is beyond their means, they remain crowded in the central city, creating new slums. Since colored people comprise a rising proportion of the city dwellers with lowest income, these slums are becoming increasingly colored. The population of metropolitan areas, already comprising over 60 percent of the American

people, is growing rapidly not merely by births but by migration. These migrants, many of them colored, most of them unadapted to urban life, form the cutting edge of the housing crisis.

From these facts it is evident that for decent homes in good neighborhoods to be available for all Americans, two things must happen: the housing shortage for all lower income Americans must be relieved, and equality of opportunity to good housing must be secured for colored Americans. If racial discrimination is ended but adequate low-cost housing is not available, most colored Americants will remain confined in spreading slums. If low-cost housing is constructed in outlying areas and little or none of it is available for colored Americans, the present inequality of opportunity and the resulting resentments and frustrations will be accentuated.

The need is not for a pattern of integrated housing. It is for equal opportunity to secure decent housing. The difficulties in achieving this are considerable. Most of the available city land is already occupied and the cost of clearing slum property for new low-rent housing is practically prohibitive without government assistance. The pressure for expansion of overcrowded Negro areas is so great that when an opening occurs, the pent-up Negro demand pours into the new area and the white residents usually flee in panic. The Negro's need for an alternative to "blockbusting" as a way of securing housing must be met just as the legitimate interests of white neighborhoods on the edge of Negro expansion areas must be protected. To achieve both these results and relieve the pressure of the present Negro concentration, new housing opportunities available to Negroes on all levels of income must be opened in the metropolitan area generally, and slum clearance and the construction of new housing must take place in the central city.

The development of adequate and sound programs to achieve such equal opportunity to decent housing is urgent. The Commission found that a number of existing city, State, Federal, and private programs are contributing to this. It offers the following specific findings and recommendations as a further contribution to the necessary public understanding and action.

Findings

CITY AND STATE LAWS, POLICIES, AND PROGRAMS

In New York City, as in Pittsburgh and in four States-Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Oregon-there are far reaching laws against discrimination in the sale or rental of multi-unit private housing, and all publicly assisted housing. In New York State, as in 10 other States, there are laws against discrimination in publicly assisted or urban renewal housing. Officials and community leaders

in New York testified that these laws are having a valuable educational effect and that their enforcement, principally through mediation by the city Commission on Intergroup Relations and the State Commission Against Discrimination, is helping to promote equal opportunity in housing.

In Atlanta, the work of the Mayor's West Side Mutual Development Committee, representing equally the Negro and white people in the area of the city undergoing the greatest racial transition, has served to replace blockbusting and reduce racial tension and violence by means of expanding Negro residential areas through negotiation and consent. This has enabled Negroes in Atlanta, unlike those in most American cities, to gain access to good outlying land and to build new suburban neighborhoods.

In Chicago, which has neither New York's laws against discrimination nor Atlanta's policy of negotiating agreements for Negro expansion, the Commission found that the Negroes' primary method of securing better housing was through the mutually unsatisfactory system of blockbusting, with the consequent uprooting of adjacent white neighborhoods and with inevitable racial tension and occasional violence.

On the basis of its hearings in these three cities the Commission finds that, whatever the particular approach adopted, some official city and State program and agency concerned with promoting equal opportunity to decent housing is needed. Such programs and agencies can bring about better public understanding of the problems and better communication between citizens. Whether or not cities or States are prepared to adopt antidiscrimination laws, and even in areas where racial separation is the prevailing public policy, it is possible that through interracial negotiation practical agreements for progress in housing can be reached. Where public opinion makes possible the adoption of a law against discrimination in housing, this might contribute significantly to the work of the agency promoting equal opportunity in housing. Then the agency would have legal support in its efforts at mediation and conciliation.

Recommendation No. 1

Therefore, it is recommended that an appropriate biracial committee or commission on housing be established in every city and State with a substantial nonwhite population. Such agencies should be empowered to study racial problems in housing, receive and investigate complaints alleging discrimination, attempt to solve problems through mediation and conciliation, and consider whether these agencies should be strengthened by the enactment of legislation for equal opportunity in areas of housing deemed advisable.*

*ADDITIONAL PROPOSAL BY COMMISSIONERS HESBURGH AND JOHNSON:

Beyond the above recommendation, we wish to add that it would be helpful if all real estate boards admitted qualified Negroes to membership. In view of the important role real estate boards play in determining housing policies and patterns throughout a community, we believe these boards are not merely private associations but are clothed with the public interest and that the constitutional principle of nondiscrimination, applicable to all parts of our public life, should be followed. With white and Negro realtors meeting and working together, misunderstandings could be cleared up and there would be greater possibility of solving racial housing problems through negotiation, understanding, and good will.

Findings

OVERALL FEDERAL LAWS, POLICIES, AND PROGRAMS

The Federal Government now plays a major role in housing. Its participation in slum clearance, urban redevelopment, public housing and mortgage loan insurance amounts to billions of dollars. The Constitution prohibits any governmental discrimination by reason of race, color, religion, or national origin. The operation of Federal housing agencies and programs is subject to this principle. In addition there is in effect an act of Congress adopted in 1866 and reenacted in 1870 that recognizes the equal right of all citizens, regardless of color, to purchase, rent, sell, or use real property.

While the fundamental legal principle is clear, Federal housing policies need to be better directed toward fulfilling the constitutional and congressional objective of equal opportunity. Mr. Norman Mason, the Administrator of the House and Home Finance Agency, who is responsible for coordinating the various housing programs of the constitutents of HHFA, testified before this Commission that he intends to develop policies that will further promote the principle of equal opportunity in all these housing programs. The Commission finds that there was much that the Administrator of the HHFA can do, through careful and determined administration, to assure that the principle of equal opportunity in Federal housing programs is applied not only in the top policies but at the operating levels in each constituent agency.

Because of the paramount national importance of this problem the Commission finds that direct action by the President in the form of an Executive order on equality of opportunity in housing is needed. The order should apply to all federally assisted housing, including housing constructed with the assistance of Federal mortgage insurance or loan guaranty as well as federally aided public housing and urban renewal projects.

There have been such Executive orders calling for the application of the principles of equal opportunity and equal treatment in the