In any event, if your committee decides that housing, during the coming year, is not postponable, you should help the veterans by making VA-guaranteed mortgages an eligible investment for the insurance fund. It will also help to pass legislation to lower the down payments on FHA loans. FNMA should be given additional capital in order to perform its functions to a greater degree. FNMA should be directed to go even further than it has in the past with special assistance for cooperative housing. Such housing affords lower monthly payments and better value for those who participate and from the standpoint of mortgages, the amounts are large enough to justify a moderate interest rate.

In closing, I would urge you to give favorable consideration to S. 1737 which will, once more, put the public housing program on the road toward the goal that was originally assigned to it. In spite of our general economic advances, there is still a large segment of our population which does not command the earning power to pay an economic rent cost. Those who are now living in slum areas and in substandard dwellings, are being displaced in large numbers and will continue to be displaced in increasing numbers as slum demolition, urban renewal programs, the huge national highway program and thruways in cities are progressively accomplished. Our national self-respect cannot be maintained unless we grant to these substandard earners, adequate public housing facilities which will lift them from the miserable condition under which they live.

HOUSING RESOLUTIONS PASSED AT 61ST ANNUAL NATIONAL CONVENTION OF THE JEWISH WAR VETERANS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA IN MILWAUKEE AUGUST 1956

HOUSING

Whereas the declaration of policy in the Housing Act of 1949 provided "the goal of a decent home and a suitable living environment for every American family," and this contributes to the development and redevelopment of communities and to the advancement and the growth, wealth, and security of the Nation, and

Whereas the wholehearted execution of this goal would mean a dynamic program of home construction geared to the housing needs of the American people; and

Whereas, S. 3158, a bill introduced by Senator Lehman of New York during the 84th Congress would have brought about such a dynamic program which would have helped to decrease the housing shortage, particularly in rental housing for the middle income groups and in a more adequate number of public housing units for those who are unable to pay a full economic rental; and

Whereas the housing bill enacted in the 2d session of the 84th Congress fails to meet the requirements of the goal set forth in the Housing Act of 1949: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That the Jewish War Veterans of the United States of America in 61st Annual National Convention in Milwaukee, Wis., August 7-12, 1956, urge the 85th Congress to enact additional legislation substantially along the lines of S. 3158 based on real housing needs to promote proper homes for families of low and middle incomes, elderly persons and farm families, a program for slum clearance and redevelopment which will expediate the rehabilitation of our cities while protecting the rights and needs of persons displaced through these public improvements; and be it further

Resolved, That adequate housing for the Armed Forces be provided so that our men in uniform are not forced to pay exorbitant rents for poor housing which is the case in so many of our Armed Forces installations in all parts of the country. This problem is one of the major factors in retarding the development of a career force of officers and the key enlisted men.

EMPOWER INVESTMENT OF VA INSURANCE FUNDS IN VA-GUARANTEED MORTGAGES Whereas there has been and continues to be discrimination against the purchase by mortgage bankers of VA-guaranteed mortgage loans; and

Whereas this discrimination has been manifested in some areas by forcing the sale of such VA-guaranteed mortgages at discounts ranging up to 8 or 10 percent, and

Whereas the purported reason for this situation is a shortage of funds available for mortgage loans, generally; and

Whereas private insurance companies in the aggregate invest approximately one-third of their investment funds in real estate mortgages of all types including VA-guaranteed mortgages; and

Whereas the United States Government life insurance and the national service life insurance held more than $6 billion on December 31, 1955, a small proportion of which would help greatly to increase the market for VA-guaranteed mortgages: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Jewish War Veterans of the United States of America in 61st Annual National Convention assembled in Milwaukee, Wis., August 7-12, 1956, That the Veterans' Administration be directed to purchase as they may be available, VA-guaranteed mortgages to the extent of 20 percent of the investable funds of United States Government life insurance and national service life insurance which are presently invested, exclusively, in United States Government obligations.

VA DIRECT LOANS FOR HOME MORTGAGES

Whereas there continue to be many areas of the country where the veterans cannot find a lender willing to buy a VA guaranteed mortgage; and

Whereas the voluntary home mortgage credit program, despite the fact that it was authorized in the 83d Congress as a means of putting an end to direct Government loans for home-buying veterans has generally slowed up purchases of homes by veterans and indeed many times caused veterans to lose their opportunity to buy homes: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That the Jewish War Veterans of the United States of America in 61st Annual National Convention assembled in Milwaukee, Wis., August 7-12, 1956, urge the Veterans' Administration to maintain as a minimum, the present level of $150 million funds, annually, for direct VA loans as originally planned; and be it further

Resolved, That the Veterans' Administration observe, closely, the operations of the voluntary home mortgage credit program and be ready to modify its regulations to shorten the time in which the VHMCP shall find a lender on the VA guaranteed home mortgage.

REDUCTION OF THE INTEREST RATE ON VA GUARANTEED HOME LOANS

Whereas JWV has requested a rollback of interest rates on VA guaranteed home loan mortgages to 4 percent; and

Whereas the Veterans' Administration continues to authorize an interest rate of 4% percent on such loans: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Jewish War Veterans of the United States of America in 61st Annual National Convention assembled in Milwaukee, Wis., August 7-12, 1956, That

1. We urge the Administrator of the Veterans' Administration to use his discretionary power to fix the interest rate on such mortgage loans at a maximum of 4 percent.

2. We petition the Congress to limit the interest rate on such loans at 4 percent. 3. We urge the passage of legislation which will exempt from taxation the interest received from loans guaranteed under title III of the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944 provided such loans carry an interest rate not exceeding 32 percent per annum.

HOUSING FOR OUR ARMED FORCES

Whereas adequate family housing at or close to Armed Forces installations is one of the prime essentials in maintaining career manpower in our Armed Forces through building up the percentage of reenlistments; and

Whereas the shortage of such housing is especially keen at Air Force installations which have no backlog of any housing prior to the setting up of an independent Air Force in the Defense Department; and

Whereas it is particularly important to have members of the Air Force close at hand to put planes into the aid in case of a defense emergency; and

Whereas the Capehart Military Housing Act fixes a 4 percent interest rate for the Government to pay on military housing mortgages instead of the current rate of slightly under 3 percent which the Government pays on its obligations thus involving an added cost for interest of $2 billion on 100,000 units of military housing: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That the Jewish War Veterans of the United States of America the 61st Annual National Convention assembled in Milwaukee, Wis., August 712, 1956, urge the Congress to appropriate the necessary funds for the 195758 fiscal year to build a minimum of 100,000 housing units as a start toward

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helping to correct the present grave situation in the low reenlistment rate of noncommissioned officers, and to decrease the far too high rate of resignations by commissioned officers, both of which weaken our defense potential and greatly increase the cost of maintaining our Defense Department manpower at the level authorized by the Congress.

Senator CLARK. Miss Childers, you certainly are most patient. I do appreciate your waiting so long. I hope we have not inconvenienced you. We are very happy to have you here, and I know Senator Sparkman is disappointed that he cannot be here to hear you testify, but he will read what you say.

STATEMENT OF MISS FRANKIE CHILDERS, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL WELFARE

Miss CHILDERS. Thank you, Senator Clark, and I want to preface my statement by saying that if in order to get your bill passed it becomes necessary to give up lipstick, I will make the supreme sacrifice. Senator CLARK. That is far beyond the call of duty.

Miss CHILDERS. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, my name is Frankie Childers, and I represent the National Institute of Social Welfare, whose Washington address is 300 New Jersey Avenue SE., Washington 3, D. C., and whose main headquarters are located at 1031 South Grand Avenue, Los Angeles 15, Calif.

I appear before you today to speak specifically on that part of our national housing problem having to do with our elderly citizens.

May I say at this point that it is truly a pleasure to have the opportunity again this year to appear and give the views of the people I represent. What makes this occasion particularly momentous for me is the fact that when I spoke in this room last year I was here to urge that you gentlemen do something, anything, to alleviate the tremendous shortage in suitable housing for the elderly, while this year I am able to return and report that now we are doing something concrete to help remedy this situation. Our changed position in this field is due primarily to the housing amendments sponsored and passed by your committee last year.

By way of explanation, let me say that for several years we have had a nonprofit corporation set up specifically for the purpose of building housing units for our elderly citizens. This corporation is known as Housing for the Elderly, Inc. But we were unable to make even the initial moves toward this objective until your committe changed the law last year to make FHA insured loans available to nonprofit corporations for this purpose.

Late last fall we mailed out several thousand questionnaires to elderly people all over the State of California and told them of our hopes to get a building program underway. The response to our questionnaire was, to say the least, overwhelming even to us. As a result of that 1 inquiry, we now have on file 3,575 applications for housing units. And we have only just scratched the surface of the need in California alone.

Before I get into the technicalities and difficulties we have run into, I would like to tell you briefly what we propose to do in this housing for the elderly program. First, we propose to build apartment-type dwellings, the style of which would depend on location and availability of land. In each development we anticipate approximately 200 units,

so that it is big enough to encourage thrifty management and yet small enough so that the occupants do not feel that they are isolated in a sea of aged.

According to data compiled from answers to our questionnaire, approximately two-thirds of the applicants seeking accommodations are single people, with the other third, of course, being married couples. These facts, naturally, will be taken into consideration when planning the size of our living units.

As we see it, many purposes can be served by building adequate housing for these elderly people. First, by operating these low-rent units on a nonprofit basis, we will be able to supply them at a much lower cost than is possible under the profit-motive plan, thereby taking these people out of substandard and oftentimes slum areas and offering them decent living quarters at no higher rate than they now pay. Senator CLARK. Let me interrupt a second, Miss Childers, to ask you whether this is rental housing or sales housing.

Miss CHILDERS. It is rental housing.

Senator CLARK. Do you have in your statement somewhere the approximate range in price of rentals?

Miss CHILDERS. I am not an expert on this fiscal policy. In fact, I have enough trouble balancing my own budget, but we anticipate that we can build these to rent for around $30 or possibly $35 for a single unit. Let me say here that further on you will find our people in California are paying an average of $37 a month for very substandard single apartments and $47 for double, and we anticipate that we can do it for below that cost and provide them with many facilities that are not now available to them.

Senator CLARK. Generally speaking, what would the single apartment consist of?

Miss CHILDERS. It would consist of probably one of the more modern type sitting room-bedroom combination, with ample closet space, a utility kitchen, and bathroom. This is you understand for a single person. Our double apartments would naturally have a bedroom and be larger.

Secondly, it is our theory that senility, extreme depression, and the complete feeling of being worthless and unwanted which now pervades our elderly population is due to the fact that they seemingly belong no place. They are alone in a society geared to the young. They cannot work, due either to physical disabilities brought on by advancing age or by the reluctance on the part of employers toward hiring elderly people. A vast majority have little or no social life, few interests that they can pursue due to low income, lack of companions or just plain physical immobility. And yet, working with these people day in and day out as I do, I find a vast supply of energy and desire to still be useful in society as a whole. I find that they are willing, indeed eager, for the opportunity to pool their remaining physical, mental, and emotional resources to help themselves and their communities. For this reason, I think the sociological advantages to be gained by housing developments such as we envision are almost as important to the community as a whole as to the old people individually.

In connection with these housing units, we want to build clubrooms and promote workshop facilities, as well as provide small cafeterias

for the inhabitants. Needless to say, such facilities would provide the elderly occupants with a chance not only to enjoy wholesome recreation among people of their own interest and circumstances, but would provide much-needed outlets for their energies and, in the bargain, rehabilitation services for an otherwise near-stagnant group.

We do not intend that these developments shall become an "old folks' home" as presently constituted. We plan them as an integral part of the communities in which they are located, serving not only the tenants but, in the long run, serving the community as a whole. In other words, these old people can become a service group unto themselves. Just as an example, they can make and repair toys at Christmastime for needy and underprivileged children who otherwise face a barren Christmas tree and empty stockings.

They can help each other in time of sickness or emergency and they can offer oldsters throughout the community the opportunity to "belong" and to enjoy a definite, more honorable place in our society. As far as the maintenance of the developments, such as yard work, cafeteria upkeep, and the dozen and one other necessary services, we plan that the old people themselves, if they choose to do so, will take care of this with a minimum of outside supervision. Incidentally, this would naturally cut down on the cost of maintenance and what not and give them a chance to do a little work.

We intend to give them the maximum amount of freedom and independence, unlike the usual old-folks' home or hotel, and at the same time we will afford them ample opportunity to express themselves in recreation and useful occupation. Incidentally, Senator, I would like to point out that in the few months that we have been actively interested in this subject we have found that great numbers of people in the community are very eager to participate, such as realestate men. We have had offers from real-estate men to donate their services in this, and we have had offers from builders to help us get it underway. They cannot do it individually, but under a combined effort they are eager to see that something is done about it, and we have found a great deal of community interest in projects of this type. Senator CLARK. Are you speaking specifically of Los Angeles? Miss CHILDERS. Specifically, yes, sir, but we have had inquiries from all over the country, from several States, including Louisiana, Illinois, and several other States, from people who are interested in starting a similar-type development.

Senator CLARK. I am anticipating you a little by looking at your testimony, but have you gotten to the point where you actually have a site in mind and plans prepared?

Miss CHILDERS. No. We have been sort of waiting for FHA approval of our corporation, and I just received a letter over the weekend that tentatively we are in the running, so to speak, and they now ask for more technical explanation. But we are looking for sites at the very present time.

Senator CLARK. Do you expect to start in Los Angeles?

Miss CHILDERS. Yes, sir.

Senator CLARK. Do you know whether you are going to go up in the air with these apartments?

Miss CHILDERS. It depends. For instance, in and around Los Angeles the general type of apartments and what not are the open-air