No Place like Home, But ...

Homeless veterans got a mite of help last week in their house hunting. The Civilian Production Administration slapped a priorities system on building materials, to start Jan. 15. In 1946 it hopes to funnel them into some 400,000 new homes for veterans costing $10,000 and less.

CPAdministrator John D. Small listed ten critical building materials* which will be affected by the priorities program. Special "HH" priorities will be issued by Federal Housing Administration field offices to veterans who want to build houses, or to professional builders, providing that they will hold their houses for rent or sale to veterans for 30 days after they are built. To get priorities, applicants will have to prove to FHA that they will be ready to start construction within 60 days.

Priority houses will have to sell for $10,000 or less, including the land, or rent for $80 a month or less. And any veteran, or private builder, who sells his house must abide by a set schedule of prices. Roughly half of the available supply of most of the critical materials listed will be set aside for holders of priorities.

As some 3,000,000 veterans will need homes, CPA is prepared to set up a regional quota system to parcel out priorities. But few veterans, or anyone else, thought that such priorities would solve the housing shortage. Not many veterans can afford a $10,000 house; the great need is for houses at $6,000 and under.

*Bricks, clay sewer pipe, structural tile, gypsum board, gypsum lath, cast-iron soil pipe and fittings, cast-iron radiation, bathtubs, lumber and millwork.

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