It has been ages since the last time the government encourages people to buy houses or even sponsors housing projects. Nowadays the government is still scrambling to clean up the mess that was the housing market after the Great Recession of 2008; federal funded public housing sounds like an impossibility, along with suffering of the lower-classed and less-fortunate people. Yet it was not so back in the booming days of 1920’s, when federal funded public housing was something of a necessity.
In Crabgrass Frontier, the author revealed the real purpose behind the rise in construction of houses back in the days. I was surprised to learn about the government’s real incentive: war. It was ironic, really, supplying the American Dreams of millions through the bullets and bombshells that the dwellers of these housing projects made. These new houses were to serve the workers of weapon factories that shipped thousands of planes and warships overseas. Reading this chapter, my mind flashes back to the American Revolution chapter in the History Textbook when British soldiers were occupying civilians’ houses for the war effort. Toward the end of 1930’s, the government gave weapon makers places to live in. How much the world has changed since then.
It was amazing how the mind of policy makers work, for the housing program was “killing two birds with one stone.” The United States was in the midst of the Great Depression when it got involved in the Second World War, so these housing programs and moving workers into vacant houses in the suburb to build war machines also helped populate the string of falling-priced houses that were hit due to the housing bubble. Amazing as they are, the government was also redeeming itself due to the lack of intervention during the “laissez-faire” era. President Hoover, with legislation such as the Federal Loan Home Bank Act, destroyed the housing market due to loose credit restrictions. An era of too little involvement had to make way for vigilant federal intervention later on during FDR’s.
Another issue that caught my fancy, was the racism of the Home Owners Loan Corporation. Mr. Jackson describes how areas where African Americans populated was always considered to be of the lowest standards. Racism had been prevalent in the real estate market during the time, but I wonder if it was truly for the best interest of the business. Taking into account one’s race, which by the time and even now, was linked to one’s financial standing and credit trustworthiness, I think, is logical for the HOLC to determine the quality and value of an area. It did create a side effect though: intensifying the discriminative environment of the time.
Conclusively, Jackson’s essay is an insightful read for it reflects the enormous power that the government dictated on the housing market at the time while portraying the clash between different racial and ethnic groups due to such federal actions.
