housing

housing in general, living accommodations available for the inhabitants of a community. Throughout the 19th cent., with the advent of the Industrial Revolution, housing as a problem worsened as urban populations expanded. The crowding of cities and factory towns by workers led not only to severe housing shortages but also to the deterioration of existing housing and the growth of slums. The problem was aggravated by the erection of substandard housing for workers and by speculators seeking high profits.

Reforms in Great Britain

Inadequate housing for the increasing urban population led, in the mid-19th cent. in Great Britain, to the development of a reform movement. Humanitarian and philanthropic groups first took up the cause of workers' housing. The Society for Improving the Dwellings of the Labouring Classes was established in 1845 and was followed by similar organizations dedicated to the building of low-rent dwellings. Ultimately, public opinion encouraged Parliament to pass (1851) the Shaftesbury Acts (the Labouring Classes Lodging Houses Acts). They provided for the construction of lodging houses according to certain minimum standards.

Slum clearance began with the Torrens Act of 1868, which provided for the demolition or improvement of unsanitary dwellings. After the turn of the century much was done in Great Britain toward eliminating slums and constructing model tenements; the garden city was one solution offered to the housing problem. The first Housing and Town Planning Act in 1909 granted local governments the power to oversee housing development. The large-scale destruction of housing during World War II resulted in severe shortages after 1945; between 1945 and 1970 about 7 million new dwellings were built in Great Britain.

Reforms in the United States

In the United States, housing problems—in particular the growth of slums—became acute during the 19th cent. in the cities of the eastern seaboard and in the larger Midwestern cities. A leading cause was the heavy immigration from Europe that began in the middle of the 19th cent. and reached a peak at the turn of the century. The first housing law (the 1867 New York City tenement house law) was revised in 1879 to prohibit windowless rooms. The findings of a tenement house commission resulted in a new law in 1901, requiring better provision for light and ventilation, fire protection, and sanitation. Most U.S. city and state housing laws in the following years were based on those of New York City.

Until World War I there was no government housing in the United States. Then temporary dwellings were put up for defense workers. The U.S. government lapsed into almost complete inaction with regard to building housing until the advent of the New Deal. The National Housing Act (1934) created the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) to undertake a nationwide system of home loan insurance. It also established, by means of mortgage insurance regulation, minimum standards for construction, for design, and for location.

Low-cost housing projects, including farm-family homes sponsored by the Resettlement Administration, were coordinated in 1937 under the U.S. Housing Authority, which financed urban low-rent and slum clearance developments by making loans at low interest rates. Such loans were later extended to rural housing. The Lanham Act (1940) authorized federal operation of a large-scale housing program for defense workers.

To unify the many federal housing agencies, President Roosevelt created (1942) the National Housing Agency, which included the Federal Public Housing Authority, the Federal Home Loan Bank Administration, and the FHA. But the total wartime construction of permanent homes was far below peacetime levels, while the demand for housing rose sharply with a high marriage rate, migration from farms to cities, greater buying power, and later the return of veterans. Complicated by building codes, union practices, and labor and material shortages, the housing deficiency remained serious after the war, and federal rent controls continued for some time.

A national housing policy began to emerge when Congress passed the Housing Acts of 1949 and 1954, aimed at easing the housing shortage and eliminating slums; their goal was a decent home for every family. The Housing and Urban Development Act of 1965 created a separate cabinet-level Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). In 1966 the Model Cities Act coordinated government assistance to selected low-income areas of cities.

Housing since then often has been caught up in debate over rent controls, homelessness, the failure of savings and loan associations, and the buying and selling of political influence by government administrators and building developers. From 1980 to 1987, 2.5 million low-cost housing units were lost, and the federal government reduced its subsidies for construction by 60%. In response, some private groups like Habitat for Humanity have tried to help individuals buy and renovate low-cost housing. Housing advocates have argued for public housing reform, including controls on speculation and on rent (about 36% of occupied U.S. housing units are rentals).

Housing Problems in Other Countries

After World War II, the countries of continental Europe faced acute housing shortages. Most postwar efforts were directed at rebuilding major industries, and house construction suffered as a result. However, once the economies were stable, attention turned to housing. In most countries of Africa, Asia, and Latin America, urban housing shortages are today particularly severe as a result of population increases, rapid urbanization, and the migration from rural areas to cities. It is estimated that in Latin America alone, four or five million families live in substandard urban dwellings. The depressed economies and social inequities of many governments have worked against development of adequate housing programs.

Bibliography

See J. Jacobs, Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961); P. Wendt, Housing Policy: Search for Solutions, a Comparison of the United Kingdom, Sweden, West Germany, and the United States since World War II (1962); J. B. Cullingworth, Housing and Labour Mobility (1969); R. W. Bolling, Housing Development and Urban Planning (1970); M. Safdie, Beyond Habitat (1970); R. Goodman, After the Planners (1971); M. Pawley, Architecture versus Housing (1971); D. R. Mandelstam and R. Montgomery, Housing in America (1973); O. Newman, Defensible Space: Crime Prevention Through Urban Design (1973); C. Hartman, Housing Issues of the 1990s (1989); M. Wolkoff, Housing New York (1991).

housing refers both to shelter in houses and to the provision of houses. It is the latter which has attracted historians, who have been particularly interested in tracing the provision of accommodation in response to population increases in towns and, above all, in cities.

During the industrial revolution large increases in urban populations occurred because of migrations from the countryside and the reduction of the death rate. Housing was initially left to the open market. The provision of accommodation rested on a balance between the cost of building and what households could afford to spend on rents. Speculative builders often borrowed capital for construction from solicitors, who loaned them the money clients had deposited with them for returns which were said to be ‘as safe as houses’. A limited number of houses were built by owner-occupiers who had borrowed money from the newly formed building societies. Not all housing was of good quality and some landlords built cheap and often badly constructed buildings, which rapidly became slums because of overcrowding. These slums attracted the attention of Parliament, municipalities, and social reformers. The sanitary laws of the second half of the 19th cent. stipulated minimum standards for new dwellings. Liverpool corporation erected the first council housing in 1867. However the provision of housing at public expense did not become government policy until the 20th cent. The slum clearance law of 1876 did not require local authorities to rehouse the homeless, although in towns where railways took powers to clear sites for stations and sidings they were compelled to provide alternative new houses elsewhere. Some philanthropic attempts were made to provide good housing for the poor, one of the most active being the Peabody Trust which erected flats in London.

Some industrial developments, for example, coal-mining and some manufacturing using water power, occurred in places where there was no previous settlement. Entrepreneurs provided accommodation for their workers. The quality varied greatly. High standards were adopted by Arkwright at Belper (Derbys.) in the 1780s and by Peter Greg at Styal (Ches.). In the 19th cent. model housing was provided by several industrialists, for example Titus Salt at Saltaire, Cadbury at Bournville (Birmingham), and in the 20th cent. Lever Brothers at Port Sunlight on Merseyside.

During the 20th cent. successive governments intervened in housing by making loan funds available to local authorities, by subsidies to builders, and by giving tax concessions to owner-occupiers purchasing their homes through mortgages. Little house-building took place in the First World War and by 1918 there was a great unsatisfied demand. The election slogan of 1918 ‘Homes Fit for Heroes’ proved difficult to translate into reality. Few houses were built under the terms of the Addison Act of 1919 because of high interest rates and shortages of materials. Subsidies for housing became available to local authorities by the Wheatley Act of 1924 and for private enterprise by the Chamberlain Act of 1925. The financial crisis of 1931 ended these forms of assistance. However, since the cost of borrowing money dropped, local authorities and building societies were able to advance mortgages to owner-occupiers during the 1930s.

After the Second World War the housing shortage remained acute for some years because no houses were built during the war and much accommodation had been destroyed by bombing. From 1945 to 1955 the greater part of house-building was undertaken by local authorities which built homes for rent. Between 1955 and 1980, largely because of a change in conditions which were more favourable to borrowing, there was a major shift from rent to owner-occupation. By 1980 owner-occupiers held about two-thirds of housing, most of the rest being in the hands of local authorities. During the 1980s legislation gave tenants of local authorities the option of buying their houses at very advantageous prices so that rented ‘council housing’ took a declining share of the market. By the late 1980s, owner-occupation, albeit with a rising level of repossession due to mortgage arrears, continued to be the most prevalent pattern of housing. In the rented sector, housing associations emerged as the main providers, their finance coming from the government and mortgage lenders.

Ian John Ernest Keil

hous·ing¹ / ˈhouzing/ • n. 1. houses and apartments considered collectively: affordable housing | [as adj.] a housing development. ∎  the provision of accommodations: the sector that offers housing to the poorest. 2. a rigid casing that encloses and protects a piece of moving or delicate equipment. ∎  a structure that supports and encloses the bearings at the end of an axle or shaft. 3. a recess or groove cut in one piece of wood to allow another piece to be attached to it. ∎ Naut. the part of a mast below the deck. hous·ing² • n. archaic a cloth covering put on a horse for protection or ornament.