Experts Declare Housing Problem Will Get Worse

"Six million new housing units must be constructed by 1960 if the United States is to solve its housing problem," Jesse Epstein, former west coast director for the Public Housing Administration, said last night in Emerson Hall at the Graduate Forum's "New Horizons in Housing."

On the platform with Epstein were Walter Firey, associate professor of Sociology at the University of Texas, and John R. Badgley 3G, a student in Architecture. The trio viewed the housing problem from their respective fields.

The housing problem has been creeping up on the country ever since 1929, Epstein stated. Although some housing legislation passed as early as 1935, it was shaped mainly to provide employment. "It was not until 1942 that legislation for housing's sake alone was passed." Epstein added that "the problem has attained such epidemic proportions that we are not completely certain housing needs can ever be filled."

Present Housing Obsolete

Sociologist Firey declared that modern family trends have made present housing obsolete and that, as a result, large dwellings are no longer needed. The migration to the west coast and the fact that families now prefer to live alone are gradually removing the need for large dwellings.

Badgley stated that architecture is no longer a "gentleman's plaything" but now serves as a necessary part of society. "With one-third of the nation ill-housed the three most urgent needs are for well-planned urban apartments, flexible prefabricated technological dwellings, and low cost architects."

The three experts concurred in the belief that the American housing problem if left unchecked could have world-wide reverberations.