Memorandum to the Secretary, HUD, in Response to His Progress Report on the Rent Supplement Program
Memorandum for the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
It is gratifying to learn of the progress of the rent supplement program.
I am particularly pleased to see the wide, representative character of organizations serving as sponsors--cooperatives and labor unions, settlement houses, veterans, civic groups, and especially churches. Their willingness to join forces with private enterprise and government in attacking the stubborn problem of housing the poor must be matched by our readiness to give them all the assistance we can.
This is a new kind of venture for most of them. There is little in their normal experience that prepares them as sponsors of housing projects. They will be greatly aided by business and professional people in the building industry competent to handle the complex problems of project planning and construction. On the other hand, their association with those lacking either competence or proper motivation can lead to failures and discouragement. When liberal government assistance is available, as it is in the rent supplement and the elderly housing programs, there is always some danger of attracting those few speculators who would promote unsound projects for selfish ends.
Guidance by your Department during the formative stages of these projects can be critically important. It is then that you can give nonprofit sponsors the counsel and technical assistance they need. It is then also that you can maintain controls that will keep out the unscrupulous few who might seek to exploit the program.
I want you to give the highest priority to whatever steps are necessary to maintain a system of assistance and surveillance. I shall continue to follow the rent supplement program with keen interest.
LYNDON B. JOHNSON
Note: On the same day the White House made public Secretary Weaver's report on the progress of the rent supplement program following the first 6 weeks of its operation. The report stated that as of June 30, 1966, preliminary reservations had been made for "91 projects involving 8,416 units and some $5.5 million." An attached table set forth the location of the reservations by cities and States. The report further stated that two-thirds of the 91 projects would be under nonprofit sponsorship. Among the sponsors listed were 26 religious bodies, 14 fraternal organizations, 14 "public interest groups," 3 labor unions, and 3 "miscellaneous."
Secretary Weaver's report continued as follows:
"As you know, there has been a great deal of criticism of public housing on the ground that it tends to create massive institutional concentrations of low-income shelter. Under the rent supplement program, as it has developed to date, there is no indication of a similar trend. As a matter of fact, the largest project is one sponsored by the House Service for Aging, Inc., in Ossining, New York, and it will have 240 units. There are eight other projects of 200 units and 13 projects of 100-200 units. The remainder are of smaller size."
The full text of Secretary Weaver's report and the attached table is published in the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents (vol. 2, p. 967).
Lyndon B. Johnson, Memorandum to the Secretary, HUD, in Response to His Progress Report on the Rent Supplement Program Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/238392