Message to the Congress Transmitting Reports of the Department of Housing and Urban Development for 1966 and 1967.

To the Congress of the United States:

I am pleased to transmit the 1966 and 1967 Annual Reports of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The Reports record a number of important events in both years. They were momentous years in legislative enactments as well as in progress toward providing decent housing for all Americans and in the efforts to improve the quality of urban life.

In 1966, Congress enacted the legislation authorizing the Model Cities Program, one of the most important legislative events in the long chronology of Federal actions aimed at curing the physical and human blight in the Nation's urban areas.

During the period, the programs administered by the Department were continuing at an accelerated rate, while at the same time HUD was seeking and finding new directions and redirections in its programs.

We have developed good housing programs spanning the whole range of American economic life--from FHA insurance for moderate income families to rent supplements and low-rent public housing for the poorest families. Urban renewal programs are rebuilding vast sections of our cities. Programs are available and working for whole metropolitan areas to improve transportation and planning, to preserve and create open spaces, to install water and sewer systems.

The Nation can be proud of the beginning steps that have been taken in these past few years to deal with the serious problems of our urban areas. I commend these reports to your attention.

LYNDON B. JOHNSON

The White House

January 17, 1969