Housing

After the War there were many soldiers who were returning home to their families and were looking to buy houses and live a great life. The NHA gave them that opportunity. Many soldiers were able to buy houses, for less than an apartment would cost. Though, that is if you were white. Blacks were not given the chance. In the 1930’s there was discrimination in the class system, and it inevitably set the country up for failure by further creating a division in race. The FHA created a country based on Whites and not Blacks, and unequal opportunity.
The Federal Housing Agreement was created as part of the National Housing Act of 1934, the FHA allowed people to borrow money to buy houses and pay it back with interest. Mortgages became the way of the middle class. Suburban areas became developments and the cities became slums. Although the FHA wouldn’t give loans to everyone so many were forced to live in apartments and stay in the cities. There was a lot of racial discrimination while attempting to buy a house. Which caused major problems, like the FHA not giving loans to Blacks, and if they were able to get a house in suburbia, the prices of the houses around them went down drastically. If even one black family moved in or was close to suburbia the values of the houses would be drastically and worth little (208 Jackson). There is no justification to this except for the fact that the government was racist and wanted to maintain segregation. The amount of money given to those who for mortgages in the city was less than those in suburbia. In the counties, they could be given over 60,000 total in mortgages, but in the city were lucky to get 10,000 cumulatively (211 Jackson). Though the Banks would have no problem giving mortgages to Blacks there was much discrimination with the FHA and wanting to help them. The banks saw it as money where as the FHA saw it as investments. The FHA created this class system that was hard to get out of. There was the really rich, the middle class home owners, and then the lower class Blacks that they wouldn’t give money to. (215 Jackson). The FHA was not justified in what they were doing. They weren’t giving equal opportunity to those in the country. Which is what this country is based on. Public housing was created not long afterwards in the Post War National Housing Actions. Public Housing was for low income families, where the rent was cheap, but the resources even cheaper. The PWA, Public Works Administration was able to clear out the “slums” and create housing for people who needed it; the Public housing was done by private contractors that would change the city (Jackson 221). The Public housing using Eminent Domain was how they got the land for these public housing sites. The Public Housing created “ghettos” and places where low income families would go to live. The Housing then became the slums where many blacks moved into because they were not given equal