Box 7, Folder 10, Document 20

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Box 7, Folder 10, Document 20

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Kerner Commission Findings
After One Year Reviewed

"One Year Later," a review of
what has been done, and not done,
to meet the urban crisis since the
Kerner Commission report of March,
1968, has been issued. The spon-
sors are two private, nonprofit
organizations, the Urban Coalition
and Urban America Inc.

After presenting up-to-date
data on social and environmental
problems in the nation's inner
cities, the review concludes that
"we are a year closer to being two
societies, black and white, in-
creasingly separate and scarcely
less unequal."

Copies of "One Year Later"
may be ordered, for a small charge,
from the Communications Division
of the Urban Coalition, 1819 H
St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20006.



THE BUILT-IN BOMB

Reprinted fram “The Herblock Gallery.” Simon and Schuster, 1968.



LU aT
BS

LEGISLATIVE BULLETIN OF THE
URBAN COALITION ACTION COUNCIL

March 7, 1969 -- Vol. I, No. 2

Funds for Low Income Housing
Head Action Council Agenda

Supplemental appropriations
for the low-income homeownership
and rental programs of the 1968
Housing Act, and for administra-
tion of the fair housing law, are
a priority goal of the Action
Council. The two laws were en-
acted by Congress last summer but
received only partial funding --
far less than was needed for a
good start.

The new programs for low-

income families are known, in

housing law jargon, as Section 235
and Section 236.

Private financing, buttressed
by federal interest subsidies, is
the key to both the homeownership
program, Section 235, and the
rental program, Section 236. Low
and moderate-income families will
be able to buy houses for up to
$15,000, spend 20% of their month-
ly income on mortgage payments,
and the FHA will pay the remaining
mortgage costs. Similarly on Sec-
tion 236 rental units, the Govern-
ment will pay to the nonprofit
sponsors the difference between
the interest cost of a conven-
tional mortgage and an interest
rate of 1%.

The first homeownership in-
terest contracts were made in Oc-
tober. On the average, they were
for houses costing $12,152. The
average interest subsidy was
$33.88 a month, for owners with
monthly income of $430.

The Housing Act authorized
FHA to sign contracts for $75 mil-
lion under Section 235 this year.
Congress, however, allowed only
$25 million. The same figures al-
so were set for the Section 236
rental program.

A House Appropriations Sub-
committee is now considering bud-
get proposals submitted by former
President Johnson requesting an
additional $50 million contract
authority for each of the two pro-
grams. His request for the next
fiscal year, starting July 1, was
$100 million for each program.

The fair housing law received
an appropriation of only $2 mil-
lion from Congress. The Johnson
budget proposes a supplemental $2
million for administration of the
law plus $14.5 million for the
next year.

Sen. Ralph Yarborough Becomes
Chairman of Labor Committee

The Senate Labor and Public
Welfare Committee, which handles
manpower, antipoverty, education
and health legislation, is under
new leadership this year. Retire-
ments and election defeats have
produced new chairmen for the full
committee and for its eight sub-
committees. Democrats remain in
the majority on the committee but
the Republicans have one addition-
al seat this year.

Sen. Ralph Yarborough of Tex-
as is the new committee chairman.
He also has taken over as head of
the Subcommittee on Health.

Other key subcommittee chair-
men include: Claiborne Pell (D --
R.I.), Education; Gaylord Nelson

(D Wis.), Subcommittee on Employ-
ment, Manpower and Poverty; Har-
rison A. Williams (D N.J.), Labor;





Senator Ralph Yarborough

and Walter F. Mondale (D Minn.),
Migratory Labor.

Sen. Jacob K. Javits (R N.Y.)
remains the top-ranking Republican
on the committee. The new GOP
members, all freshmen, are William
B. Saxbe (Ohio), Richard S. Sch-
weiker (Pa.) and Henry Bellmon
(Okla.).

The new Democrats are fresh-
men Thomas F. Eagleton (Mo.), Alan
Cranston (Calif.) and Harold E.
Hughes (Iowa).

CONGRESSIONAL HEARINGS

Relocation and Land Acgquisi-
tion -- Senate subcommittee hear-
ings have been completed on the
Uniform Relocation Assistance and
Land Acquisition bill (S 1).

The Action Council supports
the bill, which would provide re-
location payments and other as-
Sistance to persons displaced by
any federal program or any feder-
ally aided state or local program.
The last Congress approved this
kind of aid on federal highway and
housing projects and the new bill
would extend this to other pro-
grams on a uniform basis. Post





offices and other federal build-

ings and federally aided projects

such as hospitals and college
Continued on Page 4


Congressmen Take City Tours
To Learn of Urban Programs

Small groups of Congressmen
are making two-day trips to major
cities to learn at first hand of
urban problems and programs. The
tours are sponsored by the U.S.
Conference of Mayors for the bene-
fit of Congressmen from rural
areas and small cities. Members
of the Urban Coalition Action
Council staff are participating in
the tours.

Visiting Atlanta, Ga., Jan.
31 and Feb. 1 were five Represen-
tatives -- Wendell Wyatt (R) of
Astoria, Ore., James F. Hastings
(R) of Allegany, N.Y., W. S.
Stuckey (D) of Eastman, Ga.,

James R. Mann (D) of Greenville,
S.C., and Paul McCloskey (R) of
San Mateo, Calif.

The five were given an intro-
duction to Atlanta's problems by
Mayor Ivan Allen, who is on the
Action Council's board. Allen
told the group that the city's
progress in urban development was
due in large part to funds appro-
priated by Congress.

After hearing other city of-

ficials discuss their programs the
Congressmen toured the Model
Cities and urban renewal areas and
visited antipoverty agencies.
Afterwards, Rep. Wyatt commented
that there is no domestic problem
"more urgent than that of the
American city."

A similar trip was made to
Dayton, Ohio, Feb. 21-22. The
city's Congressman, Charles W.
Whalen (R), was host to the group,
which included Rep. Mann and three
others -- Rep. Bill Alexander (D)
of Osceola, Ark., Robert C. McEwen
(R) of Ogdensburg, N.Y., and Wil-
liam L. Hungate (D) of Troy, Mo.

Among the programs the Con-
gressmen studied was the coordi-
nated manpower programs operated
by the federally funded local CEP
office. CEP stands for Concen-
trated Employment Plan. It tries
to concentrate available job re-
sources within areas of high un-
employment and poverty.

In both cities the Congress-
men got a glimpse of crime prob-
lems by riding in police cars for
a night-time tour of potential
trouble spots.

Later trips are planned for
New York and Boston.



In Atlanta City Hall, Rep. McCloskey takes notes as Rep. Hastings, on the far left, listens. Clockwise, facing the camera, are
Rep. Wyatt, Vice Mayor Sam Massell, Reps. Mann and Stuckey, Action Council executive director Lowell Beck and Janet Kohn
of the Conference of Mayors.


Continued from Page 2

buildings are examples of programs
that often displace inner city
residents and businesses who badly
need help in relocating.

Provisions similar to those
in S 1 were passed by the Senate,
but not by the House, in the last
Congress. The House Public Works
Committee held hearings late last
year on similar relocation bills
but took no action on them.

As yet, the House committee
has not scheduled further hearings
for this session. Senate passage
probably will come first.

Urban Coalition Action Council

Adds 21 New Members to Board

An expanded Policy Council,
the policy body for the Urban
Coalition Action Council, met for
the first time February 26.
Twenty-one new members joined the
Council, bringing the total mem-
bership to 59. John W. Gardner
is the chairman.

Of the new members, six are
women -- the first to serve on the
Council. They are Mrs. Bruce B.
Benson, president of the League of
Women Voters of the U.S.; Mrs.
Amalia V. Betanzos, executive di-
rector of the Puerto Rican Com-
munity Development Project in New
York City; Mrs. Fred R. Harris,
chairman of the Women's Council on
Poverty, OEO; Mrs. Patricia R.
Harris, Howard University School
of Law; Miss Dorothy I. Height,
president of the National Council
of Negro Women; and Mrs. Aileen C.
Hernandez of San Francisco, former



The Urban Coalition Action Council
1819 H St., N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20006
Tel: 202 293-1530

Chairman: John W. Gardner
Co-Chairmen: Andrew Heiskell
A. Philip Randolph
Executive Director: Lowell R. Beck
Legislative Associates: John P. Lagomarcino
Ronald J. James
Assistant for Legislative Information:
Georgianna F. Rathbun





member of the Equal Employment Op-
portunity Commission.

The 15 other new members are
Julian Bond, Georgia state legis-
lator; Paul W. Briggs, superin-
tendent of schools for Cleveland,
Ohio; Daniel J. Evans, Governor of
the State of Washington; Herman E.
Gallegos, executive director of
the Southwest Council of LaRaza;
Ernest Green, director of the
Joint Apprenticeship Program in
Brooklyn, N.Y.; Richard G. Hatcher,
Mayor of Gary, Indiana; Dr. Vivian
W. Henderson, president of Clark
College, Atlanta, Georgia.

Also, Richard J. Hughes, Gov-
ernor of the State of New Jersey;
Roy Innis, national director of
CORE; Dr. Howard Johnson, presi-
dent of MIT; Edgar J. Kaiser,
chairman of the board of Kaiser
Industries; Robert S. Powell Jr.,
president of the National Student
Association; Carl B. Stokes, Mayor
of Cleveland, Ohio; Rev. Andrew J.
Young Jr., executive director of
SCLC; and Dr. Mark Shedd, superin-
tendent of schools for Philadel-
phia.

Before adding the new members
the policy group consisted of 13
businessmen, 6 union officials,

and 19 mayors, civil rights and
religious leaders.



On the left, new Policy Council members Mrs. Benson
of the League of Women Voters and Mrs. Betanzos
of the Puerto Rican Community Development Project,
with Mayor Cavanagh of Detroit. On the right, Rev.
Andrew Young of the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference, also a new Council member.

ao 31

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