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certain advantages whereby it should be aided by the Government, such as this bill provides. We like the bill. We are in support of the bill. We feel that, first, a cooperative doesn't stop people from getting together, it enables them to get together and through getting together in a cooperative association get certain lower costs and better housing. They get the lower costs by eliminating speculative profit. A great deal of this will be built by builders. The builder will have to make enough to cover his overhead. But the speculative element is removed. There is no speculation after the house is built. This is built to move through the life of the dwelling, and at the cost it takes to make it.

The cooperative is holding ownership but giving tenure security to the family. Thus it achieves that purpose. By building in a group like this we can bring to home ownership and cooperatives really home ownership, and as such, we are private initiative from beginning to end, and we do not bow to the mortgage bankers or anyone in being entirely private initiative in that. We resent the allegation that this is some sort of foreign importation, un-American, and all the rest of it. It will not destroy the Republic. Through this group we can do all the things which can normally be done only through rental projects, because the rental agency builds a single building or attached houses. I know row houses can be sold, but there is a difference in insuring that the entire building is properly maintained. Because this is held in one ownership we can use depth buildings and terraces and be sure repairs are made; one person doesn't paint his apartment a hideous color. Outside maintenance is included in the cost figures I gave. Because we are designing a large number at once, we can adopt all of the modern city planning practices and thus put all our garages into a compound. We save utility costs, we save sidewalks, and in a sense, we have the savings of rental housing with the savings and the responsibility that alone goes with home ownership.

These people are owners. They will take care of their homes better. In the highly successful cooperative in New York that has been the history of the project. Amalgamated does not house upper income people, but people who are members of the various garment trade unions for the most part. The Almagamated went through the depression and did not go through the wringer. It was the soundest thing in the housing field.

If you look into the record, you will find that to be so. Properly operated, cooperatives are able to survive, and have survived, even the 1933 depression, when practically all private housing, as has been admitted here, went through the wringer. That is the reason the various housing agencies were set up. Cooperatives have a record of surviving that financial storm intact. We feel, because we are a single mortgage and not a series of 54 individual mortgages, so that the bank in that case would keep 54 records, that no costs are involved in a cooperative of servicing the loan. They do that.

In Amalgamated they have a small staff doing the work at cost. In the Swedish cooperative, which my wife and I visited in 1948, in many of those small towns, members do all those things. There is a fee for such services, but if the member takes care of the apartment, does all this, he gets it back at the end of the year, as a rebate. We expect to do that too through the responsibility felt by each member, and through doing a lot of interior decorating and work themselves,

as people do when they own their own homes, that we will actually be able to lower the costs. We will charge, on this general servicing, we had an advantage over the individual houses. Now, this is not class legislation. This is open to anyone. We invite even the veterans who find that the houses they bought under their VA loans to be uneconomic, they are welcome to come in. We have veterans, nonveterans, people that work for the city, for the unions. We are a cross section of the city of Detroit. I think we have the best cross section of any such development in the city. We are getting a lot of work in the committee. We are well organized.

Particularly, the women in the group got together and formed themselves into a kitchen committee and advised the architect as to what they wanted there. The same goes for many of the other factors. We expect to have our community center, when we are finished with the development. We expect to have a nursery school. All of these things come out of the organization. We will have a park, playground; furthermore we expect that because this is planned as a group, because our people own it, and can take advantage of the best design, that our neighborhood will be sounder, more stable, be maintained as the years go by, our mortgage and our equity will depreciate much less rapidly than is usual in the city. The question of a long amortization, 50 years as the bill provides, is possible in the case of a well-organized cooperative, and not to individual families because, after all, in individual families it must be remembered they are geared to the life expectancy or the income expectancy of the individual family. In this group, because it is a group mortgage to a corporation, it can go as long as the mortgage can be written.

In Sweden we found it was common to build concrete structures, where warranted; that those could be amortized up to 100 years. This bill provides only up to 50 years. As such, we feel we are well within the limits of the building. Obviously, if the building form doesn't warrant it, the Administrator need not grant that long a term. So that the Government's interest, as far as giving aid to it, is fully protected.

I think that that general statement is actually the reason why we feel that a cooperative does warrant a consideration by the Government-I was going to say "special consideration," but I don't think it is.

I think this bill simply plugs up our gap in our Government aids to housing. We began our Government aids with actual intervention in the building of housing for the upper-income groups, and the mortgage banks have switched and accepted with good grace such aids. We have insured the mortgage bankers, but we have as yet not insured the consumers. In the Housing Act of 1949 and previous publichousing developments, we aided the low-income groups and our group was in favor of that. We want to go on record here, we think that would be necessary, and we are in favor of that. We are not opposed to the aid, FHA or what not, that came to the upper-income groups, but do ask that we get consideration for the forgotten middle third. We are not asking for 120-percent loans as was common in section 608's. The November issue of the Architectural Forum could not find excuse for 120 percent of cost mortgages which were given to holders of section 608 commitments.

I would like to point out that in the 100 percent of costs of a 608 the normal profit of the contractors, general contractor and subcontractors, were figured, and that the extra amount, which I heard mentioned yesterday, represents a straight subsidy to either the builder or the mortgage banker or some group other than the consumer. So when we ask for 100 percent of cost alone to the middle-income group, it is obvious that we are coming in here to ask for less than was given to the groups represented in the previous testimony this morning.

For that reason, we feel this isn't special legislation. It is simply finishing the job that Congress began back in 1933. Thus, we will have with this bill a complete housing program which will house on one end, through public housing, those people who will be our future citizens, whose children must be aided by public housing. This bill, which is pending, which will aid the middle-income groups to help themselves, those who wish to join cooperatives, and in this American fashion help themselves to get better housing, through doing many of the things that the upper income group can afford, to let the mortgage banker, the speculative builder do for them. We can't afford to do that. I understand the Congress is considering further aid to FHA. We are not opposing those things. We simply ask that we be treated along with them.

We also would like to point out for the record that our group has been in the process of organizing. We are now at the point where our building plans have been submitted to the proper department in Detroit. We hope this bill will come through quickly enough so that the benefits can come to us, as well as to the mortgage units that we initiated.

Senator SPARKMAN. Thank you.

Mr. MONSON. Thank you.

(The brochure submitted by Mr. Monson is as follows:)

The Detroit Cooperative Housing Association was formed 2 years ago by a group of people active in the fields of housing and city planning and in the labor and cooperative movements, to sponsor the development of cooperative housing in the Detroit area. The group has served in an advisory capacity to the organizers of Schoolcraft Gardens Cooperative and has assisted its development in many ways.

The incorporators of Schoolcraft Gardens Cooperative, and the temporary officers of its board of directors, are Joseph Eaton, president; Robert Halbeisen, treasurer; Edward Winkes, secretary; Leonard Bensky; Andrew W. L. Brown; Bette Jenkins; Vincent Kibildis; Donald Monson; Harold Sheppard; and Ralph Showalter.

Here is what a few members of the board of the Detroit Cooperative Housing Association have to say about Schoolcraft Gardens Cooperative:

The Honorable G. Mennen Williams, Governor of Michigan

"It is a pleasure to extend to you the greetings of the State of Michigan and my personal best wishes.

"Cooperative housing is a fine manifestation of the American way of doing things, of the capacity of our people to get together and help themselves to meet their own needs.

"Together with public housing projects and the private building industry, cooperative housing has a definite role to play in providing adequate homes for all our people.

"The Schoolcraft Cooperative deserves the highest commendation and support. It is pioneering in a field which holds great promise for the future."

James H. Inglis, director-secretary, Detroit Housing Commission and chairman advisory board, Detroit Cooperative Housing Association

"Cooperative housing holds out the promise of moderately priced, well-planned housing for families whose incomes are above the level that are served by public housing.

"I have worked closely with the leaders of the Schoolcraft Gardens Cooperative because this is the first group of housing cooperators in Detroit who actually have obtained a site and are ready to build. Too often housing cooperatives never get beyond the conversation stage.

"I should add that, although the Detroit Housing Commission has no official connection with this cooperative other than our over-all interest in general housing conditions. I feel that we certainly cannot afford to overlook any new approach to the housing problem in this country."

Victor G. Reuther, educational director, UAW-CIO

"I have no hesitation in calling the homes in Schoolcraft Gardens the 'best buy' in Detroit today. The member family will get bigger rooms and better design and equipment for his money than in any other housing now on the market.

"Good homes in a good neighborhood, plus genuine cooperative ownership, mean lower prices as well as security for the family savings. I have participated in organizing this co-op, and I have great hopes that this is but the first of a growing number of cooperative housing developments in which our members, together with other American families, may get much needed homes at prices they can afford."

Finlay C. Allan, secretary, Detroit Building Trades Council, AFL

"Inasmuch as the possibilities of private home ownership are usually limited to families in the higher income brackets, cooperative housing offers advantages to families of moderate income through large-scale planning and lower financing costs.

"Organized labor has a stake in cooperative housing both as consumers and as producers. As consumers, we are the majority of the families of moderate income who need good housing and, so far, have found difficulty in securing it at a price we can pay. As producers, we are interested in providing decent homes for all income levels in order to insure a continuing market and a prosperous Nation. "I have worked with the sponsors of Schoolcraft Gardens Cooperative from the beginning and have been particularly impressed with the careful planning that has gone into it and by the fact that these plans are workable plans made by practical people."

SCHOOLCRAFT GARDENS COOPERATIVE

Schoolcraft Gardens is the name of the first section of a five-hundred family cooperative housing development being built on Detroit's west side. It is located on a gently rolling tract of land half a mile long and a quarter of a mile wide, with the Rouge Park system bordering its entire half-mile western side. It is organized as a nonprofit cooperative designed to provide for families of moderate income, homes of a high standard of space and equipment in an environment embodying the best technical know-how in modern home and neighborhood planning:

Design and construction.-Schoolcraft Gardens will set a new standard of housing quality in Detroit. Its spacious rooms, ample closet space, lasting construction, and modern design and equipment will make comfortable and gracious living a reality for families of average income.

Safety. Children will be safe from traffic hazards. There are no through streets in the development. The only traffic will be that of the residents and those having business with them.

School facilities.-The Don Hubert elementary school is two short blocks from the development and is not used to capacity. Children from Schoolcraft Gardens will walk to school in specially designed walkways separated from streets carrying traffic.

Shopping and community facilities.-Land for a shopping center with ample parking space, has already been zoned within the site of the development. Space has also been set aside for the future construction of a community building with rooms for meetings, club activities, a nursery school, a clinic, etc.

Playgrounds.-Playgrounds will be provided within the development for the smaller children. Eliza Howell Park, with baseball diamonds, tennis courts, and other facilities for older children, adjoins the development on the north and west. Parks. In addition to Eliza Howell Park, the extension of the Rouge Park system will place Detroit's most extensive park facilities within one-fourth mile of every family in the development.

Transportation.-A major highway, Schoolcraft, borders the development and insures adequate public and private transportation. DSR bus service is now available on Schoolcraft, and connects with Grand River express service.

YOUR HOME IN SCHOQLCRAFT GARDENS

There will be various building types, including terraces and garden apartments, in Schoolcraft Gardens. The first section to be built will be two-story buildings and will consist of 64 dwellings: 4 one-bedroom apartments, 12 two-bedroom apartments, 16 two-bedroom terraces, 32 three-bedroom terraces, 32 garages, 32 off-street parking spaces. By combining these different types of dwellings, the designers feel that they have avoided monotony and achieved a more attractive plan.

The dwellings are of brick veneer construction and are designed to have the living rooms face south, overlooking lawns and gardens. Floor-to-ceiling Thermopane type windows are used on south elevations. Entrances are generally on the north side of the dwellings. The terrace units and the first-floor apartments, have a paved garden area opening out from the living room, while the second-floor apartments have a balcony opening out from the living room and overlooking the garden.

Space standards.-Gadgets and trick sales features can never make up for rooms too small for comfortable family living. Schoolcraft Gardens space standards were set from the point of view of the people who will live in the development and not to cut costs to the last possible dime in order to produce a bargain-sale price. The one-bedroom apartments in Schoolcraft Gardens have approximately 760 square feet of floor space, compared with 700 square feet for a typical two-bedroom economy house and 800 square feet in a standard FHA-insured two-bedroom house. Our two-bedroom apartments and terraces average 1,020 square feet in floor area, compared with 950 square feet in many three-bedroom homes now built for sale in this price range. Schoolcraft Gardens three-bedroom terraces have approximately 1,275 square feet of floor area, a space standard ordinarily found only in custom-built, luxury-priced homes.

Orientation to sun, winds, and view. The site plan has been carefully worked out so that each garden apartment and terrace secures the maximum amount of light and warmth from the sun in the winter months and adequate protection from the sun's rays in the summertime. In addition, the buildings are so laid out as to permit taking advantage of the prevailing summer breezes and pleasant view.

Arrangement. All apartments and terraces are designed to have through ventilation. Circulation within each dwelling unit has been carefully planned. Each dwelling unit is entered through a vestibule provided with a closet. Access to bedrooms and bath is from a hall. All rooms have ample wall space for a variety of furniture arrangements.

Closet and storage space.-Considerable attention has been given to this question because of its importance in providing for the family's comfort. All Schoolcraft Gardens dwelling units have unusually generous closet and storage space. Most closets have sliding doors. Coat closets, linen closets, and broom closets are standard equipment.

Bathrooms. All bathrooms have tiled walls and floors. They are provided with showers over built-in tubs and are equipped with all necessary accessories. Three-bedroom terraces have an additional toilet and lavatory on the first floor. Kitchens.—All kitchens are fully equipped for good housekeeping, and also have ample room for serving light meals. They are furnished with double-drainboard sinks, plenty of cupboard space, and ample table work area. All kitchen sinks have built-in garbage-disposal units. There will be no garbage-can problem in Schoolcraft Gardens, and there will be no rats, vermin, and messy alleys.

Basements and laundries.-Every apartment and terrace has its own separate and private basement area, which includes double laundry tubs, gas burner plate, and an automatic gas water heater. Basements are provided with incinerators for the burning of waste paper and other dry trash (not garbage). Basements, even in the apartments, are large enough to be fitted up as rumpus rooms or for hobby or shop space.

Heating. Each terrace will have a separate gas-fired automatic forced air heating system controlled by a thermostat in the living room. The apartments will be heated by a circulating hot-water system, with each apartment controlling its own heat by a thermostat in the living room. One gas-fired boiler will supply the heat for all 16 apartments.

YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD IN SCHOOLCRAFT GARDENS

Schoolcraft Gardens is located about 11 miles from Detroit's city hall, at the northwest corner of Schoolcraft and Lamphere. It is about half a mile inside the city limits. It is a community planned in advance to provide for the con

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