Millermore, the mansion in which she was born. All took great pride in their homes. There were weekly meetings of the home owners, often with covered dish dinners. There was a contest for the best lawn, and another contest with prizes for the most beautiful and appropriate Christmas decorations. People drove out from all over the city to see them.

This was an all white community. One home owner traded his home in on a larger one in another part of town. The new owner sold it to a Negro. Some real estate salesmen, using scare tactics started a block busting campaign. Many owners sold their homes at a sacrifice. They were afraid property values would decrease greatly.

This proved to be untrue. The community is now entirely colored. Property sells for as high a price as it ever did. The Negro owners keep their homes and flower beds in good shape. They have continued the Christmas decorations. They keep their homes painted and in good repair. They have a great pride of ownership. They work together to protect their homes and their neighborhood. They are good citizens. I am as proud of this community as I was when it was all white.

This is in sharp contrast to another area where we built brick duplexes as rental property. Upkeep costs have been very high. The occupants as a whole pay no attention to their lawns. They never plant flowers. They have no pride as owners do. They get behind with their rent and skip out without paying, or are evicted. In some cases the damage is high and the filth they leave behind is unbelievable. The cost of repairs is high enough to make the renting very unprofitable. We are converting these duplexes into three bedroom two bath homes and offering them for sale. There is a great difference when an owner moves in. The problem is that many would be purchasers do not have even the small cash down payment required for an FHA insured loan. These people should be allowed and encouraged to work out the down payment by making needed repairs on older buildings. There should be training schools in every city for maintenance workers. Depreciation and obsolescence are always with us. Such a program would keep older neighborhoods from becoming slums, and would help, with the cooperation of local governments, to eliminate existing slums.

In 1955 we purchased the Ambassador Hotel in downtown Dallas as a real estate investment. Shortly after we took it over we converted it into a retirement residence for elderly people. We were pioneers in this field and learned about housing for older Americans the hard way. We learned from our own experience, sometimes by the trial and error method. I have visited other housing for the elderly projects all over the United States to see what and how they were doing. I have read many books on the subject written in most cases by people who knew less than I did about the subject.

In 1960 I was appointed on the Texas Governor's Committee on Aging and was on the housing committee. In that capacity I made a trip, at my own expense, to Europe to see for myself what they were doing in taking care of the older people. I had a letter of introduction from the Governor of Texas to the American Ambassador in each country I visited. Through the Ambassadors I was accorded red carpet treatment everywhere and had no trouble getting all of the information I wanted. I made a written report to the Governor's committee on the Aging and on the Care of the Aged in Europe, in Italy, Germany, Holland and England. Copies of these reports were reproduced by the Governor's Committee for the White House Conference on Aging, and I will leave copies with you today.

I was one of the Texas representatives to the White House Conference on Aging in January 1961 and was on the Housing Committee.

One of the important things I learned in Europe was that most older people do not want to be segregated and isolated. In Amsterdam, where most of the new building is on land recovered from the ocean by the City, they were building high rise, eight to ten story apartment buildings for workers. In the immediate vicinity they were building two story duplexes for older people, mostly occupied by mothers and fathers, grandparents or other relatives of the nearby workers. In Germany, the chief architect of the Bonn Government showed me plans for a new housing project for the Elderly at Frankfurt which I saw on a later visit. He told me frankly they were copying what was being done in Holland which he liked better than anything else they had seen. One of the striking features of this plan was that they included a children's playground and some adjoining four bedrooms apartments for families with many children. He said the older people liked to watch the children play. They do not want to be isolated.

For this reason, if for no other, I do not think that the answer to retirement housing in America is Retirement Villages restricted to older people. We have found the children's playground in City Park across St. Paul Street from the Ambassador to be a real asset.

All of the retirement housing projects in Europe, as far as I saw, provide nursing care for their occupants. In Italy, Casa Serena on the Via Cassia, 14 kilos north from Rome, which I visited, and which is one of the best retirement homes I have seen anywhere, did not appear to have any nursing facilities. I asked about this and was informed that all guests who needed nursing care were taken to a nursing home, which I visited later, located on a magnificent site overlooking a beautiful lake, between Rome and Florence. This nursing facility serves all of the homes for the elderly built and operated by the National Institute for Pensioners of Italy, which is similar to our Social Security System. Our Ambassador Retirement Hotel, which originally followed the plan used by the retirement hotels in Miami Beach, did not provide nursing care. At the urging of our guests, we had our second floor licensed for nursing care with 42 beds available and fully qualified for skilled nursing care and Medicare. I would not, now, undertake to operate a retirement housing project without having nursing care available.

I am one of the owners of the Fairmount Retirement Residence in Dallas. It was originally built as an Apartment House. FHA foreclosed on it and we purchased it from FHA and modernized it according to the plan the Ambassador had proved to be successful with the addition of kitchen and dining room facilities and facilities for nursing care, and financed with an FHA insured loan. FHA rules limited the operation to eight rooms out of ninety-six for nursing care. However, we found that thirty beds with around the clock nursing care was the least that could be operated profitably and we put in thirty with no objection from FHA. The Fairmount is operating successfully and profitably today.

I have been employed by a large life insurance company and by U.S. Department of Defense as a consultant on Housing for the Elderly. The insurance company owned a Hotel they had foreclosed on and which they considered converting to a residence for retired persons. I advised against it on account of local conditions and they followed my advice.

The Defense Department had closed down a World War II airport at Harlingen, Texas. In addition to the airport itself the government owned a large adjoining housing development of homes built for military personnel. I advised them not to attempt to convert any part of the airport buildings to retirement purposes but to sell it for industrial uses. I advised them to offer the homes, which were all vacant, for sale on easy terms to retired people. They followed my advice. With the enthusiastic cooperation of the local realtors, the local chamber of commerce and city government and of the local chapter of the American Association of Retired Persons, of which I was, at the time, a national vice-president, every home was sold to and occupied by retired persons.

People from all over the United States, including an official of the Sheraton Hotel Chain, have come to Dallas, sometimes at the suggestion of an employee of the Federal Housing Administration in Washington, to see how we operate the Ambassador Hotel successfully as a Retirement Residence. I have told all of them the same thing: that if they go into it as a cold blooded money making proposition they are almost certain to fail; to succeed they must have people in charge who are willing to devote their entire life to the care of the elderly guests. Some housing with nursing care for old people who cannot live safely or happily in their own homes is necessary, but on a relatively small scale.

The answer to housing for the elderly is not a vast program of public housing. These are rental projects where there is no pride of ownership. Too often they become slums and dens of vice. Public housing is what you find in Russia and other communist countries.

The answer to housing for the elderly, as with houses for young workers, is Home Ownership. Our country was built by the hardy pioneers of all races and nationalities who kept moving westward, across a continent, looking for land which they could own, and on which they could make a living and build a home of their own for their loved ones. In that largely rural economy there was work for all, young and old. There was no problem of housing for the elderly. When it was needed another room was added to the old home place.

In the present economy, which is largely urban, the answer to housing problems is still Home Ownership. Elderly people should stay in their own

homes as long as they can do so safely, until either the husband or wife dies or becomes incapacitated, and they need to move into a Home for retired persons, with nursing care available if needed. Three fourths of the residents in the Ambassador are widows.

Couples should be helped to stay in their own homes. Local charitable organizations usually provide services, like home makers, meals on wheels and visiting nurses.

Older people also need to be helped with maintenance. Depreciation and obsolescence always need to be taken into account. There is expansion and contraction with changes in the weather. New paint is needed periodically. All people, but elderly ones especially, need to be protected from fraud by unscrupulous and fly by night repair contractors. A neighborhood organization of home owners, with the cooperation of Better Business Bureaus and Government can do that.

The city should keep the streets and utilities in older neighborhoods, especially, in good repair, and enforce health and building codes. In this way the deterioration of older neighborhoods into slums can be prevented. With good maintenance homes should last for at least 100 years.

The best time for any couple to purchase a home is when they first marry and start raising a family. In this way they can pay for it when their earning power is highest. Very often, when older people retire and start drawing social security, the only asset they have is a home that is paid for.

It is ridiculous to reduce or cut off social security when a person gets a job or continues one that will lift him or her out of the poverty class. When they work they have social security taxes and income taxes withheld, so the government gets a good part of the money back. Cutting off or reducing social security was put into the law in the 1930's when there were twenty million unemployed and the government was trying to create jobs for young workers. Today there is a shortage of labor, and especially of skilled labor. I know registered skilled nurses, of whom there is a great shortage, who won't work more than one or two days a week or at all, because if they do their social security will be cut off. Yet a lazy person who does no work and has a million dollar income from investments can draw full social security benefits.

The answer to enabling every couple to become home owners can be summed up in one four letter word: Work or jobs. In fact that is the secret of success and happiness in life. With minimum wages, and long term financing now available on FHA insured loans, every worker can and should become a Home Owner.

There should be no guaranteed income. There can and should be guaranteed jobs. If able bodied people want to eat they should work. Business is doing a good thing with their JOBS program in giving employment to some of the hard core unemployed. The rest can be employed under our Free Private Enterprise system, with the cooperation of business men, an organization of home owners and our local and national governments. The program should include continuing education to qualify potential workers for better jobs and for a better life. It should include training for maintenance and beautification work and much needed services in those and other fields.

The program should, by all means, include older persons for whom medical science is making a longer life span possible. Work will give them freedom from want in their own interest and in that of the entire community. Work produces wealth. Thus the elimination of individuals who are still potentially active from the labor force results in a burden and in a loss which is particularly serious if no use is made of their accumulated experience.

In 1967 I made a trip around the world and in twenty free countries made a study of Home Ownership and particularly of Housing for the Elderly. Everywhere I found the same natural desire to own a home. One of the great needs I found was for long term financing like we have with our Federal Housing Administration insured loans.

I saw two housing projects, one in Taipai, and the other in Bangkok, conducted under the AID Program of our State Departments, which shows the way we can help. They are building substantial homes for sale to low income workers on long easy terms. The money is provided by American Life Insurance Companies on loans guaranteed by our State Department. l'ayments on the homes are made to a local bank which forwards the money to us. There is practically no danger of loss.

Even the squatter settlements I saw in Manila and other cities show the inborn desire of all people for a home of their own. Their huts were built with logs and scrap lumber and tin, somewhat like the log cabins of our pioneer ancestors. They had no sanitation and no modern conveniences but they were home.

Private industry is also providing homes. In Hong Kong I saw the beginning of a great housing project by Mobil Oil Company. Condominium apartments will be sold to workers on long easy terms.

Recently, Mr. W. W. Keeler, Chairman of the Board of Phillips Petroleum Company which operates around the world where ever oil is produced told me they have to provide housing for their workers. Originally they built and furnished houses which they rented to their employees. The workers did not like that. Now they purchase the land and help their employees to finance the building of a home. The workers and their wives are happy with this plan. They have pride of ownership. They can add another room or a patio if they wish. In a recent development Phillips purchased enough land to build five thousand homes. In the United States and in every free country around the world, Home Owners are potentially the strongest part of Free Enterprise. In our country they comprise now more than one half of the entire population and potentially much more. Home Owners are the greatest natural bulwark against Communist subversion. They have the most to lose. When the Communists take over a country they take over, without compensation, all property and all means of production, and murder those who oppose them.

To mobilize Home Owners in every community, two non-profit corporations, Home Owners of the U.S.A. and Home Owners International have been incorporated for Charitable, Educational and Scientific purposes, and dedicated to preserving Freedom, Domestic Tranquility and World Peace.

By uniting and working cooperatively on a national and international basis Home Owners can be more effective in achieving these objectives.

By landing two men on the moon and bringing back samples of its soil we proved to all the world that our free private enterprise system is superior to athiestic communist dictatorship in scientific technology, endurance and courage. Surely, we can and will prove to all the world that we can provide a better life for all of our people. This must include the opportunity for every worker, including the older Americans, to become or remain Home Owners and live under healthful and safe and pleasant conditions.

As a member of Congress, the Honorable Robert F. Sikes, recently said: "It is time to start thinking of the opportunities which are ours to render a greater service to our Country.

It is time to encourage the great overwhelming majority of the people who believe in America to speak up for it.

It is time to stand up for the great principles to which all free men should be devoted."

Senator GURNEY. Thank you very much, Mr. Tips. We certainly welcome your testimony. I am sure you have made a great contribution as the president of the homeowners of the country.

Are there any questions from the staff?

Then I will adjourn the hearing.

(Whereupon, at 11:55 a.m., the subcommittee adjourned.)

APPENDIXES

Appendix 1

ADDITIONAL MATERIAL FROM WITNESSES

ITEM 1. SUPPLEMENTARY STATEMENT OF MARIE C. MCGUIRE,* ASSISTANT FOR PROBLEMS OF THE ELDERLY AND HANDICAPPED, DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT

HOMEOWNERSHIP AND HOUSING ASPECTS OF THE ECONOMICS OF AGING

INTRODUCTION

To a great extent our millions of senior citizens have been swept along in the massive movements of this 20th century. They have been part of the population movement from agricultural areas to industrial areas. They have moved from farms to cities, and some to the suburbs. They have been participants in the move from East to West. They have been part of and witnesses to our industrial, technological and scientific developments which have made it possible for so many of us to share and enjoy unprecedented affluence.

Nevertheless, many older people have been left behind. They are not sharing in this affluence. Many continue to live in old homes, often in desperate need of repair, and which lack some or all modern conveniences. Many homes are too large and too expensive to maintain on the small incomes of the average older persons or couple. Increasing taxes pose a continuing problem.

At the same time, our elders have moved toward a vast increase in leisure time, but just when their incomes, on the average, are reduced by half. For some, this has occurred when their physical abilities have waned; their mobility decreased; and their family size diminished. Their spouses and other aging relatives and friends pass on. Many are forced to accept a new status as dependentseven as in their childhood. Perhaps, most challenging and disquieting to older persons is the problem of how to use their increased leisure so as to gain personal satisfaction, including that of contributing something meaningful to their fellow citizens and community from day to day.

Our population of senior citizens is continuing to increase and, no doubt, stands at a record high today. So, this Committee's exploration of the economics of aging is of great significance and should be most helpful in our joint efforts to improve the lives of the Nation's millions of senior citizens.

Shelter certainly is a major consideration in your ongoing economic study, since a major factor influencing the living arrangements of senior citizens is their monetary income. Related to this is the decision which faces most elderly families and persons with regard to the kind of housing to live in during their later years. Should they remain in their own homes, or should they move into smaller apartments?

The benefits of home ownership vary. Under certain circumstances, living in one's own home can be achieved at a lower total cost than in a rented home or apartment. In some states, tax exemption or abatment offers real advantages to the elderly home owner. Further, an owned home represents an asset which can be used as collateral for loans, or possibly, in the future, a source of an annuity.

Among others, the benefits of home ownership relate to the condition of the house, its size and location, and how it affects the total well-being of the elderly owner. Many owners, particularly those living alone, often feel constrained to

*See statement, p. 757.