HUD should indicate a commitment of resources and of time and energy of the highest level personnel in the department. Of particular importance is identification of the amount of time and the commitment of the Secretary to the fulfillment of the 1968 command for affirmative action. If such a commitment in acceptable terms is not shortly forthcoming, it is our view that another agency of the federal governent should be empowered by Congress to implement the policies of the Fair Housing Act of 1968. Social Indicators of Success in Combating Unequal Opportunities.-Let us suggest a number of standards that could guide HUD or any other affirmative action enforcer in the field of housing. The federal government annually prints a report on the "Social and Economic Status of the Black Population in the United States." Within that report there are statistics detailing the relative conditions of housing for blacks and whites in the United States. Before the publication of data regarding housing in that study, there is an important report on relative income distributions for blacks and whites. We believe that as long as the median income of blacks or other minorities is so much below that of whites, as it is today, when the black median income is roughly three-fifths of the white median income, that there is in truth very little chance for there to be equal housing opportunity as between white and black in our society. So the very first question that should be posed to the executive branch of government and to HUD is: what steps are being taken to raise the median income of blacks and other minorities so that by some date in the future, black income distribution will resemble white income distribution? A yearly report on programs and results should be made to Congress. The report on the economic and social status of the black population also reveals that the percent of blacks within cities of metropolitan areas is approximately twice that of the population of whites. HUD and other executive agencies should be asked what steps will be taken, and by when, to see that the distribution of population within metropolitan areas is the same for white as it is for black. In other words what steps are being taken by the federal government to desegregate metropolitan areas of the nation? Other data reveals that a far higher proportion of the black population lives in low income or poverty areas than does the white population. The same data reflects the fact that blacks whose incomes place them above poverty levels must, to a far higher degree than non-poor whites, reside within low income areas. What is being done by the executive branch of government and in particular by HUD to alter that condition so that blacks will be free to live in areas not characterized by low income? A report on this subject should be sent annually to Congress. The data on housing conditions in the annual report on the status of the black population reveals that the black population's ownership of housing is approximately 50% less than that of the white population. The data indicates that the number of units lacking some or all plumbing facilities is four times as great for owner occupied housing of blacks as it is for whites, and over twice as much in renter occupied units. The data reveals that measures of overcrowding show that where a standard of 1.01 or more persons per room is the measure of overcrowding, that blacks suffer more than twice as much overcrowding as do whites, and if a more lenient measure of 1.51 or more persons is used as a measure of overcrowding, that ratio is closer to three to one. We believe that HUD should prepare a plan that will indicate to Congress how, and by when, it intends to eliminate the disparities in housing conditions. It should also indicate to Congress the resources and the support that it will need in the way of new legislation in order to make its work in this field successful. HUD should be called upon to present within just a few months a preliminary program for how it intends to develop these recommendations to your subcommittee. HUD should also indicate to your subcommittee as soon as possible, the steps that it will take to tightly control its grants of funds to local communities so as to guarantee that those recipients of federal dollars are not employing local land development regulations in an exclusionary manner. HUD must further identify the steps it will take to require recipients of federal planning dollars to undertake strong affirmative action to bring about equal housing opportunities. That must be a key part of the "701" Program and should be made a key part of the housing assistance plans under the Housing and Community Development Act. We strongly support the approach proposed in a bill introduced by Congressman Badillo (H.R. 14471) on April 19, 1972. In this bill, highest priority for all federal funding would be given to those local communities undertaking affirmative action to expand equal opportunities, in particular for housing for low and moderate income persons. We think that it is essential that the A-95 review process be made to work effectively in regard to the implementation of affirmative action policies of the nation. Many of the A-95 clearinghouses in the nation, such as the Tri-State Regional Planning Commission in New York, are indifferent or ignorant in regard to issues of affirmative action. The Congress and the Executive branches must be more demanding if fair housing is to become the policy of this nation. The Enforcement of Equal Opportunity in Housing.-There is in our mind a very real question as to whether HUD should be responsible for enforcing affirmative action in the housing field. HUD, like so many other regulatory agencies of our federal government, is in significant measure a captive of the very forces in the housing field that have prevented housing from being constructed in a non-discriminatory fashion. It has been in the interest of builders and the real estate industry to foster segregated developments and communities. The socially proper goal of equal housing opportunity has been neglected in the interest of the market value of profit and profit was more possible through the building of segregated rather than desegregated communities. We wish to propose to your subcommittee that you seriously consider removing from HUD enforcement of the 1968 commitment to fair housing in the nation and place it within an agency that is deeply concerned with the implementation of such a policy, rather than remaining with an agency that is indifferent to that command. It is our recommendation that the United States Commission on Civil Rights be given consideration as the agency required to implement affirmative action in the United States, rather than HUD. HUD's history of indifference and its history of support of racial separation in the United States strongly suggests it is incompetent to carry out the command of the 1968 legislation. The United States Civil Rights Commission is committed to equality of opportunity in this nation and may be the far more appropriate and caring agency to be given this immensely important task. We thank the subcommittee for this opportunity to make this presentation. TESTIMONY OF PAUL DAVIDOFF AND MARY E. BROOKS, SUBURBAN ACTION INSTITUTE, NEW YORK, N.Y. Mr. DAVIDOFF. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman and thank you, Congressman Badillo, for your warm words of welcome to these hearings. Let me just say, as executive director of Suburban Action, what a great honor and privilege it is for us to have Congressman Badillo on our board. He is a most active member of our board and has contributed a great deal to the development of our programs and policies over the years. Mr. EDWARDS. Thank you. He is certainly one of the most valuable members of this subcommittee. Mr. DAVIDOFF. We appreciate the invitation to testify at these important hearings on equal opportunity in housing. Mary Brooks will be testifying together with me today, each of us handling a different part of this testimony. As Mr. Badillo said, Suburban Action is a nonprofit organization created in 1969 to focus public attention on the great contribution suburbs could make toward solving fundamental urban problems. Our purposes in general are to enable all citizens, regardless of class or race, to choose where they shall live within metropolitan areas and to create a situation in which the suburbs share the responsibility equally with the cities for solving problems of poverty, discrimination, and lack of opportunity. The present crisis in New York City has highlighted more dramatically than anything else that has happened in recent times the importance of this work of seeking to have the suburbs share full fiscal, social, economic responsibilities with the cities. We do believe that a major cause of the problems besetting New York at the present time has been the failure of the city's surrounding suburbs to act responsibly, to share with the city in providing housing for families of low and moderate income, of assisting the city in meeting the burdens of families who are incapable of fully supporting themselves by their tax payments to local government. The major fact giving rise to the need for Suburban Action is the widespread support by public officials and agencies of practices that increase racial and economic segregation in metropolitan regions. We believe that if the suburbs of the Nation were open to all citizens, significant improvement could be made in the urban condition and in the condition of the lives of minorities. It is particularly important, from our perspective, that those who work in the suburbs be able to find residence within the suburbs if they choose. The absence of such choice has denied to many the ability to compete for the many jobs that are today located within the suburbs. For the subcommittee's attention, it is now the case that the majority of population in the U.S. metropolitan areas resides within the suburbs. That dominance is well known. It is also the case that by the end of this decade, there will be more people employed within the suburbs than within the central cities. That is less well known, but it is a crucial fact of our metropolitan life, and a crucial fact in terms of locational policy by the Federal Government. In our testimony today, we do not wish to burden the record with the factual evidence of racial and economic segregation in America. That evidence has been presented in a number of wellknown national studies. However, we would wish to submit to this committee a recent publication of the institute which details in a unique manner the growing separation of income groups within a single suburban county. The report is entitled, "A Study of Growth and Segregation-Income Distribution in Municipalities in Westchester County, New York from 1950 to 1970." Mr. EDWARDS. Without objection, it will be received for the record. Mr. DAVIDOFF. Thank you. [The material referred to follows:] |