Postwar leaders expected the state to subsidize but never replace private homebuilding

Evidence

Because the homebuilding industry was “shockingly backward,” however, the postwar need for housing would go unmet without a vigorous effort by both public and private leaders. The government needed immediately to undertake a multiyear program of public construction. The government also needed to support research to develop more efficient building materials and building methods. Yet “the responsibility must rest largely with free enterprise.” Accordingly, the housing industry needed “men of boldness and imagination” to come to the fore. “There are plenty of such men in the building field,” Bowles concluded, “men who have already demonstrated the vision and daring to develop new engineering techniques and new building materials. It is time that they went to work.” — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside, 115

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Federal mortgage insurance programs made postwar homeownership cheaper than renting — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside:…, 76