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| Long title | AN ACT To encourage Bull improvement in housing standards and conditions, to provide a system of mutual mortgage insurance, and for other purposes |
|---|---|
| Enacted by | the73rd United States Congress |
| Citations | |
| Public law | Pub. L. 73–479 |
| Statutes at Large | 48 Stat. 1246 |
| Legislative history | |
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TheNational Act of 1934, H.R. 9620,Pub. L. 73–479, 48 Stat. 1246, enactedJune 27, 1934, also called theBetter Housing Program,[1] was part of theNew Deal passed during theGreat Depression in order to makehousing and homemortgages more affordable.[2] It created theFederal Housing Administration (FHA)[3] and theFederal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation (FSLIC).[4]
The Act was designed to stop the tide of bank foreclosures on family homes during theGreat Depression. Both the FHA and the FSLIC worked to create the backbone of the mortgage and home building industries, until the 1980s.[5](SeeSavings and loan crisis andFinancial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989 that ended the FSLIC, whose activities were moved to theFDIC.)
These policies had disparate impacts on Americans along segregated lines(seeRedlining):
Author Richard Rothstein says the housing programs begun under the New Deal were tantamount to a "state-sponsored system of segregation."
The government's efforts were "primarily designed to provide housing to white, middle-class, lower-middle-class families," he says. African-Americans and other people of color were left out of the new suburban communities — and pushed instead into urban housing projects.[6][7]
TheHousing Act of 1937 built on this legislation.
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