The Inner Core; Conversations from the Inner Core; Lawrence Katz, Federal Housing Authority

Conversations from the inner core another in our continuing series of programs recorded in north central Milwaukee by Ralph Johnson. Production Manager for the state station is Mr. Lawrence Katz is the director in the state of Wisconsin for the Federal Housing Administration. I want to first you begin by giving us a overview in historical terms of housing particularly onerous of housing. Negro owners of housing in the inner city area. The inner city of Malki has been a changing area. Historically. It was the oldest part of the city as is every central area in urban cities. And as ethnic group after ethnic group came over from Europe they took over the centers. Parts of the city as they reached degree of affluence and stability they moved downward because they wanted more and better housing more space and another ethnic group coming over from Europe took over this happening Walky with the Germans the Jewish group Irish.

Polls. And the final group is today the racial group coming up from the south taking over the. Lowest priced housing because they can't afford more and where do they find this right in the heart of the city. How old are most of these homes that are here. I think if you were a cross-section of the city like cutting a piece of pie from the central part outward You could almost go block by block and determine the age and as you do this you can start from the suburbs where it's rather recent going into the heart of the city you come up. With housing that is about 60 65 years old as it is close to downtown and 30 to 40 years old. As you reach in here the key for capital Drive area. People in the inner core both own and rent What would you guess the proportion would be owners as to renters. We don't have to guess we've done some studies on this thing because basically this what if it is all about. We are encouraging strongly homeownership to do this. For decades you know we would start started back in 1930

for encouraging homeownership. In those days whether critical or not I don't think is important but it seems we were suburbia oriented and we did a tremendous job especially the post-war years of building up the suburbs and track developments. But in recent years nationally and locally we're turning our attention to the inner city recognizing that these inner cities provide reasonable living. And can be good living for those who cannot afford the higher priced units. So. As the negro came into Milwaukee he was first basically a renter. Couldn't own because he couldn't afford it. He got himself a job try to get his family located in the took over usually the cheapest quarters. As the octane stability. His job was secure. He sought to buy a home and this is where we came into the picture. You see we have a low down payment program you can buy for as low as 3 percent down. In other words a $10000 home all they need is $300. All anyone needs is $300 and closing costs

probably less than $200. So about $500 you can own his own home and be free of Lee pressures of writing and have a lot of freedom for his children a song we like that. As the negro became more stabilized he brought now our statistics in 1960 the census statistics indicate that about 24 percent of the negroes in Milwaukee owned their own homes. As of a month ago two months ago rather the turn of the year our studies have shown that that home ownership percentage has increased almost 37 percent. In other words 30 percent seven percent of the negroes living walkies they live in their own homes. And the Negro population in the movies changed during that time. That's jumped census statistics in 1960 indicate that the Negro population is a little over sixty two thousand. And based on our estimates and the increase at the end of 67 it was close to ninety seven thousand. So almost in spite of the increase in population we have been enjoying an increase in negro

homeownership and. We're very very happy to keep encouraging this and we want to see more of it. Does this mean that the number and influence of so-called slum lords is less here than it is in perhaps other large cities. Well that's hard. In all fairness we've increased renters as well with the increase in population you're going to increase homeownership hopefully but you also increase renters in other words our figures show that is back in. 1960. 1960. There were 47000 renters in the Negro community. And in 1967 there were sixty one thousand renters so obviously quarters are necessary. This means that someone owns a house and may not live in the location where they own and they've rented this out. Rental units are necessary because where are these people going to be housed. The real question always is well are these units maintained and this is the real challenge because good rental renting quarters.

That is good quarters that are sound and clean and available for rent are in great demand. And this is to be encouraged what is to be discouraged is poor Raechel structures in several months are working in the core and being in a number of families homes I can say that there are certainly some which are in very very bad shape. What's your estimate as a professional of the code enforcement. As far as rental units in Milwaukee as compared to other cities. I just returned last night from Cleveland and I spent two days in the Hoff area. This is part of working with our Cleveland office. And I must say and this is a relative thing. That our light is not the same as Cleveland's thank God. It doesn't mean that we don't have it because we do. But relative terms. We're not as bad off as they are they too have detached homes on 30 foot lots but the construction seems beaks Greenly shoddy the construction of the homes and walking generally are far sounder.