The Department of Housing and Urban Development succeeded the Housing and Home Finance Agency (HHFA), which had been established by Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1947 to coordinate Federal housing activities. The HHFA had, in turn, replaced the National Housing Agency (NHA), established by Executive order in 1942 to coordinate wartime housing activities, and was responsible for implementing the Housing Act of 1949. Included within the HHFA were the Federal Housing Administration (see RG 31); the Public Housing Administration (see RG 196); the Federal National Mortgage Association (see RG 294); the Urban Renewal Administration and the Community Facilities Administration (formerly the Community Facilities Service of the General Services Administration), which were established as constituent units by the HHFA Administrator's Organizational Order 1 of December 23, 1954; and the Home Loan Bank Board, which became independent in 1955 as the Federal Home Loan Bank Board (see RG 195). Under provisions of the Housing Act of 1954 the National Voluntary Mortgage Credit Extension Committee was created with the HHFA Administrator as Chairman. The act of September 9, 1965, creating the Department of Housing and Urban Development, transferred the functions, powers, and duties of the HHFA to the Department.

There are 269 cubic feet of records dated between 1931 and 1969 in this

record group.

RECORDS OF PREDECESSORS OF HHFA. 1931-47. 175 lin. ft.

Records of the Central Housing Committee, established in 1935 to coordinate Federal housing activities, include correspondence relating to Committee organization, 1933-35; minutes and reports, 1935-42; general records of the Executive Secretary, 1935-42; and records of several specialized and technical committees, first known as subcommittees, including the Appraisal and Mortgage Analysis, Economics and Statistics, Law and Legislation, Public Relations, and Research, Design, and Construction Committees, 1935-42.

Records of the Division of Defense Housing Coordination, Office for Emergency Management, include policy and administrative records and general records ("Subject File"), 1940-42, and correspondence relating to defense housing, 1941-42.

Records of the National Housing Agency consist of general files relating primarily to NHA activities and operations, 1942-47; correspondence, memorandums, and directives of Assistant Administrator Coleman Woodbury, 1942-45; a subject file of the war housing program and a 5-percent sample of local program operating files, 1942-46; and minutes, procedural issuances, correspondence, memorandums, and other records of the Homes Use Division, 1942-46.

Records of the Division of Research and Statistics, Federal Housing Administration, include reports, maps, and

issuances, 1937-45, containing data about cities compiled from sources dated from 1850 to 1945; housing monographs, 1939-42; and reports containing data on construction contracts, 1931-41.

Case files relating to Resettlement Administration and Farm Security Administration housing projects, 193442; and basic construction plans for Greendale, Wis., Greenhills, Ohio, and Greenbelt, Md., 1933-35.

RECORDS OF THE HOUSING AND
HOME FINANCE AGENCY.
1942-65. 95 lin. ft.

Included are general records of the Division of Housing Research and its predecessors, including unpublished reports comparing the quality of privately produced materials or containing critical comments on proprietary products or technology, 1942-54; minutes, memorandums, and other records relating to the allocation of scarce building materials, 1942-45; sample case files relating to the construction of prefabricated houses and the production of new building materials, 1946-47; reports, memorandums,

and correspondence

about contract research projects, chiefly with the National Bureau of Standards, 1945-54; and a record set of research and technical publications, 1943-54.

Records of the Division of Plans and Programs include a general subject file, 1950-53; correspondence relating to mobile, demountable housing, 1950-51; a subject file relating to the controlled materials plan, 1950-52; and "locality files" relating to housing in critical defense areas in accordance with the Defense Housing and Community Facilities and Services Act of 1951 and an act of July 31, 1951, extending the Federal rent control law to critical areas, 1950-54.

There are also records of the Division of Community Facilities and Operations, consisting of a general subject file and project files relating to the disaster

relief program, 1947-53; and project files relating to a 1946 Hawaiian relief program, which provided assistance in repairing and constructing municipal buildings damaged or destroyed by a tidal wave.

Records, 1954-65, relating to the National Voluntary Mortgage Credit Extension Program, established in 1954 to facilitate location of private mortgage credit for federally insured or guaranteed mortgages in areas with inadequate facilities for access to such loans, or for minority groups to whom such funds were not readily available. The records. comprise files of executive secretaries of the national committee and of regional subcommittees.

AUDIOVISUAL RECORDS. 1963-69. 54 items.

Motion pictures, 1963-69 (43 reels), document the creation of the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the appointment by President Johnson of Robert C. Weaver as the Department's first Secretary, and show several ceremonies relating to the establishment and early activities of the Department.

Sound recordings, 1966-68 (11 items), consist of radio spot announcements and speeches by Secretary Weaver.

See Katherine H. Davidson, Preliminary Inventory of the General Records of the Housing and Home Finance Agency, PI 164 (1965).

except persons approved by the Security Officer of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Specified by: Department of Defense.

II. Records: Unpublished reports among the general records of the Division of Housing Research of the Office of the Aministrator and its predecessors that compare the quality of privately produced

materials or that contain unfavorable comments about proprietary products or technology. Restrictions: No one may examine

these records or be given information from them or copies of them without the written permission of the Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development or his authorized representative.

Specified by: Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) was created by the National Housing Act of June 27, 1934. By Reorganization Plan No. I of 1939, it was grouped with other agencies to form the Federal Loan Agency. The FHA was transferred to the National Housing Agency in 1942, the Housing and Home Finance Agency in 1947, and the Department of Housing and Urban Develop

ment in 1965.

The FHA carries out programs authorized by the National Housing Act to insure private lending institutions against loss on mortgage loans for oneto four-family dwellings, rental housing projects of eight or more units, and property repair or improvement. It also insures advances for housing in nonurban and disaster areas and housing for the elderly and military personnel, for nursing homes, and for the improvement of housing standards-with particular emphasis on the rehabilitation of slums and blighted areas. During World War II FHA field offices accepted, processed, and forwarded to the War Production Board applications from private sources for scarce materials to be used in war housing and utility lines and systems,

issued allotments and preference ratings for priorities, and inspected projects for conformity with regulations regarding the

use of critical materials. The issuance of building permits and priorities for building materials and the inspection of construction were assumed by the FHA under the veterans emergency housing program in 1946.

There are 96 cubic feet of records dated between 1930 and 1958 in this record group.

RECORDS. 1930-58. 56 lin. ft.

Included are organizational charts and a procedural manual, 1958; project files consisting of sample dossiers for 12 representative multiunit housing development projects, selected on a geographical basis, that illustrate Government procedures to insure various types of rental projects, 1936-46; sample case files containing plans and specifications for typical American homes insured by the 58 FHA regional offices, 1934-38; a city data file of reports, tabulations, and charts gathered between 1938 and 1945 (a few covering the years 193038) by the Research and Statistics Divi

private corporation that manages secondary mortgage market operations. The other, the Government National Mortgage Association in the Department of Housing and Urban Development, continues to exercise the functions of the original FNMA in financing federally underwritten mortgages, managing and liquidating Federal trusts and mortgages, and guaranteeing securities backed by federally insured housing mortgages.

There are 11 cubic feet of records dated between 1938 and 1954 in this record group.

RECORDS. 1938-54. 13 lin. ft.

These include general records relating to legislation, organization, budget, and operations; correspondence on marketing mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration, and with field

agents; case files of declined and canceled loans; and periodic financial statements, with supplementary materials. Records of the FNMA after it became a part of the Housing and Home Finance Agency, 1950-54, consist of records of Budget Officer Walter C. Hand, 195053, and other budget records.

SPECIFIC RESTRICTIONS Records: Records containing information about private firms.

Restrictions: These records will be available to officials of the Federal Government for official purposes and to others only with the permission of the President of the Federal National Mortgage Association.

Specified by: President of the Federal National Mortgage Association.

The Office of the Housing Expediter (OHE) originated December 12, 1945, when the President appointed a Housing Expediter in the Office of War Mobilization and Reconversion to plan, coordinate, and expedite postwar housing programs. An Executive order in January 1946 authorized the Expediter to plan a veterans housing program and coordinate activities of executive agencies in implementing that plan. Congressional authorization for the OHE was given in the Veterans' Emergency Housing Act of May 22, 1946. The OHE was merged with the National Housing Agency from May 1946 to January 1947, when it was made an independent executive executive agency. A few months later Civilian Production Administration (CPA) functions relating to the

veterans emergency housing program and rent control functions of the Office of Price Administration were transferred to OHE. The veterans emergency housing program-which had stimulated production of building materials, directed those materials into housing construction, and provided veterans with priorities for houses so built-was curtailed by the Housing and Rent Act of 1947 and its amendments. The OHE was terminated by Executive Order 10276 of July 31, 1951, and its functions were transferred to the Office of Rent Stabilization (ORS) of the Economic Stabilization Agency and to the Housing and Home Finance Agency.

There are 1,655 cubic feet of records dated between 1941 and 1953 in this record group.