Proposal to Sell FHA

Recent reports on the Reagan Administration’s hare-brained scheme to “sell” the Federal Housing Administration to the private sector have failed to mention two important points.

The first of these is that the FHA is a unique federal agency in that it operates without cost to us taxpayers. Each year, the FHA receives an “authorization” from the Congress to spend money from its income to cover its operating costs. It does not receive an “appropriation” of tax funds. It is the only federal agency which, to my knowledge, makes money for the Treasury.

Secondly, the involvement of our federal government in housing is the direct result of Herbert Hoover’s interest in better housing, dating from the time he was secretary of commerce under both Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge. While the FHA came into being in 1933-34, it is the result of the interest of a professionally trained engineer. It is not the result of “New Deal” thinking nor of the “Great Society.”

Few people, including devoted Republicans, are aware of Hoover’s contributions in the creation of the programs he called “Better Homes” and “Better Children.” But the record is clear for even Ronald Reagan and his ideologists to read. On Page 92 of the “Memoirs of Herbert Hoover,” we read: “Two concerns which were more stimulating and more satisfying than these tense economic activities (following World War I) were Better Homes and Better Children. When I came to the Department of Commerce, I was convinced that a great contribution to reconstruction and a large expansion in employment could be achieved by supplying the greatest social need of the country--more and better housing.”

LEONARD G. HAEGER

Santa Barbara