Word: hud
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...decision for the American city." The 89th Congress approved Johnson's request for a new federal agency, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, to give Cabinet representation for the first time to the 130 million metropolitan Americans. The President appointed Robert Clifton Weaver, a Negro, as HUD's first Secretary last January, unpredictably tapping the most predictable candidate for the job. Weaver, 58, the portly, pedagogical administrator of the Housing and Home Finance Agency (HHFA), had been the No. 1 candidate to head HUD ever since John F. Kennedy proposed the new agency five years...
...eligibility regulations were so carelessly written by the HHFA that "hardship" cases with as much as $25,000 in net assets could have qualified for rent help. Congress refused to appropriate funds for it, and many people thought that Weaver had thereby destroyed his chances of becoming HUD Secretary. Weaver now airily dismisses it all as "purely a printer's slip...
Strength & Diversity. Weaver's appointment as head of HUD did not bring universal joy to municipal officials, many of whom were hoping that a mayor might get the job. His academic background and experience in Government housing clearly made him better qualified than any city official. Nevertheless, he has a reputation for being professionally cautious and personally aloof-a man more comfortable with ivory tower theoreticians than with city hall politicians...
Beyond those guidelines, it would be up to city officials to determine precisely what to build. Said Johnson: "Let there be experiment with a dozen approaches, or a hundred." Previous federal assistance efforts under the Urban Renewal and Public Housing agencies, now part of HUD, have tended to be spotty and so vulnerable to bureaucratic snarls that they have created almost as many problems as they solved. To avoid these pitfalls, the new plan demands concentration on a single showcase area if a city wishes to qualify for federal aid. It sets 14 criteria to assure that initial goals...
...gets authority to bring his subordinate offices into line. Weaver's responsibilities will doubtless grow fast. A presidential committee headed by Dr. Robert C. Wood, 42, chairman of M.I.T.'s political-science department, has reported to the President on what additional functions-such as air pollution control-HUD should acquire. Which of the still-secret proposals Johnson will adopt for recommendation to Congress is as yet uncertain. In any case, Weaver will have every opportunity to hear them in detail: Johnson named Wood the new department's first Under Secretary...