The Wagner-Steagall Housing Act of 1937 created the United States Housing Authority and the federal public housing programme, providing loans and grants to local housing authorities to build low-rent dwellings. It pursued the joint goals of slum clearance, low-income housing and construction employment during the Depression. A 'one-for-one' rule required demolition of a substandard unit for each new public unit, limiting net additions to supply. The act laid the institutional foundation for federally subsidised housing in the United States.
It established permanent federal public housing and the local-authority delivery model that shaped American social housing for decades.
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