Housing in Model Cities

The Model Cities Program, authorized by title I of the Demonstration Cities and Metropolitan Development Act of i966,1 is a unique new federal program designed to bring to bear a variety of resources-public and private-in a comprehensive and coordinated attack on social, economic, and physical problems in large slum and blighted neighborhoods. It calls for focusing and interrelating all relevant existing federal grant-in-aid programs in a single area and for developing and testing out new and innovative approaches which cannot be financed under existing grant-in-aid programs. Because it is a new concept and its potential is untried, the Model Cities Program is a demonstration program, to be carried out in a limited number of cities offering the best potential for achieving program objectives. It is hoped that through the solutions developed and demonstrated by participating cities, other cities may be able to cope more successfully with their urban problems. The objective of the Model Cities Program can best be summarized as the elimination of opportunity-denying circumstances. The program calls for a locally developed plan to eliminate the blockages which prevent residents of slum and blighted areas from obtaining such things as decent housing, good jobs, and quality education. The specific objectives each local program is expected to meet are