Federal Urban Renewal Legislation

This article outlines the early origins, the struggle for enactment, and the development of federal urban renewal legislation. It also discusses separately two of several major issues which recurringly give rise to changes in that legislation. One concerns restrictions in the federal law which direct federal urban renewal aids toward the betterment of housing, as distinguished from the betterment of cities and of urban life in general. The other concerns the statutory formula for apportioning the cost of the program between the federal government and local governments. Perhaps no one who reads this symposium would expect a major federal program such as urban renewal, even though it may be urgently needed and broadly supported, to be quickly formulated in detail adequate for enactment and swiftly enacted into law. A few might, however, underestimate the pitfalls and the time required. Some delays are inherent in the routine operations of the democratic legislative process, but the greatest delays in obtaining the enactment of legislation are to be expected when there are many diverse and important interests involved; and this may be true even after there is much agreement that the legislation's underlying purpose is good. The history of the basic federal urban renewal statute-Title I of the Housing Act of i9492-was not exceptional in this regard. It involved very many diverse interests and extended over a period of many years.3