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I "Coi'ers Dixie Like the Dew" Since 1883 Jack Tal'ver, President · EDITORIALS 2-A · Low-Cost Housing Gap THE HOUSING Resources Committee heard Thursday that Mayor Ivan Allen's fiveyear, lo,v-cost housing goal of 16,800 replacement units by 1971 was . sure of being met. This is encouraging. · But the goal, unfortunately, falls far below the mammoth commitment needed if city leaders are determined to wipe out the terrible slum conditions that breed violence and volatile r esentment. Noting this, the HRC voted unanimously . at its second annual meeting to endorse and push for approval of the zoning "package plan" designed to pave the way for low-cost . housing throughout all sections of the city . . simultaneously. Is this too much to expect? The answer apparently has been yesjudging by the silent. reception the plan h_as received from the aldermanic Planning a nd · Development Committee and the Zoning Committee since it was r eceived for study last August. Both committees were to seek information from the Planning Department. Now, more than four months later , Planning Department Director Collier Gladin has reported no substantial progress has been made to implement the package plan. HRC Cha irman Cecil Alexander put the · need for the package plan in proper perspec- · tive last August. "It's like this, " he told the a ldermen, "either we house the poor or we have within our m idst, if not in this · generation, then certa inly in the next, an alienated people r eady to grasp by force what -we would not provide when there ·was yet time." The true indication of the meager success in providing adequate low-cost housing units so far in Atlanta comes from a statement r eleased by the Atlanta Housing Authority Wednesday. For the first time in Atlanta urban renewal history, sajd the AHA, housing construction in 1968 exceeded the number of units demolished. In other words, Atlanta has virtually been standing still, if not going backwards , in at- iacking its low-cost problem in recent years. Therefore, it is not surprising to count the number of r esponsible community organizations suppor ting the package plan. They include the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, the Comm unity Council of the Atla nta Area Inc., Central Atlanta P rogress Inc., the Women's Chamber of Commerce, the League of Jack Spalding, Editor o DECEMBER 14, 1968 Women Voters, the Christian Council of, Metropolitan Atlanta, Inc., and the 1fotropolitan Atlanta Conference on Housing. It is time that the conscience of the community be heard. �