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.., MINUTES HOUSING RESOURCES COMMITTEE FEBRUARY 14, 1967 Members of the Housing Resources Cornmittee met for their organizational meeting on Tuesday, February 14, 1967, at 10:00 a. m. in the Aldermanic Chambers at City Hall. The meeting was called to order by Mr. Cecil Alexander, Chairman of the Committee. Mr. Alexander then presented Mayor Ivan Allen, Jr. who spoke at this time . Mayor Allen first expressed his appreciation to everyone on the Committee for their willingness to serve a~d to respond to the City 1 s efforts to provide better housing f or its citizens. He revi e wed with the Committee the great magnit ude of this problem and the increasing need for more and more housin g units. He pledged the C ity 1 s full cooperation in attempting to overcome this problern and in getting this program underway. He expressed the hope that by 1968 the Cit y would meet its goal for 9, 800 new housing units. He also told the group of the Model Cities Program presently being developed by the City. This pro g ram would cover a very large portion of the city and would affect 55,000 c itizens living in the area. This would be a different program to t ry t o save this particular section of the city. He stated t hat he felt the progress that had been made since the November Housing Conference is an indication that we will meet t he goal. Mr. F erd Kr amer of Dra p er and K r amer of Chica go spoke to the group at this time . Mr. Kramer is the past President of Act ion, Inc. and is presently on the Board of Dir ectors of Urban America, Inc. and is chairman of their committee concerned with non-profit housing funds . Mr. Kramer told the Committee of a housing project he helped develop in Chica go some 7 to 8 years ago. Thi s project was d e veloped by a group of private i ndividuals re presenting a cross-section of the community and the benefits were two fold: l. It i mp roved the environment considerably in the declining neighborhood; and 2. It provi ded much needed housing for the staffs of the Michael-Rees e Hospital and the Illinois Ins titude of Technology {t h ese organizations were the firs t gr oups to institude studies of the area to determine the approach to follow to combat the decline of the area). This program was tremendously successful in Chicago and Mr. Kramer felt it would have some applicability in Atlanta. Mr. Kramer also explained that Urban America, Inc. has a division especi ally interested in non-profit housing and in l �• , Housing Resources Committee Minutes February 14, 1967 Page Two creatin g develop1nent funds . It is not possible for the Urban America staff to serve the e n tire nati on 1 s :non-profit groups and as a result they have been successful in persuading communities to create local development funds to ' deal with this problem. He stressed that each community must u se every p e ssible means for securing housing for its low and ·m iddle income citizens. The C h a i rman t h en thanked the members of the Committee for accepting this responsibility and outlined the challenges f9-cing them in providing this low inco1ne housing i n Atlanta. He stated he hoped this Comm ittee will serve to bring the ele m ents to ge ther which are necessary for success (new ideas, new structures, ne w financing methods , etc.) . He reviewed several programs that are available to h e lp solve this problem. He then outlined the work to be carried out by each panel and explaine d that the actual work of the Committee will be con ducted t hrou gh the pane ls. He sug g ested that eac h panel appoint t w o youn g men to a ssi s t t h em and to carry out the majority of the work. He poin ted out t h a t C ol. M a lcolm Jon e s and Mr. William Gates are available to assist the Commit tee and that their office is located on the 12th floor of C ity Hall. Mr. Dan Sweat of the Mayor 1 s Office is also working closely with this program. He as k ed that each p a n e l meet at least once a month and suggested that the full committe e meet mont hly also . T he m eeting w as then adjourned and the Committee members were asked to meet w i t h the other m e mb e rs of their panels here today for the purpose of selecting a Chairman and Co-Chairman. J �