INTRODUCTION1. The Problem.The crux of the housing problem is economic. Under the ordinary laws of supply and demand, it is insoluble. In our modern industrial civilization, the distribution of income is such that a substantial portion of the population cannot pay a commercial rent, much less a commercial purchase price, for a home fulfilling the minimum health and decency requirements.This is not a local or transitory phenomenon. It is universal and permanent,-to the extent, at least, that our economic system is universal and permanent. The sooner we in the United States recognize these facts, as most thinking people in the rest of the civilized world have already done, the sooner we shall find a remedy. For of course there is one, if we choose to pay the price for it. No situation which is producing disease and crime faster than our remedial agencies can cure them is a necessity. As a matter of fact, other nations have found remedies and are putting them into effect. It cannoTable of Contents CONTENTS; PAGE; Introduction; 1 The problem 1; 2 Health, morals, citizenship, happiness, as affected by; housing 4; 3 Retrospect Summary of the housing situation in 1917 8; 4 Remedies for housing evils in the United States prior; to 1917 10; 5 Remedies for housing evils in European and other for-; eign countries before and since the War 12 Sources of information on recent American urban; housing 19; Sources of information on recent American rural; housing 29; Home ownership in the United States 35; Minimum standard of housing 39; What is wrong with supply and demand ? 43; Family income 47; 12 The place of housing in family budgets 53; 13 Four items in the cost of a home 59; 6; 8; 9 10 11; (DWELL-; CHAPTEB; I War Housing; II The Housing Shortage ; III Rent Restriction ; IV Tax Exemption ; V Tenement House and Housing Codes ing Laws); VI Rapid Growth op Zoning VII City and Regional Planning