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Sweat Equity in New Jersey “Self-Help Housing”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 May 2017

Daymon W. Thatch*
Affiliation:
Department of Agricultural Economics and Marketing, Rutgers University
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Extract

Congress passed the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1968 and reaffirmed its national housing goal of 1948: “the realization as soon as feasible of the goal of a decent home and a suitable living environment for every American family.” However, many states, and New Jersey in particular, have continually fallen short of this goal. The population in the past decade in New Jersey has grown by approximately 20 percent and yet housing has not kept pace with this growth. Current growth requires an additional 100,000 housing units a year, but only 40,000 are being built. In short, the inadequate supply of decent single and multi-family dwellings and increasing housing demand in New Jersey has raised the cost of existing housing out of the reach of many of its citizens.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association 

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Footnotes

1/

This paper has been condensed from a study on “Self-Help Housing in New Jersey,” by Daymon W. Thatch and Robert Bartels in 1972.

References

2/ Ideas and facts in first paragraph of the introduction are taken from William T. Cahill's “A Blueprint for Housing in New Jersey,” A Special Message to the New Jersey legislation, December 7, 1970.Google Scholar

3/ The Organization for Social and Technical Innovation, Inc. Self-Help Housing in the U.S.A., (Cambridge: Department of Housing and Urban Development Contract No. H-1057, June, 1969), p. 122. (The Organization for Social and Technical Innovation, Inc. is hereafter referred to as OSTI.)Google Scholar

4/ The other types of self-help techniques are : employed self-help, independent self-help, mutual self-help and organized self-help. See OSTI study pages 9 and 10 for a complete description of each.Google Scholar

5/ OSTI, Ibid., p. 9.Google Scholar

6/ Richard J. Margolis, Something to Build on (Washington, D. C.: International Self-Help Housing Associates and American Friends Service Committee, August, 1967).Google Scholar

7/ Southern and central regions were defined as the following N. J. counties. Southern: Atlantic, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester and Salem. Central: Burlington, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth and Ocean.Google Scholar

8/ See Robert Bartels’ master's thesis (in progress), Department of Agricultural Economics and Marketing, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N.J., Appendix D and Ε for questionnaire and architectural plans used.Google Scholar

9/ Al though the exact reasons for the regional differences are not known, several builders attributed the differences to more expensive construction needs, labor costs and institutional restraints.Google Scholar