This historical publication features a speech delivered at the 12th annual meeting of The National Public Housing Conference in Pittsburgh, PA, on February 19, 1943. The conference was founded in 1931 to promote slum clearance and low-rent public housing, but expanded its role to include the need for adequate war housing during World War II. The speaker focuses on the need to plan for the end of the war, when they predicted an economic slump that could lead to mass unemployment throughout the U.S.A. To counter this potentiality, they argue for five responsibilities:

1. The preparation and promotion of a realistic housing program, on both a local and national scale, based on an honest analysis of the housing market in terms of need, cost, and the capacity to pay.
2. To explain why a universal housing market, reaching all income groups, is essential, and to promote measures to facilitate it.
3. To defend and also improve the public housing mechanism.
4. To represent, clearly and positively, the broad public interest in the formulation of urban redevelopment policies.
5. The local authorities and public housers must decide whether they’ll take on a bigger job or hang on desperately to a smaller one.

This report is part of the collection of scanned historical documents available to the public.