The United States Congress passed and President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the legislation on August 10, 1965.
[1] Johnson called it "the single most important breakthrough" in federal housing policy since the 1920s.
[1] The legislation greatly expanded funding for existing federal housing programs, and added new programs to provide rent subsidies for the elderly and disabled; housing rehabilitation grants to poor homeowners; provisions for veterans to make very low down-payments to obtain mortgages; new authority for families qualifying for public housing to be placed in empty private housing (along with subsidies to landlords); and matching grants to localities for the construction of water and sewer facilities, construction of community centers in low-income areas, and urban beautification.
[1][2] Four weeks later, on September 9, President Johnson signed legislation establishing the Department of Housing and Urban Development (Pub.
[3] This United States federal legislation article is a stub.