The Mutual Ownership Defense Housing Division of the Federal Works Agency, an agency of the United States government, operating from about 1940 to 1942 under the leadership of Colonel Lawrence Westbrook, was an attempt by the United States Government, late in the New Deal, to respond to the housing needs facing defense workers and develop housing projects for middle-income families utilizing the cooperative/mutual housing ownership concept.[1] Under pressure by entrenched real estate interests and intense and competing resource needs caused by World War II, the Division lasted for only two years. As stated in the Second Annual Report of the Federal Works Agency:
"As a group, defense workers were also poor candidates for individual home ownership because the duration of their employment was uncertain, and because few of them had savings adequate to finance the downpayment on new homes. Recognizing these characteristics, attention was given early to some special form of housing to meet squarely the economic problem of the defense worker and one which, at the same time, might lead to an ultimate solution of the housing problems of millions of other American families of similar economic status."
Limited staffing resources within the Division also resulted in poor management practices, and a number of the projects were investigated for cost overruns and poor construction standards. Although only eight projects were ever built by the Division, all but one were eventually purchased from the government by their residents and continue to operate as mutual home corporations as of 2009. The Mutual Ownership Defense Housing Division projects can be considered a rare but important example of successful public housing within the United States.
During its very brief existence - from the autumn of 1940 to the winter of 1942 - the Mutual Ownership Defense Housing Division built the following eight projects.[2]
| Project | Location | Dwelling units |
Development cost |
Year purchased from government |
Current status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Audubon Park | Audubon Park, New Jersey | 500 | $2,321,000 | 1947 | Owned and maint. Audubon Mutual Housing Corp. |
| Avion Village | Grand Prairie, Texas | 300 | $920,000 | 1948 | Owned and maint. Avion Village Housing Corp. |
| Bellmawr Park | Bellmawr, New Jersey | 500 | $2,321,000 | 1953 | Owned and maint. Bellmawr Mutual Housing Corp. |
| Dallas Park | Dallas, Texas | 300 | $972,000 | 1948 | Mutual ownership corp. dissolved |
| Pennypack Woods | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | 1,000 | $4,367,000 | 1952 | Owned and maint. Pennypack Woods Home Ownership Assoc. |
| Greenmont Village | Kettering, Ohio | 500 | $2,385,000 | 1947 | Owned and maint. Greenmont Village Mutual Housing Corp. |
| Walnut Grove | South Bend, Indiana | 250 | $1,149,000 | 1947 | Owned and maint. Walnut Grove Mutual Housing Corp. |
| Winfield Park | Winfield Township, New Jersey | 700 | $3,704,000 | 1950 | Owned and maint. Winfield Park Mutual Housing Corp. |
Additional Mutual Ownership Defense Housing projects were planned but never built in Alcoa, Tennessee (250 units); Long Beach, California (600 units); Beaumont, Texas (600 units); Buffalo, New York (1,050 units); Coatesville, Pennsylvania (400 units).[3]