ABSTRACT
In the 1960s, the federal housing administration (FHA) was given new worlds to conquer. FHA agreed to insure private loans to private developers. During construction, the loans would bear a market rate of interest. When construction was finished and FHA gave its stamp of approval, the interest rate would drop to approximately 3 percent. The FHA commissioner, Eugene Gulledge, was hauled before the cameras of "Sixty Minutes" and in an interview with mike wallace mauled before tens of million viewers. The tavern was only one of the 200 FHA-owned overappraised houses that were standing vacant in patterson. In the winter of 1971, the appraiser from the Newark FHA office was indicted for taking bribes for giving high appraisals. FHA standards had been developed to reflect the construction standards of newly built suburban homes and a clientele that was decidedly middle-income.
