l6o FLIGHT FROM THE CITY 



is fifteen miles from the center of the city. Within this 

 limit, the homesteaders will be able to move back and forth 

 between their homes, and work, schools, theaters and stores 

 in the city, with comparative ease. 



This expansion of the program for this year is being 

 based mainly upon the co-operation of some of the city's 

 largest industrial and commercial enterprises which will 

 aid in the selection of the families and in spreading work 

 so as to furnish some employment to families which but for 

 homesteading would be forced upon public relief. Some of 

 the families included in the first unit have already been on 

 relief, and will be taken entirely off relief as a result of this 

 cooperation. Living conditions for the homesteading fami- 

 lies will be improved at the same time that the burden upon 

 the community for relief is reduced. 



The financial plan upon which the First Homestead 

 Unit is being established, and which will be followed with 

 all subsequent units, begins with a loan by the Unit Com- 

 mittee of the Council of Social Agencies, which is for all 

 practical purposes in this connection a mortgage-loan 

 bank, to the First Homestead Unit for the purchase of 

 the land and farm buildings, the community machinery 

 and road materials. This loan is to be repaid to the com- 

 mittee over a period of fifteen years. The original farm 

 buildings on each tract purchased, which will usually be 

 farms of about 160 acres each, are to be converted by the 

 homesteaders into community buildings. After the com- 

 munity loan, individual loans are made to each family for 

 the building materials, machinery, livestock and other 

 equipment, and supplies needed for the building of their 

 homes, barns, and workshops, and for the operation of the 



