By BOB COLE Mayor Tom Miller's Emergency Housing Committee is scheduled to m eet early next week to discuss 3,700 applications made by vet erans who are in need of rental homes or homes which they are ready to build. M i i I i I I . . _______r . r Bul Few Homes Legality Protects Commercial Jobs Considerable talk has been raised in University and Austin circles lately concerning the amount of commercial building that has been going on in the city. Figures show that only 18 per cent o f the more

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... han twelve mil lion dollars o f construction okayed for Austin has been assigned to commercial groups. Yet, the talk persists. Recent commercial buildings completed include the Firm Found ation Building, H. M. (letting Fur niture Store, and the soon to be completed Steck Building and the Calcasieu Lumber Company build ing. ★ According to Frank Campbell, Austin representative for NHA, these buildings have the go-ahead signal from the federal agencies as a result o f a legal loophole in the March 26 restriction law. March 26, 1946, Congress signed the Veterans Em ergency Housing Bill which prohibited the construction o f commercial build ing except that which had been begun before that date. All A us tin commercial builders who had started construction before March 26 were allowed to complete their jobs. September IO, scarce building materials were frozen by the NHA and Wilson W yatt, housing expe diter. Bathtubs, scarce for some time, are issued only on rated or ders, ninety-five per cent o f which are assigned to builders who agree to construct homes for sale or rent to veterans or to veterans who wish to build their own homes. Other scarce items issued on rat ed orders include plumbing fix tures, kitchen sinks, water clo sets, hardwood, linoleum, and bu tane systems. Mr. Campbell said that he knew veterans would be glad to hear that cook stoves were now available with an HH prior ity (rated order) which veterans may present to manufacturers for consideration. Early in the year, when the Emergency Housing Committee was organized, Mayor Miller urged veterans to make applications for needed housing. At that time ap proximately 640 veterans regis tered in a four-day period. Chairman of the American V et erans Committee drive on campus, Mel Webber organized a squad of AVO members to round up enough veteran housing applications to bring the total number of those filing to approximately 3,700. These were given to C.. H, Owens, executive secretary of the Mayor's Em ergency Housing Com mittee, who has been compiling figures from them all week. They are to be read at the coming m eet ing of the committee to be called by Rex Kitchens, chairman. Breakdowns have been made by Mr. Owens which show the num ber of veterans in need of rental homes. Also shown are the amount of veterans who want to construct homes of their own. Figures re leased by the National Housing Authority, of which Wilson W yatt is expediter, show that the na tional average for veterans who need rental housing is 89 per cent. The remainder have shown a de sire to build homes at their own expense. In Austin, for the January-August period of this year, 2,923 building permits have been granted by the city, totaling $12,-557,591. Of this relatively large figure, 2,492 permits worth $10,-303,239 were given for residential and apartment additions, altera tions, and repairs. Four hundred and thirty-one building permits were issued at a total of $2,254,352 for commer cial buildings, additions, altera tions, and repairs. This figure rep resents 22 per cent of the total number of building permits granted. Eighteen per cent of the amount of evaluation placed on the 2,932 city-granted permits was for commercial purposes. These figures come from the office of J. C. Eckert, building in spector, who states that Austin ranks fifth in Texas for evalua tion of building permits granted. See CITY, Page 12 --Canterbury Clubs, Gregg House and All Saints' Chapel.