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A gratifying beginning had meanwhile been made by the New Deal in the field of slum clearance. With a view to speeding both recovery and better housing, Roosevelt set up the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) as early as 1934, under authority granted by
Congress. The building industry was to be stimulated by small loans to householders for improving their homes or completing new ones. The FHA proved so popular that it was one of the few "alphabetical agencies" to outlast the Age of Roosevelt.
Incomparably more important than their achievements in housing was the success of the New Dealers in the field of unemployment insurance and old-age pensions. Their greatest victory was the epochal Social Security Act of 1935-one of the most complicated and far-reaching laws ever to pass Congress. It cushioned future depressions, providing measures for federal-state unemployment insurance. To provide security for old age, specified categories of retired workers were to receive regular payments from Washington, ranging from $10 to $85 a month, and financed by a payroll tax on both employers and employees. Provision was also made for the blind, cripples, delinquent children, and other dependents.
The Social Security Act was largely inspired by the example of some of the more highly industrialized nations of Europe. In the agricultural America of an earlier day, there had always been farm chores for all ages, and the large family had cared for its own dependents. But in an urbanized America, at the mercy of boom-and-bust cycles, the government was recognizing its responsibility for the welfare of its citizens. By 1939 over 45,000,000 persons were eligible for social-security benefits, and in subsequent years further categories of workers were added and the payments to them were increased.
