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Show Basement Homes Solve Crisis (This it tht tetond in a uri$ of ttoritt tbowimg bow Amtrican ; null j btlpt J solvt Amtrica's prob Urn lb GJ.'i No. 1 btadacbt bout- tmg.) "Children in Orphanage Because of Housing Shortage" that was the headline on a story in the St Cloud, Minn., Times a story that went on 1o say: "Three applications were 'made this week by parents seeking admission for their children In the St Cloud Orphan's home. The parents par-ents were unable to rent or buy living quarters. Rev. Jerome Biele-Jeskl, Biele-Jeskl, in charge of the home, said: This institution is oo place for child with a mother and father who can provide a home for him. Our principal objective Is to care for dependent de-pendent and neglected children and orphans. These children have not been neglected except by society." soci-ety." " That was two years ago. It stirred the people of St Cloud. They set up "" rm"rt",nfV figuring """"nlttfe? whose flrst action was to print a blank form to be filled out by people who needed homes. Within a few days. 300 families had registered nearly 1.000 people with no place to live. To take care of the most urgent cases, the town (population 28,000) obtained 100 trailers and set up two camps. Then It turned to the houses which were being built very slowly because of the lack of material, particularly par-ticularly lumber. Also these houses cost more than most returning vets could pay. - There is a concrete block plant in St. Cloud. "Why," Mayor Murphy asksd himself, "can't we make use of that? Isn't there some kind of house we can build using concrete? . . . Why not basement houses?" St. Cloud had used basement houses before in the depression days of the early '30s, when people who couldn't afford to build complete com-plete houses built basements with the hope of completing the structure later. The mayor agreed to underwrite the construction of the first five basement houses In October. 1945, Today there are 173 of them In St. Cloud. The basements are approximately 14 feet by 30 feet, with concrete block or poured concrete walls, rising ris-ing approximately two fret above the ground Each basement Is divided di-vided Into two bedrooms, a living room and dinette, with a kitchen in one corner, and a bnth. Some roofs have a small rise, others are flat, with tarpnprr laid over what will tome day be the floor nf h-mses. The cost is $2,600, and the buyers agree to build the rest of the house within three years, it possible. One of the flrst G.I.s to move into a basement home was Cliff Can-field. Can-field. Cliff was 20 months in the Infantry in the South Pacific, made two landings on Luzon and went Into In-to Japan with MacArthur'a troops. When he first got a job In St Cloud with a department store, his wife, Sarah, and daughter, Karen lived with her folks in a town In the northern part of the state. Others In the community followed the lead of Mayor Murphy. Among them were young Don Strack, who returned from the army late in 1945. Before the war, Don had worked with his father, who Is a contractor. Don wanted to build houses for his pals, back from the army, and so he started constructing basements. He says that construction time is about three to four weeks, not counting delays for materials. Strack incompleted 12 basement houses and has several under construction now. Other people In the community have built basement houses for sale or rent to veterans. Among them is Ralph Borrowman, city engineer. And some vets have started to build their own homesl George Schuler, former sergeant who spent 23 months In the European theater, is one who Is building his own basement base-ment home. A local church also Is being built like basement homes. Redeemer Lutheran church has built a basement, base-ment, which has two white crosses rising above the hatchways now used for entrances. |