Dear Editor

...As an additional incentive, public service grants could be made to each community on the basis of the number of families it has residing in Federally assisted housing...

...We have a stake in tomorrow...

...Fifth, the complete absence of income limitations on continued occupancy would encourage economic advancement and promote responsibility and leadership among tenants...

...For the heterosexual, love is the most prideful, expansive experience...

...If heterosexual sex were inherently so consciousness-raising, our society would not need all the inducements, ranging from locker-room braggadocio to Playboy Philosophy, to get us to copulate (not to mention perfumes and miniskirts on the women's part...

...For another, relationships of both types may emanate from personal weaknesses or strengths...

...But this gives him a particular vantage that has long typified artists, a combination of alienation and injury (or sense of injustice) facilitating critical observation...

...On the other hand, gay men may look younger because they try to in order to remain viable in the dating area...

...I suspect that a good number of homosexuals are so inclined, at least originally, not on the basis of self-affirming lust or esthetic exuberance, but rather in reaction to distorted impressions of the demands of manhood, which intimidate them...

...W. NYC...

...Most important, I believe that local communities outside the center city would be willing to take advantage of the program, since all of the housing built under it would pay full taxes...

...In other words, they become homosexual by default, out of a sense of inferiority, in much the same pattern as some animal species whose timid males, denied the opportunity to copulate, present themselves to dominant males for mounting as a sign of submission...

...Still, Simon discounts the fact that a beautiful blend of intimacy and impersonality (read mystery) is achieved by many homosexual relationships, making them equal or superior in rewards (if not in life-span) to excellent heterosexual relationships...

...The term "gay" is well chosen to the extent that it suggests being unfettered by the usual ties of social existence...

...Would that wishing-or believing-would make it so...

...After a certain number of years the amount could be reduced, and eventually eliminated, as these families are integrated into the community...

...decreased male hormones may in subtle ways affect appearance as well as temperament (greater passivity, for example), encouraging others to label the youth a sissy, to the point where he defines himself as such...

...Yet most basic life aspirations, such as sexual orientation and emulating the behavior of parents, are instilled in childhood...

...After all, society's job is to protect itself...

...Readers will be well advised to examine both his and my positions side by side and then make up their own minds on this important issue...

...NY, 10025...

...Applicants must pass IQ tests AND be tested for articulation, general knowledge, originality, and social viability...

...But when the homosexual responds to his similar desires for human closeness and all it brings, he is reminded of how despicable he is considered...

...Under no circumstances would the family pay more than the economic rent for the unit, nor would any family be forced to move because its income rose...

...Once past the uncertainties of adolescence, with homosexuality entrenched by self-definition or positive reinforcement, the homosexual can utilize his sex relationships to expand his sense of efficacy, his appreciation of life, and love of others, much as others do their heterosexuality...

...Understandably, the exasperating complexity of the problems of the poor leads legislators to focus on the most easily definable solutions, like the provision of more "standard" housing...

...It is only fair that the national tax base be tapped to cover the expenses this suburb will incur in housing these families...

...4. It does offer significant opportunities for increased public ownership and management of "social housing" through local authorities and other government agencies...

...Second, it is a national program for everyone in need of housing...

...For one thing, the heterosexual-homosexual dichotomy is simply too broad to be meaningful...

...There has not been sufficient thought, time and effort devoted to the crucial issues of developing housing to fit the human needs of its residents...

...Baltimore Helena Hicks Director, Resident Family Services, Department of Housing and Community Development, City of Baltimore A HIGH IQ group is being formed in NYC...

...No viable, or even hopeful, options for meeting America's housing challenge are put forth...

...And since homosexuals do not reproduce, it is basically a self-limiting, aberrant (which does not mean sick) phenomenon...

...Yet the truth is, for reasons I will soon take up, most of them do not...

...Researchers have recently discovered differences in male hormone levels between homosexual and heterosexual men (not confirmed by some other researchers, though different blood-analysis techniques may account for this) that might explain differences in appearance...

...This incentive grant, and the payment of full local real estate taxes, are justifiable national expenditures...

...That some homosexuals can manage to fortify their self-esteem via homosexual sex despite the shame imposed on them by society bespeaks an enormous health of spirit...

...If the sponsor was a public agency or body, it could issue its own bonds, to be paid off by the income received from rents after deducting operating costs, backed by a Federal guarantee to cover the deficits...

...Since children are necessarily born into a heterosexual situation, or at least to a mother who values heterosexuality, this mode of mating is likely to predominate...

...As Starr has so accurately noted, "the first reality of housing" is that "it is extremely expensive...

...Not only would this provide local governments with needed revenue, it would also minimize local opposition to the construction of such projects...

...The issue cannot be settled by fiat...

...Washington, D.C...

...Accordingly, the first homosexual activist society was called Mattachine, after the court jesters who with seeming unseriousness accurately mocked the foibles of the royalty...

...Others, however, feel equally ennobled by homosexual love...

...I do not suggest that all homosexuals are in as good shape mentally as heterosexuals (though psychological tests have found homosexuals not in therapy indistinguishable from heterosexuals), nor do I contend that homosexual relationships are generally as gratifying as heterosexual ones...

...Unlike animals, though, humans can build richly on all sorts of adverse circumstances...

...It would therefore act as an inducement to achieve our national housing goals...

...The Federal government would establish a single minimum-but not maximum-construction standard for the entire program, and regulate costs in accordance with current regional cost indices...

...If more money were directed toward the human factor, the results should far outweigh the expenditures and the American dream of decent housing for all citizens would be brought much closer to reality...

...Housing Challenge As always, Roger Starr has done a masterful job of organizing and analyzing, in an extremely understandable fashion, the myriad and contradictory problems-economic, social and political-that make the development and ownership of "social housing" (i.e., housing for people of low and moderate incomes) a seemingly impossible task ("America's Housing Challenge," NL, September 30...

...But I do believe that this proposal, with a single variable housing subsidy, full real estate taxes, and community public service grants, could relieve the pressures in our inner cities, open opportunities in the suburbs to our low- and moderate-income residents, and allow our housing programs to reflect the needs and conditions of our local communities...

...Local housing authorities, municipalities, states, regional organizations, nonprofits, cooperatives, and limited-dividend corporations would be eligible to underwrite such projects...

...Playing the same essentially meaningless game, one bent on demeaning love could call a man's heterosexuality an expression of an infantile, escapist wish for the haven of mother-infant love...

...Indeed, public housing has been unsuccessful largely because the lack of funds has precluded adequate social services for low-income people...

...Man-woman sex relations can be a drab and inconsequential aspect of life, providing no more than a momentary twinge of pleasure and tranquilization, rather than heroic intimacy...

...In transient homosexual contacts there is only silence, for each knows this is not really what he wants at all...

...Ultimately it would result in the de-ghettoization of our cities...

...2. It does mandate a strong linkage between local community development and housing programs, and a coordinated effort to improve housing conditions and opportunities as part of the total urban environment...

...Now it remains for the next session of the Congress-with the moral commitment that I believe it demonstrated in the overwhelming passage of the 1974 Housing Act -to go back to the drawing boards, get rid of the present hodgepodge of confusing and conflicting legislation that has built up over the years, and put together a single, comprehensive national program for those who cannot afford safe and decent housing at market rents, with a variable subsidy based on each family's need and ability to pay...

...6. It does increase the viability of the Section 236 rental housing program by authorizing additional Federal operating assistance to meet increasing taxes and utility costs...

...Simon picks up on the old psychoanalytic saw that homosexuality represents infantile narcissism and a reaching for an idealized version of oneself...

...Moreover, the xenophobia that Simon denies as a personal motivation is nonetheless strong in most of the rest of us and in our mores, so that despite Gay Lib, the efforts of psychiatrists, or our usual concern for individual liberty, broad-scale proselytizing for homosexuality will not be allowed...

...For a moment, let's look at the advantages of this proposal: First, it can serve all income groups from the poorest to the middle-income bracket who cannot afford the rents being charged in the community...

...They often color their hair, use sun lamps, take better care of their teeth, shave more frequently, and use subtle makeups...

...in most cases the costs are and must be higher...

...And I believe that heterosexual love is enriched by the multi-leveled intimacy attained in stable relationships...

...Yet the actual subsidy given to these families would be determined by their respective needs rather than the vagaries of a particular program...

...For the past 37 years American housing has been marked by experimentation and disappointment...

...To say there are no simple solutions is the understatement of the century...

...Particularly when coupled with a series of recent negative statements from hud Secretary Lynn regarding utilization of the new production-subsidy programs (Sections 235 and 236) retained in the Housing and Community Development Act, I am compelled to agree that "taken in its entirety the 1974 Act offers little hope of a forceful institutional push for housing...

...The result would be a universality of product that would gradually reduce the identification and stigma associated with subsidized housing...

...Most states have discovered that these so-called "salvation" programs-stopgap measures usually designed to last through a brief national financial crisis-do not begin to solve the real problems...

...Yet the new Housing and Community Development Act perpetuates past errors by failing to address such matters as density, racial balance, income mix, and the cultivation of acceptable social values among poor tenants...

...Precisely because of the stigma...

...Yet, despite the abundant evidence he presents of the impossibility of the task and the monumental character of his own frustrations as New York City's Housing and Development Administrator, Starr strongly implies that, with the proper moral commitment, the job can and will be done-because it must be done...

...This is essentially the existing public housing formula that has worked so well for more than 30 years...

...The Federally assisted project built in a California suburb may house families from Alabama, New York, Iowa, and Hawaii...

...There is small redemption in being accepted by another who is equally despised...

...Much homosexuality is sordid, occurring between strangers in public lavatories and in brief interludes on a first- or fictitious-name basis with almost no conversation...

...Unfortunately, except for a few not-so-oblique references to the desirability, and perhaps even necessity, of a full-blown return to public ownership of social housing, the conclusions of Starr's analysis do not live up to the title of his otherwise outstanding essay...

...He is an outcast, not participating in and not caring about sewer bills, Watergate, Vietnam and the other woes that wear heavily on the rest of us, perhaps in large part out of concern for the world we are handing our children over to...

...It would merely pay the economic rent and no longer receive a subsidy...

...As in the Section 8 program, the Federal subsidy would not be limited to mortgage interest, or even to debt service, but would cover the difference between net income received from a project and that required to pay its financing, management, taxes, and operating costs...

...Firmly, indeed...

...For the rest, his useful letter mostly expands some of my points, or focuses on details that I skimmed over...

...Alternatively, one's attitudes, emotions and lifestyle may influence hormone levels, which in turn affect appearance-specifically, less male hormones and more female hormones (both present in each sex, in different proportions) can create a prolonged youthful appearance...

...Someone more benignly disposed could as easily interpret such mating in terms of "self-actualization," or a man's questing to transcend his limitations by merging with another (as in a heterosexual's reference to his wife as "my better half...

...While homosexuality is not demonstrably sick, it is heretical...

...What we need is a broader approach that looks first at the few successes in housing around the country and is flexible enough to allow these programs to continue, while encouraging new, experimental initiatives...

...the patterns of migration and the goal of de-ghettoization of our central cities require it...

...Further, they feel no particular pain...

...With certain exceptions, a family at the lowest end of the income scale would pay a greater absolute amount of rent as its earning increased, but the ratio would be smaller...

...And I believe that the Congress and the American people may be ready for such an effort...

...But the undeniable fact is that many homosexuals seem to fulfill Freud's shorthand criteria of mental health-they love and work well...

...A private group could obtain either a private mortgage or a development loan from the Federal government, and this too would be paid by tenants' rents-less operating costs and taxes-and an annual Federal deficit subsidy...

...For the sake of perspective, we should acknowledge that probably in the majority of cases heterosexuality is neither a "badge of courage" nor a testament to the life force, but simply the uninspired product of social programming...

...Then why is so much homosexual sex debasing...

...Indeed, both their youthful appearance and their involvement in the arts may be explained by their exclusion from many of the concerns of heterosexual men...

...Fourth, the program will be attractive to the middle class who, during a housing-cost crisis such as we are now experiencing, would be eligible for these units and receive a modest initial subsidy...

...While Kinsey and other sociologists deny the ability to distinguish most homosexual men visually, I've often shared Simon's certainty that I could...

...They do not "let themselves go" as housewives are said to, and they do not suffer the wear and tear of raising families...

...Similarly, communities would establish rent-income ratios consistent with current local ratios and adequate living standards for families of various sizes and circumstances...

...Meanwhile, the Federal government has gone full circle from totally controlling housing programs to delegating all power to the states...

...Albert A. Walsh, President, National Realty Committee, Inc...

...Robbed of pride, children, social acceptance, and legal ties to another human being, and saddled with the most uncertain of futures, he finds his every anxiety translated into a sexual desire, much as every fleeting need of an obese person finds a temporary answer in the ice box...

...Write to Trapez, 444 Cen...

...and it is functional for society to define it as sick in order to harness sex in the service of marriage, childrearing, romanticism in life, art, and our other cherished institutions...

...Another critical concern of Simon's, which I share, is the impact that the "normalization" of homosexuality is having on our culture...

...New York City Leonard Gross Editor, "Sexual Behavior" John Simon replies: Leonard Gross and I seem to have one basic disagreement, and I am glad that he has stated his case as well as he has...

...Thus, the free-floating, "gay" citizen thinks, echoing the childhood ditty, that the world is made for fun and frolic...

...Sixth, the program would foster economic and racial integration, since the units would not be limited to a small income range...

...Under such a program, combining the best features of the old Section 236 with the new Section 8. various types of sponsorship and financing would be possible...

...nor would we need stiff matrimonial laws to keep us in Simon's depicted heterosexual bliss...

...This would be the only eligibility requirement...

...I do not present this proposal as a total solution to all of the problems raised in Starr's excellent study, and notwithstanding the savings that could be achieved through the use of a variable subsidy, it certainly would not be cheap...

...Third, its basic simplicity and lack of cumbersome requirements should make it attractive to local sponsors and to builders and developers...

...Our present schemes, with their income and population gaps, would be replaced by a single plan whose sole eligibility requirement would be economic need and the unavailability of reasonably priced housing in the community...

...Simon makes an interesting observation about the physical distinctness of homosexual men, particularly middle-aged ones...

...These would not be passed on to the low-income family, but would be absorbed by the Federal government as part of its subsidy...

...Nonetheless, I believe that the 1974 Housing Act, while admittedly a patchwork compromise document, does constitute an important legislative first step toward the kind of comprehensive and rational national housing program that is necessary and capable of working: 1. It does provide a relatively well-funded community development program based on achievement of the national priority objective that Federal assistance be used (a) to eliminate slums and blight, and (b) to assist low- and moderate-income families, rather than serving as merely a broad-ranged public works program aimed at whatever objective might be the political option of the locality...

...Being free of the disspiriting burdens of shared finances, house maintenance, orthodontia and tuition bills, the emotional demands of children and inlaws, plus the sheer numbing effect of constant contact in nonerotic if not downright unpleasant circumstances, homosexuals are better situated to enjoy idyllic relationships...

...Nonetheless, this is a very tricky area...

...he is concerned about now...

...I would add, the second is that there is no cut-rate mechanism available to house the poor...

...5. It does provide for improved management operations in traditional public housing through an increased level of operating subsidies, a minimum rent provision, a welfare rent provision, a modernization program, and a method to deal with obsolete housing development...

...The lack of red tape, of countless reviews and needless administrative requirements, should also result in quicker production...

...I am also compelled to note that the Administration's Emergency Home Purchase Act of 1974, signed into law by the President on October 18, has only a limited impact at the top of the single-family home market and does not provide any relief for multifamily apartment projects...

...For example, if the Federal government established a $100 per family grant, and the local community completed a 300-unit project, the city would receive $30,000 annually in compensation for the additional public services it would be required to perform as a result of this population...

...3. It does focus strongly on physical development activity with a supporting social component instead of "software," for which other Federal assistance is available...

...Based on our experience to date with various rent supplement programs, I am confident that the average cost per family would be far below the present public housing subsidy level...

...But it is the elimination of poverty that holds the key to solving the housing dilemma, and not the other way around...

...Briefly, what is known is that female hormones or an absence of male hormones during gestation or shortly after birth might in some ways feminize a male child, both behaviorally and in physical appearance...

...In terms of cultivating a terrific sexual relationship, homosexuals may even have an edge on the rest of us...

...Localities, with the approval of hud, would establish initial income-eligibility maximums based on housing conditions in the community...