Series consists of central registry files established after 1950 when, as a consequence of revisions to the National Housing Act in 1949, the Central Mortgage and Housing Corporation under the aegis of the Federal Minister of Housing was granted permission to enter into agreements with the provinces for the provision of housing (Section 31A). Prior to this time, the Mortgage Administration and Property Division of the CMHC was solely responsible for the administration of Corporation mortgages, agreements for sale, rental guarantee contracts, and operating agreements with limited dividend and primary industry borrowers. To cope with these new provincial demands, arrangements were made early in 1950 to decentralize both approvals and processing to the regional offices. Taken individually, these changes were largely the product of such external factors as the postwar "baby-boom", a rapid growth in urban population and an expansion of incomes after the war. Considered overall, they reflected the Corporation's increasing civilian orientation in housing policy.
The files in this series are divided according to the multifarious functions of the Corporation's Mortgage Administration and Property Division between the years 1950 and 1964 and according to the various sections and sub-sections of the National Housing Act. As a result, file blocks appear under such designated headings as Direct Loans - Section 31A, Policy and Procedure, or Limited Dividend Loans - Section 9. Many files dealing primarily with pre-1950 policy and procedural matters were brought forward into this new registry series in the early 1950's. At this point, the old system of sequentially numbered duplex filing was abandoned in favour of a new primary, secondary, and tertiary number subject-block filing system.
Within this system, each primary, secondary and tertiary number represents a subject or location arranged hierarchically from primary to tertiary number with the composite file number (112-1-17-32-1), for example, representing a progression from a broad, general function, to a more specific one, to region, and finally, to urban centre. For the most part, the files proceed sequentially.
The files in RG56 volumes 50 to 56 of this series cover such administrative functions or areas of jurisdiction as Direct Housing Rental Loans, mortgage funds for rental purposes, loans to limited dividend companies under Section 9 of the National Housing Act, eligibility for direct loans, and Corporate Loan Policy. As a whole, they provide a national and regional cross-section of CMHC housing policy.
RG56 volume 11 contains files relating to Home Extension Loans, Policy and Procedure, Loans (1942 to 1954) while R1197 volume 175 contains one file relating to the activities of the Maritime Rural Housing Committee (1947-1953, 1963) which operated from the maritime regional office of CMHC as well as two files relating to the activities of the Emergency Shelter Administration (1944-1946) which sought to allocate living quarters after the second World War. The responsibility for emergency shelter administration, established under the War Measures Act was transferred to CMHC, 28 December 1945.
