Kansas. Dept. of Commerce & Housing.

In 1933 the Kansas State Board of Housing was created in order to study housing conditions, collect and distribute information relative to housing, and investigate the costs of construction. In 1949 this board was repealed, and no state housing agency existed again for many decades. In 1939 the Industrial Development Commission was created. The Governor designated a chairman and vice-chairman, and the commission appointed a director who served as secretary with general charge of the work of the Commission. It issued pamphlets encouraging the development of industry in the state of Kansas. This commission had its name changed in 1963 to the Kansas Economic Development Commission, and it oversaw the Department of Economic Development. By the beginning of the 1987 fiscal year (1 July 1986), the department changed its name to the Department of Commerce. In 1992 the Department of Commerce took on a Housing Division, and the agency remained as such until 2003 when the two divisions split into indepdendent agencies. Commerce once again became simply the Department of Commerce, and the Housing Division became the Kansas Housing Resources Corporation, a subsidiary of the Kansas Development Finance Authority. [Kansas Department of Commerce. "Our Mission." http://www.kansascommerce.com/IndexPages/AboutUsHome.aspx (accessed 3 November 2008).] [Wilder, Bessie. Governmental Agencies of the State of Kansas, 1861-1956. Lawrence: University of Kansas Publications, 1957.]