In appointing Hubert T. Delany to lead a commission studying New York's low-rent public housing programs, Governor Rockefeller has acted with political intelligence and courage.

Delany, a former justice of the City's Domestic Relations Court, is director of the NAACP, and long been identified with the liberal wing of New York politics. In the waning days of McCarthyism, Mayor Wagner accused him of "leftist views," and refused to reappoint him to defend Delany at the time of his dismissal, the present appointment clearly involves a risk that one does not expect presidential aspirants to take.

The housing commission probably will issue a special report at the next session of the Legislature, dealing with one of New York's major problems: the racial segregation that is a corollary of income segregation in urban housing guarantees a sharp critique, not a lame survey, of existing programs.