HOUSING THE PEOPLE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 5, 7 January 1938, Page 6

HOUSING THE PEOPLE.

\ | The figures quoted in the summary of ' housing conditions published yesterday are disturbing. There is a waiting list in Auckland for Government houses alone totalling two 1 1 thousand. The number is added to at the rate of four a day, and will be diminished by one daily through the year as State houses become available. But meantime the snowball process goes on, and there is no possibility of the Department of Housing, active as it is, stemming the avalanche. The Department, however, eannot let- the matter rest where it stands. Nobody expects it to cope with the situation from its own resources; no single authority could do that effectively, but it has a duty, in the stimulation of other sources of supply. The higher cost of building, added to the complete absence of any rights of ownership of. tenanted property, expressed so far as houses already let are concerned and implied in other cases, have combined to eliminate the speculative builder and the small property owner who built for rental, and thus two fruitful sources have been almost completely , blocked. The City Council is doing a little, [and the Department is offering liberal terms to j people building their own homes, but it is iplainly evident that there is no likelihood of jthe supply overtaking the demand within a reasonable time. It is not enough for the ! Department to use its resources to the extent; 'that it is to-day; it should also make effective j and adequately safeguard opportunities for ; | increased housing facilities by private enter- ! .prise, otherwise the position will rapidly go I [from bad to worse. J