WHERE TO GO?

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 166, 16 July 1941, Page 5

WHERE TO GO?

forlorn campers

housing dilemma

WESTERN SPRINGS PROBLEM

"We held a meeting last night and' Decided that as there was nothing for Us to do, we would just have to stay here until the matter was taken to Court."

The speaker was a man living at Western Springs motor camp. He, like over a dozen others, had received notice to leave the camp as «e had overstayed the period during which he was allowed to remain there.

The notices arrived yesterday, and! to many of the recipients they came »s a blow. Most of them had no! esire to stay at the camp, which atj est is a miserable enough place inj the depths of winter. In fact nearly ® 1 of them, when a visit was paid to tsv,t st - err s Springs this morning, emphasised that their greatest wish at; P l 6 moment was to leave and shift to more comfortable quarters.

But what are we to do?"

JV.JJ? 1 ? w as the question which met Rtnfi/i lr lu^ lr * es - Most of the campers u-oo * . m uch of their spare time montv. up during the last few • flat m trying to flnd a house or

ev«*v husband takes the paper thfX,, Sat .H rda y and follows up all to* Once of twice ownpr V f e near, y got a flat until the sairt /Tn£ oun lhat We had a kiddie." B J vor P an who was living with tai-avlh 22 and in a small She added that they had J or a State house, but although been living at the camp b«en ££ bruar . v they had not as yet •wen accommodated.

Five in Small Tent

Many others are in a similar position. In one case a family of flvej was found living in a leaky tent about ten feet square.

"Do you think I would want to live here unless I had to?" asked J the owner. "I was transferred to Auckland and when I arrived I could not find a house. I couldn't afford to pay board for all of us and so I put in for a State house. I visit the Department about three times a week, but there has been nothing doing. On one occasion I was told that it was my boss' responsibility to provide me with a house, seeing I had been transferred. What can he do?"

The eldest in this man's family! was seven. Through constant rain his tent had lost its waterproofing and was leakjng badly. He and his wife and three children were all sleeping on three small beds set up ion waterlogged ground.

A complicated system of tarpaulins had been set up above each bed to keep the rain from falling on the sleepers. There was hardly room to stand upright in the tent, with washing hanging to dry on. lines slung from corner to corner. Water formed in pools in the tarpaulins over the beds so that an unwary sleeper waking suddenly and sitting up was likely to precipitate a deluge on himself or the others. Under camp regulations no flooring could be laid down on the lank, damp grass.

"The kiddies often wake up in the morning crying with the cold," said his wife. "It is hard on them to be (kept ins>de the tent all day, but when it's raining and wet outside :there is nothing else to do."

The occupants of this tent had been washed out three times since they had arrived. On one occasion, said the husband, he and his wife left the children sleeping in the tent for an hour or so, and returned to find mattresses floating in the stormwater. At that time they were sleeping on the ground.

It seemed an ironic stroke of fortune to many that after they had! been trying to get out of the camp for so long they should receive notice to quit. Most were bitter about the attitude of the City Council, and were also disappointed that the Government had not granted them State houses. , , _ | "I saw a member of the City: Council," said one man, "and was told I would definitely have to quit.

I asked where we were to go and | the answer was that that was no i concern of the council. State hous- j ling officials have been out here, i IThey have seen how we are living j and agree that we need a house. But nothing has been done for us. We [have just had to stand by and watch lothers better placed than ourselves moving into new houses.

"There are camps at Papatoetoe and at Takapuna. The one at Papatoetoe is not large enough to hold all of us and Takapuna is not in a very handy position for those of us who have to go to work. In any case we would probably not be allowed to stay there for any length [of time either.

"I pointed this out to the council member and said that we could only park our caravans in the streets and live in them there. The answer was that we would have to keep off the streets. Where can we go, then?"

There were some families, however, who had .been living- in the camp for some time and were not anxious to leave. These people had made their residences more or less permanent and were living as they were for a variety of reasons. Some did not even possess a car to tow their caravan should they wish to move.

Such cases, however, were in the minority. The majority stated that they were only too willing to leave and would do so as soon as circumI stances permitted — or strong 'measures were taken to put them out.