HOMES FOR OLD AND NEEDY

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22108, 2 June 1937, Page 10

HOMES FOR OLD AND NEEDY

AUCKLAND COMMITTEE'S INVESTIGATION DATA .TO BE COLLECTED (PRESS ASSOCIATION TBLEOEAM.) AUCKLAND. June 1. The problem pt providing suitable accommodation for old-age pensioners and indigent people who cannot wholly support themselves is now being investigated by a committee which has been set up to review the position as it applies not only to the city area but to the more populous of the suburban districts. The City Council has already had before it plans for a block of flats for the accommodation of old-age pensioners, but it is realised that there are other classes of people who are unable to find suitable accommodation within their means, and that the problem is not confined to the inner parts of the city. A joint committee representative of the City Council, the Auckland Hospital Board, and suburban local bodies was set up to make inquiries. The first meeting of the committee was held to-day, when the Hospital Board was represented by its chairman (the Rev. W. C. Wood), the City Council by the Hon. F. E. Lark, M.L.C.. and Mr W. T. Anderton, M.P.. and suburban local bodies by the chairman of the Mount Ttosfcill Koad Board. Mr Anderton was appointed chair-1 man. I Mr Anderton said that the Hospital Board was now spending £12,000 a year in rent and assistance to people who could not v holly support themselves, and it should be possible to put this money to better use by some other method. The committee was not in possession of the necessary information about the conditions under which the people whom it was desired to assist were living. It was, therefore, necessary that this information should be gathered, particularly as it applied to old-age pensioners and indigent persons not entitled to a pension, but the inquiry should be extended to the position of single girls and older women who desired decent single-room accommodation, which al prpppnt they could not afford. The committee decided that steps should be taken to collect the desired information, and that a record of the sections owned by the various local authorities and suitatye for the provision of housing of the nature contemplated shou'd also be compiled. At the conclusion of Ihe meeting, Mr Anderton said it was honed that, with the knowledge it would acquire, the committee would be able to prepare a scheme suited to Auckland's needs.