HOUSING IN THE CITY

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23411, 19 August 1941, Page 6

HOUSING IN THE CITY

“Appalling” Gases Quoted

WOMEN’S DEPUTATION TO CITY COUNCIL

A four-roomed house without a bath, with holes in the walls, and with two or three beds in every room but the kitchen, houses one Christchurch family of 11 at a weekly rental of 22s 6d, according to Major E. Smith, of the Salvation Army. A house so damp that moisture runs down the paperless walls, accommodating another family with three weakly children; a house leaning so markedly out of the perpendicular that the plaster has broken away from the walls; a single room in which dwell an entire family of seven, the five small children sleeping cross-wise in one of the two beds; a converted fowlhouse in a back yard occupied by a sick couple at a rental of 10s a week—these were other cases put forward by members of a deputation of the National Council of Women who waited on the Christchurch City Council last evening. An assurance that the council will give the City Inspector every assistance in improving housing conditions in the city was given by Cr. W. P. Glue, chairman of the housing and townplanning committee, after the deputation had referred to many cases of unsatisfactory living conditions, particularly in flats and apartment houses. ( "The last time we waited on the council we pleaded for the older people,” said Miss M. G. Havelaar, who introduced the deputation. “Since then the fame of your pensioners’ cottages has gone from Auckland to the Bluff. To-day we- plead for an improvement in the living conditions of the younger people.” She said many of the so-called flats and apartment houses were very unsatisfactory All the time houses were being subdivided into flats thdt were not good for the reputation of the city or the health of its people from the sanitary, moral, or any other point of view. The rents that were being asked for many of these places were a disgrace. ', , Closer Inspection Urged

Miss Havelaar said the council had'a set of rules, and regulations covering housing conditions which were intended to be incorporated in the by-laws. Unfortunately they had never been put iinto effect, and one of the deputation’s requests was that the council should take .steps to make them operative. The deputation also asked that a suggestion by Cr. T. Green be put into effect—that before any house is divided into flats a certificate of its fitness for the purpose should be required. The National Council of Women, too, urged an increase in the inspectorial staff and more frequent inspection. “No other city in New Zealand has such a wonderful inspector as Mr Huggins, but he needs more assistance,” she said. Overseas this work; was being carried out by women, and the speaker suggested a staff of women inspectors be trained by Mr Huggins. Major E. Smith, of the Salvation Army, described many .cases of bad housing conditions in the city; Christchurch, she said, was a beautiful city, but it had the same housing problems as other'towns. The housing scheme for elderly persons was a wonderful boon, but suitable homes were wanted for young people, for those with large families, and for returning soldiers and their families. The letting of rooms provided many shocking cases, said M[ajor Smith. “Appalled at Conditions”

“Our nurses see the insides of the poorer homes, and apartment houses in the city, and' they; have., been appalled at the conditions existing in- some,” declared Miss M. Qorkill, matron of the Nurse Maude District Nursing Association. In many houses there were no bathrooms or bnly one for many tenants. Many houses had been, condemned over the years, but the speaker; knew little could be done at the ;iprespnt time,. as there were no houses into -'which, the.ejected,tenants could be put. Often subtenants that nothing should be said about their living conditions because they could get no other houses. After the deputation had been heard the Mayor (M£ !E. H. Andrews) said the council had done quite a lot to mitigate the evil, but it was a mopt difficult problem, especially at the present time, when war conditions prevented much ' new housing ; construction. Big houses, because of the dwindling size of families, must inevitably be turned into flats, but every flat had to have a separate entrance and where there were more than four they must be in ■fireproof materials. The building by-laws had been held up pending the completion of the Standards Institute’s; model by-laws. He added that some of the cases mentioned would not be permitted under the present by-laws., The converted fowlhouse case, for instance, was definitely contrary t6 law. ' Cr. M. E. Lyons said some of the worst cases were just outside the city, and Mr, Andrews said he hoped the city’s town-planning scheme would be extended to cover the outer areas. Cr. Glue said that the City Inspector had prepared, a map embodying the results of the housing survey in 1937. Altogether 6285 inspections were made; 7 per cent, of these were cases of overcrowding and 4.1 per cent, were marked for demolition. The committee was investigating the position very carefully and intended to give the Chief City Inspector, every opportunity of making use of the information collected. The whole question was one of the byv-laws, and a moot point as to whether one of these was retrospective would be tested in a forthcoming case. -The committee had also written to. the Standards Institute and to the Minister for Housing.