HOUSE PROBLEM IN AUCKLAND

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24983, 18 September 1946, Page 8

HOUSE PROBLEM IN AUCKLAND

ABOUT 6000 UNFIT FOR HABITATION MANY BOARDING HOUSES OF LOW STANDARD (Special Correspondent N.Z.PA.) AUCKLAND, September 17. About 6000 Auckland houses were partially or totally unfit for human habitation, and a large number of boarding and apartment houses were providing accommodation of low standard, said Dr. R. G. McElroy, a member of the Auckland City Council, in an address. The council had assisted 1500 persons with temporary accommodation in transit camps, and efforts were being made to help another 10,000 living in slum conditions in “multi-family dwellings.” Special building loans had been advanced by the council to another 75 families. “From surveys throughout New Zealand we are satisfied that the housing problem cannot be overcome in less than 10 years,” said Dr. McElroy. “When the Prime Minister (the Rt Hon. P. Fraser) said in Auckland recently that the Government would overtake the housing shortage in three years he was simply playing politics with a desperate community problem.” A survey made eight years ago had shown that 3000 houses were totally or partially unfit for habitation, and these figures could now be doubled. The council realised that the best solution was to compel the repair of those buildings which were only partially unfit. It became necessary to define a standard of fitness, and it was then that the notorious by-law 38 was passed, said Dr. McElroy. Inspectors required power to go into these houses, but this met with opposition. “That power was deleted as far as ordinary houses are concerned, but it will have to be reinstated shortly,” he said.

Details were given of a survey of apartment and boarding houses which was proceeding. The survey to date had shown that more than 9000 people were living in such places. Already 556 apartment houses had been examined. Housing 6176 persons, these contained 938 self-contained units and 2432 non-conforming or sub-standard units deficient in baths, bathrooms, and sanitary facilities. In one apartment house containing 26 apartments, and housing 16 men and 25 women, there were only three water closets, three baths, and not any washbasins. There were not any self-contained units in this building, and three communal kitchens served all the tenants. Two hundred boarding houses, containing a total of 2623 bedrooms and housing 3190 pebple, had also been inspected. One boarding house with 19 bedrooms and accommodation for a maximum of 30 persons had only one bath, two water closets, and four washbasins. Auckland multi-family dwellings needed the installation of 4000 more sanitary conveniences. "We have to go slow because of the difficulties in getting materials and. permits. We are doing all that we can, especially for the 10,000 worsthoused people who have no means of redress,” said Dr. McElroy. “Transit housing camps provided by the Auckland City Council have given accommodation to 1463 persons, of whom 782 were children. We were promised that _ State houses would be found within a lew months for each set of tenants we took into our transit houses, but that undertaking has not been fulfilled, and the Government is unable to do so at the rate of its present building programme. Some of these people have been in transit camps for 12 months ”