CITY COUNCIL HOUSING

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26524, 12 September 1951, Page 3

CITY COUNCIL HOUSING

TRANSIT SETTLEMENT AT HAREWOOD

LARGE WAITING LIST FOR FLATS

After more than five years several hundred people are still waiting for accommodation in the City Council’s transit settlement at Harewood. Since the settlement was established to accommodate cases of housing hardship there has always been a waiting bst of prospective tenants and flats nave been empty only • while one tenant moves out and another moves in.

There are now 134 families or nearly 600 people living at Harewood. All the families have applied to go there because of housing hardship. Some have been living under overcrowded conditions or in caravans and camping grounds. Others have been living unhappily with relations or m some cases in quarters not fit for occupation. In the latter cases the City Council takes steps to ensure that the premises are not occupied again. Since the Harewood settlement was established several hundred families have passed through it. Tenants’ length of stay depends on the date they applied for a State house. Nearly all the present tenants are waiting for State houses, but one or two are building their own homes. Some tenants have moved out of the settlement in a short time, but others have had to stay there more than three years. In a few very exceptional cases tenants have remained there longer. Although people ask for accommodation at Harewood because of hardship the City Council has had to evict one or two tenants for nonpayment of rent, but in general the tenants keep their rent payments up-to-date.

There are 103 two-bedroom flats in the Harewood settlement, 12 with one bedroom, 18 with three bedrooms, and one with four bedrooms. The settlement is almost self-contained for it has a grocer’s shop, a butcher’s shop, a greengrocer’s shoo and dairy, and a milk vendor calling. There is a /bhapel, a school with 80 to 100 pupils, and a swimming pool for the use of the tenants. Pensioners’ Cottages

The City Council also has a waiting list of applicants for the 96 pensioners’ cottages which it has built since 1939. There are 26 of these cottages in Sydenham, 26 in Addington, and 44 in Spreydon. Sixty of them are singleunit cottages and there are 36 double units. There is a waiting list of about 300 pensioners for the single units and 96 for the double units. The first block of 26 cottages was built in Barnett avenue, Sydenham, in 1939, and three of the original tenants are still occupying their homes. The waiting list for pensioners’ cottages is likely to be reduced in the future as the City Council intends -to build 44 more cottages. Plans have been completed for 20 cottages in Andrews crescent, Spreydon, and tenders will be called as soon as details of the building loan of £24.000 have been completed. The council has also acquired land in Springfield road for the building of 24 cottages, and an application is being made to the Local Government Loans Board for a loan of £20.500 for the purpose. As well as the Harewood settlement and the pensioners' cottages the City Council has houses at Sandilands. Of the 55 which were built 31 were sold and 24 are let. There is also a waiting list for thfese houses.