PROBLEM OF HOUSING

Press, Volume C, Issue 29607, 1 September 1961, Page 2

PROBLEM OF HOUSING

Retired Single Women Two business and professfona! women’s clubs in Norway have comgleted their own buildigs in which they have housed their respective headquarters and also flats for members. This news from the International Business and Professional Women’s Clubs’ bulletin “Widening Horizons” is of great interest, to the Christchurch Federated Business and Professional Women's Club which is very concerned with the present problem of living accommodation for retired single women. “Like other federated clubs in New Zealand, we have established a reserve fund,” said the president of the Christchurch club (Miss S. Lilly) yesterday. “This fund could be used to obtain club rooms or. depending on how much was raised, a house where the offices could be accommodated together with flats for retired members.” But even this fund, which is a long-term plan for the club, could not possibly solve the whole problem, and Miss Lilly feels that if single retired women were allowed to build small houses suited to their needs and their finances, their worries would be over. “There are so many women who have saved for thenretirement and who would like to build a small place of their own,” she said. “But the present building restrictions do not allow for houses as small as they would like. “The houses would not necessarily deteriorate or make for slums. There will always be single women wanting to live in them.” said Miss Lilly. Independence

It was a matter of retaining a feeling of independence, Miss Lilly explained. These women need to have homes of their own without having to share kitchens or laundries with neighbours. It also gave them a sense of security that they did not have in a block of flats where the ownership could perhaps change hands and could force them to leave. “Women take pride in their own possessions,” she said. “If the house is their own they take a keen interest in its upkeep and appearance. With a small house these things can be managed comfortably but with the minimum-sized home as allowed at present, it would be a worry. With the minimum-sized house goes a minimum-sized section which is again too large for a retired woman. With the small houses women would like to build they would also like a garden they could work themselves.”