PAYING THE RENT

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 230, 24 June 1932, Page 18

PAYING THE RENT

Aid for Families of Unemployed VOLUNTARY SUBSIDIES In an attempt to solve some of the problems of housing and rent, Mr. P. Fraser Hodgson, chairman of the Property Owners’ Association, has evolved a scheme of contributions and subsidies which be believes will serve the mutual interests of landlords and tenants. “The landlord is faced with an acute problem in regard, to tenants in his properties who are on relief work and who are unable to pay anything like, a reasonable rent, or, in a number of cases, owing to the size of their families, are unable to pay anything at all,’ 1 Mr. Hodgson said yesterday. “Conditions have forced families to combine and live in houses which are absolutely unsuitable in every way for more than one family to occupy, thereby creating vacant houses and further affecting the landlord. “To overcome these conditions I would suggest that all tenants who are in a better position than the relief workers should contribute an additional Cd to their rent and that the landlord should subsidise this amount to a similar extent. Under this scheme every ten houses would contribute 10/a week toward the proper housing of the relief worker and his family. The subscribing tenant would also realise that should be eventually be out of unemployment and have to go on relief work he would receive first consideration in regard to proper bousing. The landlord would be .assured of rent from a relief worker tenant to the extent of, say, 10/- a week, and the balance could, no doubt, then be arranged satisfactorily with his tenant. Collection by Stamps. “Should this scheme appeal to landlords and tenants,” Mr. Hodgson continued, “I would suggest that an easy method of collecting the amounts would be by using special stamps. Each week, or whenever the rent was paid, stamps to the value of 1/- could be placed by the landlord on The rental receipt, 6d being paid by the tenant and 6d by the landlord. The landlord would have to account at regular intervals for the stamps, and each landlord would receive a certain number of stamps according to the number of his properties, but would not have *o pay for them until they were used. “I feel sure that should some such system be adopted it would benefit the whole of the community,” Mr. Hodg-. son remarked. He thought the scheme could be controlled without any expense whatever by a committee consisting of a chairman and one representative each of relief workers,. tenants not on relief work, and landlords, so that the total amount collected would go to assisting relief workers. -