MANY PROBLEMS

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 260, 30 July 1937, Page 4

MANY PROBLEMS

Effect of Inadequate Housing

“Many of the troubles of the present day can be put down to inadequate housing accommodation, particularly those problems which are more directly concerned with the young people,” said Miss Susan Bentley, of San Francisco, who passed ‘ through Auckland this week en route to Australia. Miss Bentley, who is a memlwr of the board of: directors of the Y.XX’.C.A. in San Francisco, said that she hoped to be able to spend some time in New Zealand on her return journey. One of the most important aspects of the work of the Y.W.C.A. had always l>een the provision of boarding houses for girls coming to the cities to work, Miss Bentley said. The Y.W.C.A. in San Francisco for many years had worked to gain residences for lowsalaried workers, and residences and clubs for special groups, and out of their work had come the conviction that nationally and locally, housing conditions had a great deal to do with right living. Home life was particularly valuable to young iieople at the age when they were beginning their working earners, Miss Bentley added, and it was usually at this age that they were forced to leave their homes to secure employment in the cities. In the latter places, however, there was nothing to take .the place of their homes. Boarding houses, not only in the United States, but also. Miss Bentley believed, in most other countries, were inadequate for young people, especially when they were receiving a low commencing salary. Living was usually more expensive for families in the cities than in the country.

Recently, the Y.W.C.A. in San Francisco had eo-operated with various other women’s organisations in an endeavour to raise the level of housing. As a result, a bill had been passed recently providing for a long-term programme of Federal aid to State and local governments, and other agencies for the provision of adequate housing for families of low income, and for slum clearance.

The study of the Public Affairs Committee of the Y.W.C.A. in San Francisco had definitely discovered that bad housing conditions were inimical to health and good social behaviour, said Miss Bentley. Young people, most of all, ’ suffered from inadequate housing and living conditions.

Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Hope, Poraugahau, will be visitors to Christchurch for the August races and will be the guests of Mr. and Mrs. J. F. Cracroft Wilson, Cashmere Jiouse.