HOMELESS FAMILIES

Dominion, Volume 38, Issue 289, 5 September 1945, Page 6

HOMELESS FAMILIES

Suggested Solution (To the Editor). Sir, —While there is plenty of sympathy for the homeless family, I am wondering whether elderly persons who live alone in an entire house really try to appreciate the difficulties of a young mother endeavouring to bring her children up decently .in cramped quarterssharing conveniences with other equally barrassed mothers, wondering if baby will cry at the wrong time, waiting for a share of the clothesline, being careful with the hot water, trying to smile when Mrs. Brown’s little boy jumps on the couch, wondering if Judith should be smacked for something tbe other one did, etc. One could write indefinitely and be accused of whitting. The anguish of it could not be expressed in words. Do the aged in the solitude of their spacious and often lonely homes try to conceive something of this? No one would grudge the elderly person his independence of home and possessions, and I trust that the solution does not lie in forcing him to let rooms, and yet, recognising that it was our husbands and brothers who went to war to preserve those very homes anti possesions, should not this person be glad to share the security of his uninvaded home? Couldn’t the elderly person volunteer three rooms of his house without feeling that he had made the supreme sacrifice? I know of many cases of one person living alone in a five or six-roomed house and have been told of an elderly sister and brother living in a huge place. The Rehabilitation Department cannot help more than they are doing unless suitable property is put on tbe market. Surely, then, this is the time to make a widespread appeal to such solitary ownertenants to give up their houses wherever possible. They would nowhere lose financially at present prices. Where would these, elderly persons live? If the more affluent could be persuaded to pool their resources, taking, say. a dozen such cases, they would find themselves with about 80 rooms and a generous sprinkling of housekeepers. Put these 12 elder persons into a 14-roomed house, retain a staff of three housekeepers and they would all enter into a new era of contentment. You who have had a home for so long, a home now larger than your needs, think of those who have never had one. Think of the overcrowding which is around you, one of the major causes of lack of parental control and therefore of juvenile delinquency, think of a declining birthrate, and, above all, think of the satisfaction of seeing a family building a strong and united life iu your home. Think. “Yes, I had a good time ip my day, now I’ll give the young folks a turn.” Think in the light of Christian sharing and fairness and resolve that you, with Eleanor Roosevelt, will not merely. "Live and let live, but live and help live. — 1 am. etc,, NEARLY A MOTHER OF FOUR. Palmerston North.