HOUSING SURVEY

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 107, 7 May 1937, Page 10

HOUSING SURVEY

AIM OF THE INQUIRY

BRITISH COUNTERPART

BIG TASK AHEAD

The housing. survey which has been commenced in Wellington is going to be a big task, extending over atileast four months, and, as was stated yesterday, it will be made lighter or heavier according to the degree of co-opera-tion shown by occupiers of houses, boarding and lodging houses, flats, and rooms in the city. The questionnaire, which will be left at each house,and dwelling unit (flats, rooms, apartments) j asks fdr information which at first thought does not all bear upon housing, but every question is put to elicit information which will enable those who will later analyse the forms and reports to draw a complete and detailed picture of housing conditions as they are, and from that basis to plan for improvement and for the maintenance ot at least a minimum standard. Who was responsible for the ordering of the survey—the Government, wnich Government, or the City Council? It is generally thought that the survey had its origin in the present Government's housing scheme, but that is not so, for the Act was passed by the Coalition Government in 1935 and was patterned very closely upon the British Act. The Coalition Government, however, went out of office before the regulations detailing the manner in which the survey should be carried out were drawn up, and these came down from the present Government at the end of last year.' The delay of over a year meant that local bodies had been told that the survey had to be made —for the Act says that local authorities "shall" (legal for "must") carry out the survey, failing which the Government will do tha work and present the account—but they, were left in the dark as to details. Wellington made a start by making a partial survey in Te Aro Flat, but this early work will.for the most part have to be done again as the regulations require further information than was then gathered. DIFFERING CONDITIONS. In Britain a first purpose of the survey was to determine what provision had to be made for the rehousing of people before slum clearance could be commenced, for to order families from slums and insanitary dwellings and tenements into the wide open world would merely have replaced miserabls housing with greater hardship. In Britain, and in Continental countries, the survey was a first step towards the long and costly cure of bad housing which had become almost hopelessly chronic over centuries of city growth without regard to the maintenance of minimum requirements. The cure has cost millions up till now and will cost many more millions if it is to be made complete. Here the problem is different, for though there are in the larger centres, and in the small towns also, groups of houses which are no credit? to their owners or to the townspeople generally, there are no extensive areas of unrelieved slum, but without question there is much overcrowding and cramming into houses lacking in the very minimum of facilities. WELLINGTON SHORT OF HOMES. Wellington has been chronically short of homes for years, but though that has been obvious to those who want homes and has been generally indicated by population and building figures to be growing worse.the remedy is, in the absence of real facts and information, still nowhere in sight. The worst overcrowding is by no means necessarily to be found in the less prosperous streets, for in spite of bylaws and regulations Wellington has achieved minor miracles of accommodation in flats and rooms to let, and for each authorised flat there are possibly three or four just "fiats," a condition which has developed through the necessity of finding space for families and individuals for whom there are. not homes or properlydivided apartments. So the survey proposes to ascertain the accommodation provided by existing dwellings, with special reference to the number and sizes of rooms; the physical condition of houses and their facilities as one-family dwellings, fiats, boarding or lodging houses; the occupancy of dwelling-houses with reference to the age, sex, and number of persons occupying them; the rentals charged; the extent of overcrowding, and the density of population in various residential areas. TWO MAIN COURSES. To gather the information the surveyors will follow two main courses. First an inspector will call, leave a general questionnaire, and arrange a time of inspection; later in the day, or the next day, two will call and obtain particulars and measurements which require some expert knowledge of building construction and housing conditions. Particulars required from the householder include the names of all persons living in the house, ages, sexes, whether married or single, family and non-family members, reasons for living in the locality, rents paid, employment and so on. The surveyors will determine the class of dwelling (private, apartment, boarding or lodging house) and will note types of construction, the open spaces about the house, and its general condition, the sanitary and | domestic equipment, lighting and ventilation, and particularly bedroom sizes | and sufficiency for the occupants of the dwelling.

So between the surveyors and the occupants there is room for much discussion and possibly for misunderstanding. The Act and the regulations indicate that it is the view of the Government (as it was of the British Government) that the investigation can have full value only if it is carried put In a thorough way. Its thoroughness will largely depend upon the response made by tenants qnd occupiers to the requests that they shall contribute their facts and details towards the building up of a complete city survey and the new type o£ census, not of persons, but of the homes, apartments, boarding and lodging houses they live in.

The purpose of the survey is not merely to show how present housing disabilities may be remedied, but to ensure that in twenty or fifty years New Zealand cities and towns shall not find themselves afflicted with housing problems and overcrowding amounting to definite slum conditions, so serous as to be beyond effective remedy except at enormous cost.