HOUSING PROBLEM

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 79, 30 September 1938, Page 15

HOUSING PROBLEM

NEW SOUTH WALES

COMPREHENSIVE PLANNING

(From "The Post's" Representative.")

SYDNEY, September 16,

Far-reaching rneasures to improve housing conditions in the State have been forecast by the Premier (Mr. Stevens). Not less than £30,000,000 will be required, over a number of years, to eliminate sub-standard housing in the metropolitan area alone, he said.

The measures Mr. Stevens foreI shadowed included: Cheaper and faster transport to outlying suburbs; legislation to eradicate slum conditions in the Port Kembla district, which has progressed rapidly into a great industrial centre; setting-up of one authority to adjust the financing of housing schemes; probable creation of a sinking fund to aid prospective home-build-e*s who cannot find the 10 per cent, deposit needed to get a building loan under State indemnity; expansion of the Homes for Unemployed Trust, which is providing more than 500 houses a year, at 6s a week, for unemployed and intermittent workers; an agreement by which the Government hopes that reasonable rentals will be fixed for tenants dispossessed of their homes by slum clearing. Possibilities of a Government housing scheme for Port Kembla will be discussed by the State Cabinet shortly. For some years hundreds of families, unable to obtain housing accommodation in the town, have been living in humpies and tents in the vicinity of the steel works. Many of these humpies are without a water supply or sanitary arrangements, and constitute a danger to the health of the occupants. Most of the men are working in industries at Port Kembla and could afford to pay rent, but neither cottages nor flats are available. Their homes are made of kerosene tins, bags, and odd scraps of building material, and their cooking and washing arrangements are primitive. A deputation, including representa- j tives of churches, unions, and munici-! pal bodies, last week placed the posi-J tion before the Minister of Social Services, Mr. Hawkins. Mr.Davies, member for the district, declared that he I had travelled throughout Australia, but he had never seen people huddled together in such terrible circumstances. The Minister said he realised . the seriousness of the position and promised that he would place all the facts before the Government. The Cabinet discussion of the problem this week will centre on a report by Mr. Hawkins.