A BELATED REFORM

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 61, 14 March 1939, Page 8

A BELATED REFORM

When the Government undertook its elaborate State housing programme to relieve the existing acute shortage, it was naturally assumed that the people living under the worst conditions, often with large families, would be considered first in the allotment of 8 the new houses as they were completed. The principle might well have been expressed in the familiar Marxian phrase "to each according to his need." Actually the scheme has worked out not at all in this way, and over a long period bitter complaints have been made by correspondents in "The Post" whose claims to accommodation in State houses on the score of their present plight in congested, ill-equipped flats and apartments have been apparently overlooked. On what precise system1 the allotment of State houses has I been made is not clear even now, butj it seems to be a combination of I priority of application, plus the^ chance of the ballot and ability to' pay the rent. In any case the State scheme,: despite the claims of its authors,; seems to be as far away as ever from solving the real problem of housing the poorer people at rents they can pay. So much is practically admitted at long last by the Minister of Housing (Mr. Armstrong) in a state- \ ment at Auckland reported by the Press Association. The Minister takes cognisance of the complaints j mentioned that "persons who hadj been living in good circumstances, had gained houses under the ballot system", and that "others who were practically living in hovels and often] with large families" were not so| lucky. It is proposed therefore to change the system and allot houses "according to the urgency of the cases and the circumstances of the applicants." Inspectors are to\ visit j the applicants' present homes andj report on conditions. This may cause difficulties, but at least is some guarantee of improvement on the] existing system. The real trouble, however, is that even now newj dwellings are not being built in] nearly sufficient numbers nor of a character to suit the pockets of the; people who need them most. It is hard to see any real solution of the housing problems on the present lines of procedure.