HOUSE SHORTAGE

Evening Star, Issue 25769, 16 April 1946, Page 6

HOUSE SHORTAGE

NEEDS OF SERVICEMEN INVESTIGATIONS OF R.S.A. A special meeting of recently-dis-charged members of the Dunedin Returned Services Association, attended by about 150, last night heard a report by the executive on its investigation into the housing position in Dunedin. After the executive's report had beeu received a general discussion, which emphasised the urgency of the housing situation as it affected servicemen in Dunedin, took place. The president, Mr H. P. Jefcoate, was in the chair. Mr W. P. Wellington, who conducted the recent housing bureau on behalf of the Dunedin R.S.A., reported that approximately one-third of those members who had registered at the bureau had not applied to the Rehabilitation Department for State houses. He emphasised that if all who had not registered at the Rehabilitation Department did so the authorities would be made to realise that the housing problem in Dunedin, as it affected returned servicemen, was much more serious than it appeared to be. Mr Wellington pointed out that probably many who had registered with the Rehabilitation Department had not also registered with the R.S.A. They should do so in order that the association might also have a complete register of those desiring houses and be in a position, to represent the urgency of the problem to the authorities concerned. It was stated that the recent census showed that there were 164 untenanted houses in Dunedin city, and those present who knew of any such houses were, asked to forward details to the secretary of the association (Mr 0. L. Ferens), so that the facts could be investigated The following resolutions were carried : " That the Executive Committee urges the City Council, in co-operatiou with the Government Housing Department, to implement a scheme for the erection of flats in an area lending itself to slum clearance.'-'

" That there be more elasticity in the specifications and conditions of building State houses, so that where completion or occupation is delayed by shortages of fittings etc., some temporary expedient may be introduced and occupation expedited." " That this meeting expresses thanks to the Housing Committee for its report and suggests that further investigations should be carried out with a view to meeting the present emergency from a short-term point of view along the following lines: Checking up the position regarding vacant houses in the Dunedin area; giving more publicity to the operation of the Fair Rents Act with regard to the leasing of flats and rooms, and also regarding the effect of any allowance against rental increase in relation to Social Security benefit payments; the speeding up of the provision of transit camp accommodation; the allocation of State houses and the location of new settlements; the using and building of temporary housing of the crib type; and the investigation of the prefabricated building of houses to relieve the urgent shortage." It was further suggested that an investigation should be made into the possibility of easing or amending the controls and _ regulations which were holding up building supplies. The meeting was informed that the Dunedin Association had forwarded several remits, concerning housing: for the consideration of the Dominion conference of the New Zealand R.S.A. in Wellington on May 28. These remits dealt with an increase in the_ allocation of State houses to ex-servicemen, the provision of cheap finance, the co-ordination of the supplies of building material and skilled labour, the acquisition of unused houses, the abolition of the sales tax on building materials, and cheap loans to ex-servicemen.