AGED AND INDIGENT

Grey River Argus, 3 June 1937, Page 2

AGED AND INDIGENT

Auckland Proposal FOR BETTER ACCOMMODATION(Per Press Association). AUCKLAND, June 1The problem of providing suitable accommodation for old-age pensioners and indigent people who cannot wholly support themselves is now being investigatetd by a committee which has been set up to review the position as it applies not only 'to the city area but to the more populous of the suburban districts.

A joint committee representative ot the City Council, the Auckland Hospital Board, and suburban local bodies was set up to make inquiries- The fiilst meeting of the committee was held to-day, when the Hospital Board was represented by its chairman (the Rev- W- C- Wood), the City Council by the Hon F- E- Lark, M-L-C-., and Mr W- T- Anderton, M-P-, and suburban local bodies by 'the chairman of the Mount Roskill Road Board- Mr Anderton was appointed chairman. Mr Anderton said ithat the Hospital Board) was now spending £12,000 a year in rent and assistance to people who could not wholly support themselves and it should be possible to put this money to' better use by some other' method. The committee was not in possession of ’the necessaiy information about the conditions under which the people whom it was desired to assist were living- It was. therefore,, necessary that 'dpA information should be gathered, particularly as it) applied to old-age pensioners and indigent persons nat entitled to a pension, but the, inquiry should be extended to the position or single girls and older women who de.sired decent single-room accommodation, which tut present they could nor affordThe committee decided that steps should be taken to collect the desired information, and that a record of the sections ow-ned by the various local authorities and suitable for the provision of housing of the nature contemplated should also we compi.MMr Anderton said it was hoped that, with the knowledge it would acquire, the committee would be able to prepare a scheme. . The City Council has already haa before it plans for a block of flats for rhe accommodation of old-age ptjisioner.s, bat iit is realised that there are other classes' of people who are unab e to find suitable accommodation within their means, and thac the problem is not confined do the inner parts ot the city-