CITY OF DREADFUL RENTS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XLIV, Issue 14726, 29 June 1920, Page 2

CITY OF DREADFUL RENTS.

(By J. W. T. Mason.)

: " NEW YORK, April 28. The liousiug problem licro grows more I a-ncl moro difficult. A friend whom I j interviewed. to-day .said» j "My house has been sold. The local barber has bought it out of the profits of 2s shaves. 'He has turned us out, j and we have had to find a flat. This is almost an impossibility now in New York. -But we have got a six-room placo in Fort Washington avenue and, 160 th street, one block "west of Broadj way. . • "My present rent for my house is £l6O per .year. I have had to pay £3OO for the six-roont flat. The barber intends letting out the) top floor of the house for £l2O per year, and living in the remaining two floors and basement 'himself. My new rent is absolute robbery, but I cannot lieln myself. The tenant now occupying the apartment is paying £2OO per year, which is itself about £4O above the normal renting value. . "We looked air over town trying to find a decent place to live in for less than £3OO a year. • It was impossible. That is the minimum irnw charged for decency. In the same Fort Washington-. avenue six-room apartments axo being advertised for £360. At the corner of mv own street. 149 th street and Broadway, a five-room fiat has been to rent for tho same amount. One block north oi it another five-room flat is now being ofl'er'ed for £420. A friend of mine who lives in an apartment at ■ 160tlv street and Broadway had his rent raised last, year to £3OO for seven rooms, and he has iust received notice that after, October 1 it will be £SOO a year.' - ■ ''That is the way it .is going all over town. Our own £3OO flat is chcan, considering 'many of tho otliers. Wo cannot get into a cheaper one. But tin difference-between, my present rent and whatr I 'must pay a<fter May 1. will be a-terrible-drain 1 on me. It will amount to £140."