STATE HOUSES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25503, 5 April 1944, Page 4

STATE HOUSES

700 DUNEDIN APPLICANTS NO PREFERENCE TO CLERGYMEN A statement that, in view of the present serious shortage of accommodation, no priority could be given to ministers of religion in the allocation of State houses was contained in a letter received at a meeting of the Presbytery of Dunedin last night Jrom the office of the Minister in Charge of State Advances. The letter was sent on behalf of the Minister in reply to inquiries made by the presbytery regarding the possibility of a State house being made available at Wakari for a minister of the Presbyterian Church. . i “I have had an opportunity .of investigating the position, and - I. find that there are approximately 700 applications for State rental houses on hand in Dunedin, many of them being- of long standing,” the letter from the Minister’s office stated. “ Owing to the urgent necessity for diverting all labour and materials. to defence work, very , few houses have recently become avail- 1 able for occupation, with the result that'many of the applications on hand have become extremely urgent

“In view of the very unsatisfactory conditions under which many of the applicants are living at the present time—circumstances which must' be detrimental to their well-being—the immediate necessity is for the provision of reasonable housing' accommodation for these urgent cases, and until this. position has been met I regret that., it is impossible to consider the question of granting any degree of priority to’ministers- of .religion in the allocation of houses. It is hoped that the Government’s housing programme will be considerably accelerated in the near future, and as houses become available you may be assured that any application lodged by the minister located in the district will be considered on its merits-in relation to the claims of other applicants.” It was decided to ask the Synod of Otago and Southland to make a grant for the purchase of a manse site at Wakari.