TRANSIT HOUSING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27523, 18 October 1950, Page 8

TRANSIT HOUSING

Schemes For Otago Suspended GOVERNMENT DECISION Work on the transit housing proposals for Milton and Green Island has been suspended in the meantime until agreement is reached between the Government and protesting bodies concerned in New Zealand. When the schemes were proposed the Otago Trades Council passed a resolution protesting against the building of temporary housing, and advocated that the money and materials should be devoted to State housing instead. Survey work was carried out on a site at Milton known as the Chinese gardens during July of this year, but nothing further has been done since that time. On this area it was proposed to build 15 four-unit singlestorey buildings on a section of eight and a-quarter acres. The area is 'situated at the north end of the borough near the railway line. If the scheme is carried through, 25 per cent, of the units will consist of houses with one bedroom, half of them will have two bedrooms, and the remainder will have three bedrooms, with a separate lot of laundries for each block of buildings. Half of the two-bedroom houses will have showers instead of baths. At Green Island the settlement is designed to accommodate 48 families in 12 single-storey blocks each containing four flats, some of which will have two, three our lour bedrooms. The settlement will occupy 134 acres of land, and each flat will have a garden plot. The life of the buildings has been set at from five to ten year^. Approval for the scheme was given by the Green Island Borough Council, with the proviso that responsibility for maintenance and upkeep of the ground be clearly defined, that adequate provision be made for heating, and that laundries be built for each flat. These provisions were agreed to by the Housing Department In Dunedin. When the housing settlements are completed it is thought that they will be used for British immigrants or displaced persons from Europe. No foundation for a rumour that workers at the Coal Creek scheme would be domiciled there was available because the schemes have been held up for the present.