MUNICIPAL HOUSING.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLL, Issue 13305, 14 February 1914, Page 10

MUNICIPAL HOUSING.

HUGE ARGENTINE! SCHEME

One of the most ambitious municipal housing schemes ever undertaken has ■recently baen entered into by the City of . Buenos* Ayres for the construction of .10,000 workmen's dwelling ijouscs. - 'The scheme is quite a simple one, although of such magnitude, and it has met M'ith general approval. The dwellihg .house problem m Buenos Ayres—-, a .difficult one for years past — has now reached an acute stage. For the humbler' classes of employees and for workmen' 'the rents at present ruling exceed one-third of their wages, whilst 1 at the same time the accommodation-provided irf woefully inadequate from the point of vi«w of both health 'and comfort._ Iri^ dividual capitalists . see little attraction m.' building houses which can only be expected to yield moderate, returns. For this reason the most ordinary style of houses m, Buenos Ayres is only possible t6 tenants able to pa.^ r a relatively high renk Then the increased cost ot -Jiving,^ although a phenomenon, not peculiar to Ai'genti'na, is perhaps more acutely felt irt 'Buenos Ayres. The Mayor, formulated a contract with S. .H. ■ Pearson.', and Oo;, an English firm, for the erection of 10,000 houses for workmen ia • jtlie municipal district. Each house must have not less than five rooms' and a kitchen, bathroom, sanitary offices, and , sido path. Th* Contracting company undertakes to build not less than 2000 houses each year, and they must be limited within four squares of a. ti'amway Hrfe or" a railway station. The contr^ctoi's undertake to sell the .houses t": (1) Public employees or .workmen who are Argentine citizens; (2) foreign employees or workmen. ?The price of each house B,haU'be 56.00 dolars (naper) per month (about £6) during the period necesnry to repay by accumulative ' amortisation [the mortgage loan of 6000 dollars (paper) !ih bonds at 6 per cent per annum. No one buyer can acquire, more than one house. The houses will be distributed about the municipal district, not centralised.