UNUSED HOUSES IN AUSTRALIA

Southland Times, Issue 25746, 9 August 1945, Page 5

UNUSED HOUSES IN AUSTRALIA

Plans For Occupancy By Homeless (Rec. 10.20 p.m.) SYDNEY, August 8. The listing of all unused accomodation in houses, flats, hotels, country houses and weekend cottages is to be urged upon the State Government. by the service committee of the Trades and Labour Council. An amendment to the Tenancy Law so that homeless people may occupy such accommodation as a matter of legal right is also to be proposed. Meanwhile, the acting Premier, Mr J. S. Baddeley, has announced that the Government is considering whether it should compel the owners of unoccupied houses to make them available to homeless families, particularly the families of former servicemen.

A Commonwealth official stated that the tenancy regulations would be amended this week to enable former servicemen to obtain the tenancy of unoccupied houses. The existing regulations, he said, were being defeated. The owners of unoccupied houses in some instances were leaving a few articles of furniture in their houses and claiming that they were occupied. The position was now being examined with a view to tightening up the regulations. “Under the amended regulations, owners claiming that any house is occupied will have to prove genuine occupancy by persons not by a few sticks of furniture,” he added. About 2400 of the 3000 building workmen employed by the Allied Works Council in New South Wales are to be released and diverted to house construction. This decision of the War Cabinet will result in the slowing down of the programme for Royal Naval establishments, and the projected construction of two big wool stores has been cancelled. The stores were to have been erected by the Government for the British Government, which has acquired all Australian wool for the duration of the war.