TE AWAMUTU COURIER Printed on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays WEDNESDAY, 12th JUNE, 1946 TRANSIT HOUSING

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 72, Issue 6241, 12 June 1946, Page 6

TE AWAMUTU COURIER Printed on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays WEDNESDAY, 12th JUNE, 1946 TRANSIT HOUSING

THE BOROUGH COUNCIL on Monday worthily endorsed the report of a sub-committee which had investigated immediate means as a first instalment of a transit housing scheme for Te Awamutu, and no time will be lost in furthering the proposals. All that now renfeins in the preparatory stages is the formality of the assent of the Loans Board and the Works Ministry in Wellington, and there is reason now to hope that the building programme will be proceeding at an early date. Nothing is more urgent, and very certainly effort is no more necessary in our civic affairs than it is in the alleviation of the acute housing shortage by the utilisation of surplus war-time buildings. The decision reached was not an easy one for the borough councillors. As a normal investment transit housing offers little, and the estimate of a ten-year recovery of the costs involved is all that is hoped for. But there is an indisputable worth in the undertaking which cannot be stated in terms of cost or investment, and the ieal value is to be found in the living conditions which will at least give some semblance of the restoration of family life for so many homeless people. As a first instalment, eight, or possibly nine, dwellings will be all that present available materials will provide; but that is only an instalment. In its approach to the Loans Board the Council will make provision for more dwellings than that, for as labour and supplies become mobilised it is hoped to carry on with other buildings, and even with further finance. A year ago a tally of the housing applicants showed that two hundred dwellings were needed; to-day, despite all the effort that has been made to overtake the lee-way of the war years, a tally shows the shortage to exceed three hundred dwellings. And there is nothing to suggest a speedy enough supply of permanent homes. On the contrary, the demand in Te Awamutu is out-pacing the supply, and the number of home-seekers is increasing. The domestic hardship is all too real and too widespread to be let pass any longer. It is no secret that the Borough Council does not aspire to become a landlord; not willingly is the new role accepted; but the councillors find no escape from the present situation, for it has become apparent to everybody that the normal building programme cannot possibly meet the demand. Indeed, the indications suggest that it will be many years before supply and demand will again be adjusted by normal procedures. The Borough Council has worthily risen to the occasion, and it can be assured that the citizens will just as worthily accept the responsibilities. A most commendable feature has been the ready assistance and cooperation of the Builders’ Association. the Council having had the technical advice of the builders who stand ready to give their practical assistance once the actual work can be undertaken. No time will be lost in concluding the final negotiations, and the work will be pushed ahead. The greatest difficulty that will arise must be the allocation of the tenancy rights —the allotment of so few dwellings among so many applicants is no easy task, especially when account is taken of the plight of the applicants and the terrible domestic conditions of so many people. But it can be hoped that before the present instalment work is finished plans will have been concluded for another group of houses To be erected. Only in this way can there be any grounds for the hope that the housing shortage in Te Awamutu will be overtaken. The urgency and the seriousness of the situation arc sufficient reasons for all that the Council, with the backing of public support, can do, and do as quickly as humanly possible.