The Bay of Plenty Beacon Published Tuesdays and Fridays. FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 1946 THE HOUSING PROBLEM

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 9, Issue 38, 11 January 1946, Page 4

The Bay of Plenty Beacon Published Tuesdays and Fridays. FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 1946 THE HOUSING PROBLEM

ADVERTISEMENTS in this paper will have served to indicate just how desperate is the plight of the home-seeker m Whakatane. Last week a single advertisement offering a house for sale drew over fifty replies. Forty-nine at last, of the would-be purchasers will have been disappointed and compelled to carry on under their cramped Temporary conditions. Again a familied man pleaded in the same way for a room or even a tent at Ohope ! A bach offered for sale. or. exchange (no locality given) sent over forty persons poste haste to the bewildered owner who was almost overwhelmed. These are a few of the cases brought to the notice of a newspaper office through regular channels. Every agent however repeats the same story. We learn that there arfe* literally hundreds awaiting homes in this town,- including a big percentage of servicemen and their wives. What sort of a homecoming is this? Again every business firm knows through bitter experience of the promising and useful men they have lost merely because of the utter impossibility of finding a,home. The same story obtains with Banks, proprietary concerns and Government employees. Many excesr lent men and women whose presence in this community would have been Whakatane’s asset have been compelled to leave again after vainly trying to establish for themselves even a temporary heme. We venture to say that tor its size Whakatane has a far greater housing problem on its hands than most other towns in the Dominion. The census figures would seem to bear this out for since 1936 new persons have made their homes here while the housM ing expansion which would normally have served to keep pace with their requirements has been at a standstill over six long years of war. Practically every available section is taken up in the Borough by a potential home-builder, but the acute shortage must continue for years before it can be expected to ease sufficiently enough to cope with the demand. It anything has retarded the towns natural growth it is this most drastic obstacle to progress. Every measure which can relieve it must be regarded as legal under the circumstances, even though it may mean the erection of temporary accommodation such as has been suggested earlier m the year at Borough Council meetings. Again there are still many persons living in large commodious houses, with ample space to sub-let who could at least make a. temporary home available for those who are so desperately seeking- decent, shelter. Such people have a direct appeal made to them ah. the -present time.