18,000 Homes Allegedly Lying Idle In N.Z.

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 2, 28 November 1947, Page 5

18,000 Homes Allegedly Lying Idle In N.Z.

Thus “Kiwi”, official organ of the 2nd N.Z.E.F. Association, in an article concerning the housing situation:—

“Would you like a house? Well, in the 1945 census there were a mere 7,136 untenanted dwellings. No one living in them, as the year book says, “genuinely unoccupied—i.e., empty or vacant.”. But that’s not all. There were in addition to those houses, 11,047 week-end or summer dwellings vacant. If these were available now, it would provide in one sweep what it takes the State Housing Department six years to provide on its 1946 showing! No one likes, or could in normal circumstances tolerate compulsion in these matters, but when this Association asked the Government to introduce a measure which would make these houses available, it did so knowing only too well the desperate plight of many Kiwis. “It is surely not. too much to ask that houses, now standing idle, be made available. It is regrettable that so many owners can calmly ignore the plight of men, and women too, who are forced to live in intolerable conditions. If the Government can .not declare a state of emergency, it could at least make available some 18,000 houses immediately, and no amount of talk will deny that fact. We know of many reasons for, the'housing shortage, but we also know that 18,000 houses could be made available tomorrow.”