HOUSING NEEDS IN AUCKLAND

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24909, 24 June 1946, Page 4

HOUSING NEEDS IN AUCKLAND

19,000 APPLICATIONS DEMAND OUTPACING SUPPLY (P.A.) AUCKLAND, June 23. “Auckland’s housing position has deteriorated to a stage where the selection of tenants for transit and State houses is no longer made merely from the worst cases but from the worst of the worst,” said the chairman of the City Council’s housing committea (Mr H. P. Burton). He said concern about the shortage must grow as long as the demand continued to leap ahead ability to provide sufficient accommodation. “At the present rate of construction by State and private enterprise it will be many years before the thousands of pressing cases in the city are satisfactorily accommodated,” said Mr Burton. Lists held by the State Advance! Corporation in Auckland contain the names of about 15,000 persons who want State houses, and in addition about 4000 returned servicemen have lodged applications with the Rehabilitation Department. The Housing Department made only about 700 houses available in Auckland last year and may reach the 1000 mark this year. “Less than 50 new State houses a month have been made available since January to meet the desperate case* In Auckland, and this is less than the number in the same period last year. The City Council and surburban local bodies issued permits for about IMO private dwellings last year, but shortages of materials may preclude many of them being built for a long time?’ Mr Burton said the speed with which Auckland’s demands were progressively outpacing the ability of the Government’s present policy to accommodate people who could not build their own. homes emphasised the need for a change in State housing activities to provide more units in a shorter time.