HOUSING GOES FROM BAD TO WORSE

Chronicle (Levin), 24 June 1946, Page 4

HOUSING GOES FROM BAD TO WORSE

-Press Assocmtion

By Telegraph-

AUCKLAND, .Tune 23. 1 ' Auckland 's housing position has cleteno.rated to the stage wliere the selection of tenants for transit and State h'dUAes "is no longef ihade nlet-ely from the worst cases but from tlie vvorst ot the worst," said the chairman of the City Council 's housing committee, Mr. H. P. Burton. He said concern over the shortage must grow as long as the denmud continued to leap aliead of the ability to provide sufficient accommodation. "At the present rate of construction by tlie State and private enterprise, it will be years before housands of pressing cases in the city are satisfactorily accommodated, " said Mr. Burton. ' ' Lists held by the State Advances Corporation in Auckland- contain tlie names of about 15,000 persons who want State liouses and, in -addition, about 4000 returned servieemen have lodged applications with the Rehabilitation Department. The Housing Department has made only 700 liouses available in Auckland in the last year and may reach the 1000 mark this year. Fewer than 50 new "State houses a month. have been made available since .Tanuarv to meet desperate cases in Auckland and this is fewer than the number in the same period last year. The city council and. surburban local bodies issued permits for about 16(50. private dwellings last year but short- , ages of materials may preclude" hi'airv' of them lieiug built for a long time." Mr. Burton said the speed with which Auckland 's demands were progressiyely Dutpacing- the ability of the Govern- , tnent's present policy to aeeommodate people who could not build their own liomes, emphasised the need for a , 'hange in State housing acitivities to irovide more units in a shorte'r time.