DOMESTIC SQUALOR

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 239, 6 July 1944, Page 3

DOMESTIC SQUALOR

What Visiting Nurses Find In Wellington

INABILITY TO SECURE BETTER HOMES

Some of tlie worst examples recorded of domestic overcrowding in Wellington anil its suburbs, and of people living in old, uncomfortable and insanitary buildings, are cited in a report based on the observations of members of Wellington branch of the New Zealand Trained Nurses’ Association. It is in these dirty, verminous places that the nurses find their patients. Poverty, they state, is not the general cause of the squalor, but inability to find anything better, and there is a tendency for the women in such places to lose heart.

"The number of places' without, bathing and propep sanitary facilities was astounding, and nurses felt that landlords should be made to install proper facilities,” the report, states. "The neglect. of owners to have homes repaired should be taken up with the. proper authorities. Many houses are infested with rats and vermin. From the health and social point of view, the houses are a disgrace to a city the size of Wellington.”. Cases are cited as under: — Upstairs in Cuba Street, two adults and three children Jive in a room. 12ft by J-lft. There .is no bathroom and no hot water, no sunshine and poor ventilation; downstairs there are ‘'community'’ facilities —washhouse and kitchen, lavatory, ,and a cold, damp, and very small backyard. Mother, and father are ill, anil the children are sickly. 'J'lte place is overrun by rats. The rent is 25/- a week. The father earns £6/10/- and has had an application in for a house for two years. In Ohiro Hoad three sisters have a foom for which they pay 37/6 a week. All three are. in poor health, though they are working. They sleep together in a double bed. In Devon Street two adultu and live children make do iii two rooms, for which the rent: is 30/-, There are “community” facilities, but there is no play ' space, no garden. In two upstairs rooms in an old condemned building in Daniell Street two adults and eight children crowd together. There is no bathroom, no backyard, and no garden. The rent is 20/- a week. The father is a. plumber and. his economic status is good. The investigating nurse reports that the management of the home is good in nil the circumstances. which are that the parents and the eight children (from 13 years to five months), all sleep in one room.- the parents sleep in a single bod ; live of. the children in a large bed, two in a single boil, and the baby in a crib. Last year the children hud scarlet fever, measles, chickenpox and whooping cough. In Vivian Street, four adults and four children, of two families, share a sixroomed house that, is old. damp, and so sunless that, the lights must be on in all the rooms but one. The lavatory is in bad condition, the backyard small, the house piping is broken, and the alley; way floods. Everyone is in poor health; The rent is £2/16/- a week, but it. was not paid up when the report was made. The nurse adds: “Bugs on walls.” A family of two adults and three children were found living in :i three-roomed •bach at Pelone. The father earns £0 a week. The rent is 8/6 a week- The nurse reported thus: “Bathroom and washhouse, nil; washing done at neighbours. Cooking, open fireplace. Lavatory —pan. Sunshine, plenty, though windy and damp. Backyard, damp, no drainage or sewerage. Yard floods in winter; water runs under house and lies there for weeks. Garden—few plants. Mother, bronchitis: others, colds. Application in for house seven years ago; seems to have been lost, at State Advances. One of the worst, homes, water carried by hand from the public lavatory nt the corner. Children sleep in bunks—no doors, curtain serves. Housing Department sees no immetliafe prospect of relief. Land around sold as factory site. Management, fair; mother loses heart at times.”

The conclusions of the visiting nurses arc summarized in the report ns follows :—

Facilities for sunshine in most such homes were Jacking. In old shops used as dwellings frosted and painted windows, which did not open in many eases, resulted in very poor ventilation.

Most houses' visited had small damp backyards. The result was that through many children playing rhe street delinquency was common. Very few places had space for gardens. The economic status of most of the families was such that they could afford boiler homes if they wore , obtainable. Many had hud applicationsJn for State houses for a considerable lime. • Most housewives were doing their host under extremely difficult conditions, hut the nurses*, found their own ditficultioH increased with regard io health promotion. as mothers were depressed and had Inst heart. The close contact with infections disease cases was a deterrent to the teaching of public health.