HOUSE SHORTAGE

Hokitika Guardian, 1 July 1932, Page 2

HOUSE SHORTAGE

BUILDING ACTIVITIES IN RUSSIA

TOURISTS SHARE BEDROOMS

LONDON, June 29.

The great new cities now building in Russia will 1 not be ready a, day before they are wanted, for bousing accoinmodatioi is at a premium, says a writer in an Engl sh architectural journal. Most of the 5000 tourists who have visited' Ru sia this year had to get accustomed to sharing bedrooms with others, hut what might give a certain spice of novelty on a short visit assumes another aspect when it becomes a general oonditxm. of existence. The shortage is explained by the destruction of the poor hovels in which the greater part of the popnbv’tion formerly lived. But the health of 200 electrical students, who were housed in an unhealthy building on swampy ground at Moscow, became so effected that they were temporarily housed in various other’ buildings and finally moved into suitable quarters at another students’ hostel. The displaced tenants of this building suddenly descended upon it and drove out the newcomers, at the point of the pistol, pitching them and their belongings into the. street. These vicissitudes are not likely to encourage & speedy increase in the trained technicians of which the country is so badly in need.