HOUSING PRIORITIES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26629, 27 November 1947, Page 4

HOUSING PRIORITIES

CLAIMS OF TUBERCULOSIS PATIENTS SPECIAL ALLOCATION URGED P.A. WELLINGTON, Nov. 26. “ Housing is the greatest issue in the T.B. problem,” said ■Mr Gilbert Maclean, of the Wellington Hospital at the first meeting of the Executive Council of the New Zealand Federation of Tuberculosis Associations. The matter came up for discussion on the priority of allocation of State houses to tuberculosis patients. Mr W. J. Hindman (Auckland) cited the case of an ex-serviceman in Auckland who had been seeking a house for three years and a-halfv His wife was in hospital and could not return home because the quarters —a living room and a bedroom—which she occupied with her husband and two children, were too leaky. That was only one of the many cases through the Health Department. It was possible to get a recommendation to the Housing Department for priority, but that was as far as the matter went. Dr C. A. Taylor, of the Health Department, said that while in Scandinavia and Great Britain he observed that T.B. services were able to arrange with the housing authorities for a definite proportion, from 10 to 15 per cent., of new houses for tubercular patients. , Mr Maclean said it was esseptial for the federation and its associations to be represented on housing priority committees. It was resolved to write to the Minister of Housing asking that urgent consideration be given to granting a definite percentage of available houses to T.B. patients of both races, as was done overseas. To that was added a note that reports from Auckland and Christchurch indicated that little assistance was being given to the federation. On the suggestion of the executive secretary, Mr C. Meachen, of Wellington, it was resolved to collect details of existing conditions and to present them at an interview to be sought with the Ministers of Health, Housing, and Maori Affairs.