FAMILIES MAY HAVE TO LIVE IN TENTS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 71, 14 November 1931, Page 4

FAMILIES MAY HAVE TO LIVE IN TENTS

HOUSING PROBLEM COUNCIL CONSIDERS A CAMP SITE FOR DISTRESSED UNEMPLOYED SERIOUS POSITION. "As fqr as this man is concerned, I must say I admire his attitude in tacklfiig the camping life 'instead of doing as a lot of others are doing — taking houses and paying no rent," sai.d Cr. G. Urquhart at Thursday evening's meeting of the Rotorua Borough Council when the Council was considering an application from a relief worker, who, compelled to leave the hbuse he had been occupying, had made application to the Mayor for permission to house his family in a tent within the borough area. The Mayor (Mr. T. Jackson) stated that as the man "had to he out of the house on the day of the council meeting, he had given him permission to erect a tent On a section adjacent to the Utuhina Stream, pending consideration hy the Council as a whole. Mr. Jackson asked for endorsement for his action. This was unanimously given hy the Gouncil, and it was also decided to investigate the possibilities of setting aside a definite camping site for cases of this nature. In this connection, the opinion was expressed that a number of the nnemployed in Rotorua would be faced with the necessity of ahandoning their houses during the coming months, and that some provisioul should be made against this eventuality. Face the Facts. "It is quite within the possibilities that hefore the week is out we may

have to provide quite a lot of accommodation of this kind and it is just as well that we should face the facts," said the Mayor., "A lot'of these men on relief, many of them quite decent citizens, are so much up against it that they will not be able to pay rent much longer. It is hard to understand how many of them have kept up their payments as long as they have done. I do not wish to be unduly pessimistic, but I think that hefore next winter a lot of the men on relief will have to find something cheaper than the houses they are living in at present." Cr. E. T. Johnson endorsed the remarks of the Mayor with regard to the particular case under consideration. It Was, he felt, a deserving case and he moved that the Mayor's action in giving the man permission to erect a tent be endorsed. Nowhere to Go. "I know something about the housing question in Rotorua and I am quite sure that at the present time there are a number of men who cannot pay their rent," said Cr. Johnson. I know of a number of instanees where they cahnot do so and if the owners put them out, they have nowhere to go. I think we should' provide an area which we could allocate to these necessitous cases. I have in mind the old eamp site on the Wairoa Road. I can assure the Council that , things are a great deal more serious j than a great number of people be- i lieve, in i egard to the honsing pro- j blem." Cr. A. Sipith also said he considered the Mayor's action in regard to the specifie case should he endorsed. He also thought a definite area should be set aside for these cases but did not think the one suggested hy Cr. Johnson was suitable. After some further diseussion, in the eourse of which it was suggested that portion of the regular camp site should be set aside, it was decided to leave the matter of determining a suitable site for an encanapment in the hands of the works committee.