BIRMINGHAM FAMILIES.

Shannon News, 8 January 1924, Page 1

BIRMINGHAM FAMILIES.

* THOUSANDS WITHOUT HOMES. “There must be.between 8000 and 10,000 people living in caravans, wooden huts, or corrugated iron huts, within an eight miles radius of the • centre of Birmingham. This astonishing statement was made recently by Mr Ford, a builder and contractor in the Duddeston and Nechells district of Birminghaw. A ten-mile journey ovdr the grimy suburbs of Birmingham revealed the terrible straits to which many of the citizeznsare reduced, writes a correspondent of a London paper. In one square tent there were a woman four or five children, and two dogs. I saw tents like wigwams, and army tents that are used as homes. Mr Ford is a man of vision and enterprise. He is doing what the Birmingham Corporation ought to be doing—providing people with cheap homes. He buys old vans and converts them into dwellings. I saw one at his works. It is a clean, nicely decorated van, well ventilated, with a seat all round j and a good serviceable looking stove. It has a small room at the end large enough for a full-sized bed. The difficulty is to obtain enough vans to meet the demand. .

Mr Ford also supplies land. He bought 100 acres at Shirley, six miles south of Birmingham, and allotted plots to [working men, who are now purchasing their freeholds by weekly payments. Some are building brick bungalows with their own hands, and are living for the time being in caravans or old furniture vans. Others have bought old lorries, and have erected on them wooden shanties. It might have been expected that the local authorities would have assisted such efforts to provide houses but* I am assured that every possible difficulty ha 3 been placed in the path of the amateur builders.

It is stated that 75 per cent, of these van dwellers are ex-service men.