HOUSES FROM RUBBISH

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 August 1938, Page 8

HOUSES FROM RUBBISH

DETROIT SOLVES RELIEF PROBLEM. I Houses made out of the city’s scrap bag, which looks as fresh and modern as those in a model home exhibit have been completed in Detroit for relief clients. Bricks and other materials dumped on the city’s property when buildings were sliced for street widening are doing new service as walls for 10 sturdy little cottages. Lots taken over by the county for delinquent taxes are being put to use, and relief clients living in sub-standard shelter for which, the city was paying rent are to be provided with clean, respectable and good-look-ing houses. Other cities interested in, slum clearance and the housing of relief clients are watching Detroit’s experiment, reports the National Association of Housing Officials, which notes that Los Angeles is preparing to build 20 houses on a similar basis. Detroit’s story is one of a network of co-operation on the part of local relief agencies, the city council, various city departments, and the WPA. For not only did the Detroit Department of Public Works furnish bricks and other salvaged material, but the city engineer provided architectural services, the council voted cash for purchase of needed land, the city welfare department turned over money it would otherwise spend on rents for families on relief, and the WPA and local relief agencies assigned workmen. Skilled labourers were recruited from civil service lists. Landscaping was done by the city’s department of parks and buildings. The houses cost little to build, all these contributions considered, and it was possible to equip them with plywood walls, hot-air heating, gas refrigeration and stationary laundry tubs. A bit of decoration, too, in the form of colonial doorways was found within the city’s means. With enough salvaged material for many more houses, Detroit is prepared to build IGS more as part of this project. And what if relief clients get good jobs and no longer need this form of help? The city is building the houses with an eye to salability. Each is set on a lot 35 feet by 100 feet, and is in all respects marketable, say the builders. But no plans have been made for disposing of them as yet. A study of the possibility of building for relief clients was completed recently by the Regional Planning Commission in Los Angeles, reports the National Association of Housing Officials. This study shows that if some of the £134,000 now spent on relief rentals by Los Angeles each year were put into building on county-owned property, the county might actually save money.

The county now has enough land for 100 houses, the Commission finds. Moreover it spends nearly £4 a month per relief family for rent and utilities. But if it built 100 houses on free land at an estimated cost of £lB,OOO it would be getting shelter for these families at a cost of from £2 to £3 a month.