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51
HOUSING.
The various difficulties encountered under the subject of
housing directly coming within the purview of the Medical Officer
of Health were fully dwelt upon in my Report for the previous
vear. Private enterprise does not appear to be sufficient to meet
housing requirements, because in practically every instance such
houses are built for sale, leaving the poorest of the district—
who are generally unable to afford the rent of houses built on
subsidy—to continue the use of premises in many cases quite unfit
for habitation, although undoubtedly many such houses could be
rendered better through more drastic action under the Public
Health and other Acts.
TENTS, VANS, ETC.
The absence of sufficient surveillance on the part of the
sanitary staff owing to the many other calls upon their time,
inevitably allows bye-laws regulating the use of temporary dwellings
to be from time to time transgressed. During the early
part of the year four families of gipsies, living under adverse
sanitary conditions near Movers Lane from the previous autumn,
were visited by diphtheria, and one case removed to the Isolation
Hospital. Throughout the year 67 inspections were carried out
of temporary dwellings and 4 contraventions of the bye-laws
detected.
COMMON LODGING HOUSES.
Two registered common lodging-houses of the old, or
common cubicle type, one in North Street, with accommodation
for 27 lodgers, and one in Heath Street, providing accommodation
for 36 lodgers, continued in use and received 102 inspections
during the year, a total of 4 infringements of the bye-laws being
detected. Night visits during the period numbered 2. No provision
exists for female lodgers or married couples.