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CHAPTER IV.
ENVIRONMENTAL HYGIENE, FOOD AND WATER,
HOUSING, FACTORIES, ETC.
1. HEALTH GROUNDS FOR REHOUSING. The Council,
through its Housing and Estates Committee, has for many years been
conscious of the need to define as far as possible those cases which
could be seriously considered for rehousing on medical and health
grounds. The extent to which recommendations could be received
from the medical department was naturally limited, as it was
impossible to rehouse all those with medical claims, even if the whole
of the available tenancies were each year used for this purpose. The
Committee receive from the Health Department quite readily all
recommendations where an infectious case of Tuberculosis is living in
unsatisfactory conditions along with susceptible children. It also
receives cases from the Health Department where the occupant of
premises is permanently incapable, on account of physical handicap,
of reaching the street from his dwelling or of reaching his dwelling
from the street, without substantial assistance. These recommendations
are very willingly accepted by the Housing Committee and as little as
possible delay is permitted before a suitable tenancy is offered.
In 1957, the Health Department were asked to visit and assess
all those old persons over the age of 65 who were eligible for rehousing
in old persons' dwellings and, amongst other things, to offer points
for medical incapacity and for the lack of amenity. This has
necessitated a considerable amount of visiting but has resulted in those
old persons most in need of rehousing on medical grounds being
offered some priority in selection.
The Housing Committee have accepted also, in the past, applications
from overcrowded families and have recently paid particular
attention to those families which have become overcrowded by the
process of natural growth of the family.
In 1949 there were 558 overcrowded dwellings known to the
Health Department and, on account of assistance given by the Housing
and Estates Committee in the rehousing of overcrowded families and
other factors, this number was reduced to 148 in 1959.
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