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37
The next group is that where a member of the family is suffering
from tuberculosis. This has been accepted as an open case of infection.
Those figuring on the list of applicants are those who have themselves
made application for rehousing, or on behalf of whom someone such as
the almoner at the Chest Clinic has pressed the case. There are, of course,
very many more cases on the register of the tuberculous than appear in
this list. Again those who are favourably housed at the moment are
not considered. In general then the names of those on the rehousing
list are those who have applied and where there is some measure of
crowding in addition to the presence of an open case of tuberculosis.
The degree of crowding taken note of is, of course, very much less than
that needed by an ordinary family to qualify for admission to the overcrowded
list. At the end of December the number of cases on the
tuberculosis list for rehousing was 80.
The remaining list is those who are statutorily overcrowded. The
official standard was laid down in the Housing Act, 1936, which was the
first great attempt to abate the vast amount of overcrowding known to
prevail. The same standard was fixed for the whole country so because
of the appalling conditions in some of the black spots of the country it
had to be a low one. According to it there were in this district just before
the war only 31 overcrowded houses. The position to-day is very different,
the numbers running up to 500. Few outside those who are intimately
brought into contact with many cases realise what a degree of
crowding can occur in a house without there being statutory overcrowding.
In assessing the degree individuals are classed as units, any
person over ten years of age counting as one, a child from 1 to 10 years
as a half unit, but the baby under one year not at all. All habitable
rooms are counted, the standard not reserving any room for sleeping
purposes alone. As an indication then two rooms of average size of
110 square feet each might without overcrowding contain three units
which can comprise a man, his wife, two children under ten and a small
baby. Something more is needed to cause overcrowding and yet there
are 150 houses with a half unit of crowding and another 150 of one unit.
Worse still is the fact that having regard to the demands for housing by
those in the other two groups, and those in the overcrowded group who
are crowded to a greater degree even with the most generous allocation
of houses by the Housing Selection Sub-Committee to Public Health
Committee cases there is little enough prospect of those of a half and of
one unit overcrowding being rehoused.
Some houses are crowded by only half a unit. In others the overcrowding
may be by as many as four and a half units. The inconvenience
caused by this crowding is to be measured not so much by the one-half
or the unit, but is obviously related to the total accommodation available.
Other factors have to be taken into account. When two families
occupy the one house circumstances will be different if they are virtually
living as one family or if the sub-tenants are restricted to their own
part. Although for the standards of the Housing Act a child does not
rank even as half a unit until it attains the age of a twelve-month, in
selecting for special consideration the cases out of those of the same
degree of crowding regard is had to the presence not merely of the small
baby, but even of the unborn child, as it is hoped if anything is to be