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38
done for a family that the removal might be effected before the date of
confinement.
In selecting those to be submitted on the grounds of crowding for the
consideration of the Sub-Committee a room standard is adopted.
Obviously a half-unit of crowding where the family is limited to the
occupation of one room may well represent worse living conditions than
one-and-a-half or more units of crowding where a family has control
over the whole house.
These are the only groups of cases which have been taken out of
the ordinary run of allocation on the basis of points. There are, of course,
innumerable other conditions which make it highly desirable the family
should be better housed. When these are primarily medical conditions,
it is natural that this department is approached to support the application.
It would be impossible to devise any formula or scale by which
the merits of such cases could be assessed, but in default of any such
device every case would have to be considered on its own merits and the
claims judged against the most urgent of those based on other considerations,
an arrangement which because of the magnitude of the problem
would be unworkable. The families then where there are these special
factors cannot be moved from a lower to a higher group, and all that can
be done is to have regard to these factors when the time comes for those
in any particular group to be considered. As between those of equal
pointing the existence of such factors may determine which family shall
be selected to head the list.
Overcrowding.
The attached chart shows at a glance the extent of overcrowding
in the district and how it is comprised. The permitted number for
any accommodation is indicated by the figure running horizontally at
the top. Dropping down vertically to the datum line gives the reading
in the left vertical column of the same number. All the figures in the
vertical column below the datum line relate to numbers of families
which occupy that accommodation and are overcrowded, giving the
numbers of different degrees of crowding. For instance, starting with
accommodation for which the permitted number is 2. Dropping vertically
to the datum line, below it is a figure 72. The reading in the
left-hand vertical column is 2½. This means that there are 72 families
living in accommodation which is a half-unit (2½ minus 2) overcrowded.
The figure of 46 below on the horizontal line of three persons in the house
means that there are 46 families occupying accommodation of a permitted
number of 2 of 3 units, being therefore 1 unit overcrowded.
Towards the other end of the scale of families occupying a house with
a permitted number of 7½ units, 10 are crowded to the extent of a halfunit,
8 by one unit and so on. In all 52 families with this accommodation
are overcrowded.
A summary of the overcrowded position at the end of the year
is that 185 families were overcrowded bv a half-unit, 145 bv 1, 80 by
36 by 2, 22 by 2½, 13 by 3, 9 by 3½, 3 by 4, and 3 by 5.
The chart also shows that of families living in one room, 148
were overcrowded, of families in two rooms 162, of those in three 53, and
of those in a house of four or more rooms 133.