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27
HOUSING.
The housing conditions in Hammersmith are far from ideal,
and although approximately 1,040 houses have been erected
in the Borough since 1920, very little, if any, reduction in
the overcrowded conditions has resulted.
The cost of building these so-called working class dwellings
has been so great that the economic rents charged are higher
than the people for whom they were intended can afford to
pay-
Many of the tenants have sub-let part of the houses, and
there is a danger that overcrowding may result, and the
health of the inhabitants suffer as in other overcrowded parts
of the Borough.
It is impossible for the average man earning from 55s. to
70s. per week, to pay the rents demanded. In most cases
there are 3 or 4 children, which adds to this difficulty.
The London County Council declines to accept tenants when
their financial position does not justify their being accepted
as tenants of State assisted accommodation.
I am continually receiving letters from inhabitants asking
me to assist them to obtain houses. In all such cases inquiries
are made and referred with observations to the London County
Council or Borough Council.
In my previous Report, I set out some of the cases which
had been brought to my notice during 1924.
Many more cases of equal urgency have been the subject
of inspection and report.
In three cases it has been necessary for Closing Orders to
be made under the Housing Act, in respect to basement rooms
being used for sleeping purposes.
A further case of a man and wife with 7 children living
in two basement rooms, and a further child expected, is one
of the many.
In several cases 4, 5 and even 6 persons are living in
one room.
The building of houses has been carried.on with such
dilatoriness, that it has been impossible to deal even with
the urgent cases. At the present moment there are 1,800
cases on the waiting list.
There are many hundreds of families who now occupy the
same accommodation as they did many years ago. It may