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Priority for Rehousing
A major item in the work of this section consists in the assessment of applications for
Council housing calling for priority on medical grounds. The very considerable backlog in this
work dating from the institution of the new Borough is now overcome.
The effects which can be secured by improvement in housing in the alleviation of ill
health and disease are very restricted. For the most part medical benefits must fall under two
heads:-
(1) to lighten the burdens incidental to chronic illness such as bronchitis and
joint disease, to causing which poor housing conditions themselves do not
contribute;
(2) to remove the manifestations of severe mental stress which in some cases,
in the ordinary sense of words, are the result of difficulties over housing.
Complaints may be bizarre; the distress real.
In these two categories especially the proper estimate of remediable disability is very
difficult; to discriminate between annoyance which may be literally unspeakable, and pain, discomfort
and lack of breath. In cases of mental disability through housing troubles, to secure some
uniformity of assessment, it has been found useful and advisable to ask for the opinion of a
psychiatric specialist. In general this has been welcomed as relieving the severe burden on the
general practitioners concerned.
A particular form of this kind of mental disability is the extreme hatred entertained by
many people for life in a tower block of flats. Manifestations are all different, from hysterical
outbursts to actual neurosis, from raging and weeping to quiet obsession, but the complaint is
always the same. In a proportion of cases an additional cause for outrage is the height; and
since older persons are now often housed on the top floors of a tower, this is a prominent symptom
with the old; but in fact inability to digest life in the towers is found at every age. A fair
estimate is that the towers are satisfactory homes for about 80% of those who try them, and of
these many express themselves as delighted with the life; the remaining 20% complain, and half
of them complain bitterly; and 5% will stir the infernal powers until they get out to more suitable
accommodation.
During the year a survey was carried out of the housing requirements of 120 persons over
the age of 65 (not a completely random selection, which is difficult to secure). It seems that these
people's wishes as regards homes are surprisingly modest; they hate stairs, they would wish to
be dry and warm; and they want to be on the bus routes. The universal dream is to retire to a
little cottage with a garden. There is an apparent need in the Borough for dwellings suitable for
old people who, though they may be frail, are not invalid; and it is likely that such provision would
relieve a considerable amount of the recurrent provision for medical and para-medical services.
Taking into account the special problems and conditions of the Borough, it appears that the need
amounts to not less than 1,600 suitable dwellings.
The housing application list dealt with by the Health Department is of exceptional
interest in that it forms, in important respects, a substantially unbiased selection from the
population of working age and over. In all investigations of chronic medical conditions a great
difficulty is to obtain a fair sample. It may be hoped that this particularly will lead to further
information about such scourges of community health as bronchitis and rheumatism.
F.J.Goodey
Senior Medical Officer - Community Care
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