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10
Housing conditions are improving as a result of the policy of
the Council which is to replace those in houses which have been
closed as unfit, and those shown to be overcrowded as a result of last
year's report. In all, up to the end of the year 360 houses have
been built by the Council to let.
At the same time, rapid progress has been made with building
houses for sale, the total number purchased during the year under
the Small Dwellings Acquisition Act was 848, and the total amount
of loans under the Small Dwellings Acquisition Act up to the end of
1928 was £2,004,686.
The plight of a family with children in their search for accommodation
is still lamentable. They have only to mention the fact
that there are children, and the door is closed on their enquiries.
There is a long list waiting for Council houses as they become
vacant, but it has been disappointment to those at the head of the
list as ejectments of decent people keep occurring in de-controlled
houses, or houses still controlled, where the house is required for the
children of the owner within the section of the Act.
In view of the fact that these people have no accommodation
their case must be regarded as taking precedence over those who
have a roof over their heads. In the meantime van dwellers increase
and are becoming a great difficulty in the district.
With respect to Van Dwellers, the time is rapidly approaching
in my opinion, when the comparative immunity which this class of
population has secured must be re-considered. I have yet to meet
the Medical Officer of Health who has had much to do with this
class of population, who does not regard them as an unmitigated
nuisance. True there is a certain proportion of the better class
who are law abiding citizens, but there is a considerable number
subversive of discipline, rowdy, threatening to those who interfere
with them, dirty in their habits, and generally undesirable in any
district.