APPALLING CONDITIONS IN CITY

Act now on housing

Squalor in Vancouver

“WRETCHED CONDITIONS” ‘UNIMAGINABLE SQUALOR” is the way the report of the United
Community Services of Greater Vancouver describes housing conditions in the city. These photos
show some of the terrible conditions found in Vancouver. These are only two of many pictures
taken by the Vancouver Housing Association which point up the need for an extensive slum clear-
ance and low rental housing program now.

Crash program
urged by Rankin

By MAURICE RUSH

“Low income families in Vancouver ‘are living under the
most wretched conditions of squalor imaginable,” says a report
on housing released by the United Community Services of Greater
Vancouver.

The report says there is a chronic shortage of rental hous-
ing for families with children regardless of income.

It charges that elderly persons with low incomes commonly
pay 50% of their income for rent of substandard accommodation.
That there are virtually no suitable facilities for the physically
handicapped. And that students and other groups suffer from

lack of housing.

The conclusion of the report is that ‘The current shortage
of housing for low income persons in Metropolitan Vancouver

demands urgent attention.”’

The UCS report gives these
examples of conditions under
which people are living in Van-
couver today: :

@ Parents and six children in
fire-gutted shell of a house, no
furnace, broken windows, damp
and full of cockroaches,

@: Mother with four children in
one small room on Granville,
washing dishes and clothes in
handbasin, Rent $80.00

@ Parents and three teenagers
in two small vermin infested
rooms over store, Have to close
one room in winter because ofthe
cold,

The report says that over-
crowded slums have a harmful
effect on health and family life
and that high rents leave less
money for food, clothing and rec-
reaction. “Decent housing is a
social right,” says the report,
But it is obviously a right which
tens of thousands are denied,

“As many as a quarter to a
third of the residents of the
Lower Mainland could benefit
from public housing,” says the
report which urges the building
of vast quantities of public hous-
ing.

Pointing to the alarming degree
to which Vancouver is falling be-
hind in providing suitable hous-
ing, the report turns its atten-
tion to the most needy group, It

says: “It is apparent that decent .

rental accommodation is scarce-
ly within reach of the average
income family and certainly be-
yond the reach of the below aver-
age income family.”

The UCS report says that fami-
lies should not be expected to pay
more than 20-25% of family in-
come for shelter, but, it charges,

“there is evidence to suggest a ~

large proportion of low income
persons are paying too much for
housing,”

The city housing crisis is to
be discussed at a public meet-
ing called by the United Com-
munity Services at the First
United Church, 320 FE, Hastings
St., Tue, Nov. 29 at 7:55 p.m,

This week the housing crisis
in Canada received wide national
attention with the release of the
report by the Economic Council
of Canada which warned that the
housing shortage is on the verge
of becoming acute,

“In the absence of an early
upturn in new residential con-
struction, a severe housing short-
age could emerge very quickly

See Housing, pg. 12

Seriously ill.

HARVEY MURPHY, well-known
labor leader, Vice President of
the Mine Mill & Smelterwork-
er’s Union, and a life-long
Communist leader, is seriously’
ill with bronchial pneumonia in
Vancouver General Hospital.