British Mandate: A Survey of Palestine: Volume II - Page 799

CHAPTER XVIII.

In order to provide accommodation, at an average density of two persons per room, for the 15 ,413 persons covered by the survey an additional 3,770 rooms would be required. To what extent the survey is actually representative of the whole of the lower wage earning groups of the Jewish community in Jerusalem is not clear but, in a report presented to the Central Building Advisory Committee appointed by the Controller of Heavy Industries in 1944, Mr. Y. Ben Sira, City Engineer of Tel Aviv and chairman of the sub-committee appointed to enquire into the additional housing accommodation of the Jewish community, reported that, in the Jewish areas of Jerusalem, 13,300 room units were required in order to reduce the average density of population to two persons per room. This would appear to suggest that 58% of the Jewish population of Jerusalem in 1944 fell within the lower wage earning groups and were housed at an average density of 3.914 persons per room. Having regard to the objects for which the Hadassah survey was undertaken and the very high percentage of the population which Mr. Ben Sira's report suggests as falling within the lower wage earning group, the number of rooms required to reduce the density of occupation of the Jewish community of Jerusalem to two persons per room, viz. 13,300 rooms, probably errs on the high side.

40. Tel Aviv. In the same report, the sub-committee presided over by Mr. Ben Sira gave the following tabular summary of housing conditions in Tel Aviv and the adjacent Jewish quarters of Jaffa.

Table T.

Zone

I No. of inhabitants

No. of

Average density

No. of rooms required to reduce density to 2 persons per room

1 98,880 25,250 1.54 -
2 58,550 25,050 2.14 1,720
9 87,600 12,650 s 6,150
4 89,500 8,550 8.91 8,200
5 29,000 5,800 8.96 5,700
' J 186,590

77,800

21,770

If these figures are to be relied upon it would appear that no less than 21,770 room units are required to reduce the density of occupation in Tel Aviv to an apparent average of two persons per room.

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