British Mandate: A Survey of Palestine: Volume II - Page 810

CHAPTER XVIII.

gurd to the extent to which it will contribute to the relief of congestion in the main town. The above extreme limit of a 30 mil bus fare will not under any circumstances be exceeded.

7. The only restrictions placed upon the type of building are that it shall be small and, consequently, suitable for the accommodation of the working class population, who cannot at the outside afford to pay for more than three rooms. In estimating for the provision of those materials which are dependent upon the number of Housing Units as distinct from the number of Room Units, the following figures have been adopted as the probable distribution of the 27,000 Nominal Room Units:

5,000 Single room houses comprising

5,000 Nominal Room Units

5,000 Two room houses comprising

10,000 Nominal Room Units

4,000 Three room houses comprising

12,000 Nominal Room Units

Total 14,000 houses comprising

27,000 Nominal Room Units.

8. It is not possible to give at the present time any accurate picture of the geographical distribution of these 14,000 houses; it may, however, be stated that, on the basis of applications from Housing Associations, the demand appears to be greatest in the Jaffa and Tel Aviv area and least in the Jerusalem area.

9. A mistaken idea has been circulated to the effect that materials provided for the Scheme are to be reserved for Housing Associations, but nothing could be further from the truth. It is true that, up to the present, private individuals have not been asked to submit applications whereas Housing Associations have been so invited. The reason for this differentiation is that, whereas iu the case of private individuals desirous of building for their own accommodation the question of profiteering in rents does not arise, and when the scheme is thrown open applications from such individuals will be approved without formality. In the case of Housing Associations the problem is somewhat different and it has been considered necessary, or at least desirable, for the Controller of Heavy Industries to examine proposals from such bodies in some detail in order to ensure that materials will not be released without some assurance that the rent to be charged will be fair and reasonable, taking all the circumustances into account. The examination of these schemes takes time and it has, therefore, been necessary to invite applications from Housing Associations in advance of the private individual so that by the time materials arrive there will be no delay. During the course of these investigations certain urgent cases have arisen and materials for the construction of 300 Nominal Room Units have been advanced from merchants' normal stocks in order to meet the emergency. These advance allocations were made in the public interest and not for the benefit of Associations and they spread over 10 schemes, from Holan in the south to Kiriat Haim and Haifa Bay Lands in the north, 60% being in the Jaffa-Tel Aviv area and 40% in the Haifa neighbourhood. With these minor exceptions, it will he

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