Estimates of Deficiencies in housing for Palestine before 1948 (Nakba). British Mandate: A Survey of Palestine: Volume II - Page 786. Chapter XVIII: Town Planning and The Problem of Housing : Section 1: Town Planning And Building Control : (e) Improvement Trust : Section 2: Present Housing Needs : Part 1

CHAPTER XVIII.

(e) Improvement Trusts.

15. Consideration is being given to the establishment of improvement trusts in order to assist local authorities to demolish obsolescent buildings and to clear up the slum areas that exist in the major towns.

Section 2.

PRESENT HOUSING NEEDS.

PART I.

Estimate of deficiencies.

16. The present situation with regard to housing accommodation in Palestine is one of acute congestion, particularly in the four main towns of Jerusalem, Jaffa, Tel Aviv and Haifa. In the absence of statistical data from the censuses of 1922 and 1931 concerning inhabited houses and occupied rooms, the following observations are necessarily based upon an inferential examination of the vital and immigration statistics of Palestine supplemented to some extent by partial surveys of certain congested areas carried out by various bodies.

17. The principal causes leading up to the present shortage of

housing accommodation are as follows :

(a) Natural increase of population; (b) Immigration;

(c) Dislocation of the local building industry between 1936 and 1939 due to the repercussions of the Abyssinian war and the local Arab-Jewish disturbances;

(d) Legal restrictions placed upon building construction during the war in order to conserve resources for purposes of defence and the efficient prosecution of the war.

Other factors which have tended to aggravate an already difficult situation are the influx of temporary refugees and the diversion of existing residential accommodation to purposes connected with the war and the maintenance of internal security. In order to estimate the effect of these various factors it will be necessary to examine each in some detail. Owing to the greater amount of detailed information concerning the Jewish community, it will be convenient to deal with this section first.

786