HOUSING CRUNCH
Homes for steelworkers became a priority.
When construction of the Sydney steel plant began it became apparent that there was not enough housing for the influx of workers who would be engaged in both the erection of the plant’s buildings and the workers who would forge steel at the plant.
This concern was voiced at a town council meeting in 1899, when the mayor was asked if the Dominion Iron and Steel Company intended to build housing as local rumours had implied.
Mayor Walter Crowe replied that “so far as he could learn such was not the intention of the company unless forced to do so.” The company had no intention of building housing; this would be a private venture.
The private housing industry did not develop in Sydney and the workers at the steel plant were forced to live in housing either provided by the company or in extremely expensive housing provided by the community.
Single men bed-shared in “hotels” and many workingclass families lived in communal housing shared with many families. The company, therefore, pushed forward a plan to provide the housing that the community could not.
The company secured a section of land in the south end of Sydney and constructed houses on Whitney Avenue.
According to David Baker, the general manager of the steel plant, the company spent $17,000 building 28 fairly good homes on this street. These houses, however, were not to be rented by the working class.
“In this district of Park Street and Whitney Avenue, the company has erected a number of detached cottages of a character adapted to the needs of its between class of employees, such as superior mechanics and superintendents of departments.”
These houses were all two and a half stories with a dining room, kitchen and parlor on the main floor. The houses built on the west side of the street were slightly smaller than the houses on the east side of the street.
The smaller homes had three bedrooms and a bathroom on the second floor while the larger homes had four bedrooms and a bathroom on the second floor. All the houses had unfinished attics and basements. These were not the shacks that were located on the plant site.
Many steel workers began to leave because they could not afford housing. The company was forced to provide housing to its workers or they would leave. This meant that the company was forced to turn the camps into numbered shacks owned by the company and rented by workers, until more permanent housing could be built.
The last lot of shacks were quickly erected as a stop-gap measure to house workers until other housing projects were completed.
The company also selected a section of property along the newly built Victoria Road, which ran through the plant, to construct a series of double houses. If the property should be needed for future expansion of the plant, then the company was willing to relocate them, but in the meantime, these houses were of the utmost importance to the functioning of the plant.
The company claimed if it built these housing units they would get what they needed and the town would be able to profit from the taxes that these houses would derive.
Further, David Baker argued the financial benefit would come from the difference in cost for company housing and the exorbitant rents charged by locals would be spent in local stores.
The Sydney Record reported on Sept. 27, 1902 that the housing situation was “… forced upon the company by the
“If it is now in the best interests of the town of Sydney that the Dominion Iron and Steel Company be successful in its operations here, then it would be inadvisable for the townspeople to place every barrier possible in the way of the company providing suitable accommodation for the men now here, and those to be employed this winter.”
The Sydney Record, Sept. 27, 1902
failure of real estate owners and dealers to provide what is necessary to enable the company to hold its organization. If it is now in the best interests of the town of Sydney that the Dominion Iron and Steel Company be successful in its operations here, then it would be inadvisable for the townspeople to place every barrier possible in the way of the company providing suitable accommodation for the men now here, and those to be employed this winter.”
Housing was a necessity not just for the town but for the company. The company therefore pursued a policy of company housing for its employees not simply as a means to ensure employee loyalty but also because housing was something that the town itself could not provide.