We Call it Home

Book excerpt: We Call It Home begins in the 19th century, when the private sector failed to provide affordable housing for the poor. This led the Liberal government to build the first state houses in 1905: workers' dwellings. It moves on to examine the state house styles -- the archetypal state house of the first Labour Government is well known, but this wasn't the only kind of state house. Schrader asks why the government seemed so keen on housing nuclear families at the expense of other family groups, and through his interviews finds out who did the chores, what they ate, and what they did together, and charts the changing structure of state house families. Finally, Schrader looks at the changing public perceptions of state housing. In the 1930s securing a state house was viewed as a 'step up', but by the 1970s it had come to be seen as a 'step down'. Why the change? It is the author's hope that We Call It Home " ... will give readers a greater understanding of the ways in which state housing has affected the lives of generations of Kiwis, and of the important role it has played in shaping New Zealand society."