Housing and the Birth Rate in Sweden

Abstract

NVESTIGATORS of public housing in Europe never fail to be impressed with the accomplishments of Sweden, that amazing land of prosperity, social democracy, and co-operatives, toward which public spirited Americans have turned an envious gaze during the past few years. Blest with a homogeneous population, largely freed from the crushing economic aftermath of the World War, endowed with a genius for self-government and for political and economic compromise, and favored with a large foreign trade due to the excellence of its products, Sweden has gone farther than most European countries, except the Netherlands, in rehousing its citizens in attractive tenements and cottages. In Stockholm, especially, the new housing projects, recently built or in process of building, cover acres of land and please the eye of every visitor by their warm tints of pink or cream and their window balconies running over with flowers. More than 28,ooo flats, comprising 62,ooo rooms had been erected in the period I9I8-I936 with municipal and State aid.' In the suburbs of the city are steadily rising fourand five-room cottages, each with its plot of land, its trees and its flower gardens, built not only for the middle class of various income levels but for workers. More than 5oooo people have been provided with these comfortable suburban homes since I926, when the government launched its small housing scheme. How has it been possible for a country of modest wealth to have achieved such results in rehousing its population, more particularly in the capital city, where housing conditions were most unsatisfactory after the World War? Briefly the answer is that years ago the city of Stockholm and somewhat later the national government adopted a broad, far-sighted policy in regard to housing. In the case of the city this policy has had five important aspects: first, the purchase of large tracts of land and its preparation for building sites; second, town-planning; third, continuous experimentation in suitable types of houses; fourth, financial aid in the form of loans and subsidies given by the city to recognized housing companies; fifth, direct municipal building of workers' homes. Since 1904 Stockholm has been putting these policies into operation. It was about thirteen years later that the State accepted responsibility for erecting decent homes for its citizens in a period of acute housing shortage. Its growing concern expressed itself first in extensive legislation to promote town planning and home building, with subsequent laws to hold down