- cp ii yHD
1293

ASN3
No.l G

4
x Housing Programme

BY

LAWRENCE VEILLER

National Housing Association Publications: 16
Price, Five Cents
June? ro r2

105 East 22d Street, New York CityReprinted from

PROCEEDINGS OF FIRST NATIONAL
HOUSING CONFERENCEA PROGRAMME OF HOUSING REFORM
LAWRENCE VEILLER

SUPPOSE a programme of housing reform should really be

I as comprehensive as the first article of the constitution of

our own National Housing Association, UU, 9 Finer Hin

provement of housing conditions both urban and suburban in
every way practicable.”

While a housing programme should be thus broadly compre-
hensive, at the same time it should be as definite and precise as
those very housing laws which we are urging people to enact.

I shall try to outline in the short time there is this afternoon
what seem to me to be the essential principles of such a pro-
gramme, and if I do not adequately cover the ground it is not
because I do not realize what the ground is, but because of the
inadequacy of the time at my disposal on this occasion.

A programme of housing reform suggests something that
needs to be changed; it suggests remedies for existing condi-
tions. I assume that we all agree that before we can say what
the remedies shall be, we must know the conditions. We none
of us, I take it, are in that benighted state of medical educa-
tion where we want to treat Symptoms; we must, however,
know what the symptoms: are. Our first task, therefore, in
formulating a programme is to discover the actual conditions,
the symptoms, and then our second duty, is toe discover the
causes for those conditions, and like moder practitioners, pro-
ceed to remove the causes.

Following that line of thought, the question at once suggests
itself, ‘‘ How are we to find out the facts?” Only by patient,
careful investigation. There is no other way, no royal road to
progress, no ready specific that will spare us the effort and the
expense involved in such investigation. And it is good that
this is so.4 NATIONAL HOUSING ASSOCIATION

Every community needs to find out for itself that it does not
know the facts about itself, to realize that it has been living in
darkness, that hundreds, and even thousands of its citizens are
living under conditions such as the wildest efforts of their
imaginations could not have conceived to be existent in their
community. The awakening at first is a bitter one. ihe
dream has been so pleasant—it was so comfortable to be able
to say, “ Our city is a city of homes—we have no slums,” that
the first feeling is a dazed one, the sensibilities of the com-
munity are shocked.

The first step therefore is the organization of the community
so that it may undertake such an inquiry, that it may educate
itself.

Here, broad statesmanlike views are of great importance.
We must recognize that we are not sallying forth as amateurs
on a pleasant holiday excursion into sociological realms, but
are embarking upon a movement fraught with the most serious
consequences to the community; that upon the intelligence,
earnestness, wisdom and devotedness of our efforts, will depend
the health, the welfare and the social and economic progress of
literally thousands of our fellow citizens. Such a movement is
not to be undertaken lightly; if we do not care enough about
it to be willing to devote effort, thought and money to it for
many years, we had better leave it alone until some group of
citizens can be found who realize that it, like marriage, is ‘‘ for
life,’ and are willing to enlist in the cause for an indefinite
period.

Establish, therefore, at the start a permanent movement for
housing reform—either as a new separate society or as part of
some existing érganization, whose work is naturally allied to an
undertaking o&‘this kind. The former course is generally the
better in the long run, although the latter has distinct advan-
tages. The important thing to do is to enlist the leading busi-
ness men of your city, to ally this movement with the Cham-
ber of Commerce or Board of Trade, to make it above all things
a practical movement. If we are to succeed, our methods, aims
and suggestions must commend themselves to practical men.
Having established such a movement, and having enlisted inA PROGRAMME OF HOUSING REFORM 5

the cause those persons and interests that are likely to be most
helpful, the next step is a social investigation which will disclose
the actual conditions existing in your city.

We must not forget, however, the purpose we have in view,
viz., to find remedies that will bring about better conditions,
and our inquiry must be undertaken always with that definite
purpose in mind. Such an investigation should generally take
from three months to a year, depending on the size and char-
acter of the city. It will concern itself primarily with the living
conditions of those members of the community who are least
able to protect themselves, that is, with the factory workers
and especially the alien population. It is with these parts of
the community that trouble is generally to be found.

Such an investigation having been completed, the next step
is the education of the community. The facts discovered must
be made known and their significance brought home. This is
to be done in a variety of ways; primarily through a printed
report, which above all things should be readable and interest-
ing, with a very generous use of photographs of the typical
conditions disclosed. In no way can money be spent so ad-
vantageously as in securing good photographs of the worst con-
ditions. And here a word of caution may be not amiss. We
should not attempt to save money by using amateur work. It
is only money wasted. Let us be sure, however, that our in-
vestigator always accompanies the professional photographer,
otherwise we shall get good photographs but not ones that
illustrate the points we want. No ordinary photographer can
conceive that a vile vault filled with indescribable filth, or some
alley piled high with garbage and rubbish, is a fit subject for a
photograph. Nor should there be hesitation in publishing pic-
tures of the worst conditions, unpleasant though they may be.
It is a false modesty which dictates their suppression. In no
other way can the community realize the conditions under
which many of its members live.

In addition to the report, sometimes an exhibit of the results
of the investigation is well worth while. Part of it displayed in
the window of the principal department store will attract wide
attention to the larger exhibit held in the assembly room of6 NATIONAL HOUSING ASSOCIATION

some central meeting place. Lectures with lantern slides,
newspaper articles and editorials, personal interviews—all play
an important part in the educational campaign. Most import-
ant of all, however, is a carefully organized series of personal
visits around the slums to see at first hand the typical condi-
tions, taking with us the people we want to influence—editors,
reporters, legislators, aldermen, business men, club women,
society leaders, labor men, whoever it may be

The next step after the education of the community is the
effort to secure legislation which will remedy, so far as practic-
able, the evil conditions discovered, and will prevent their repe-
tition in the future.

This is generally the most difficult part of the whole move-
ment. The drafting of such laws is not an easy task. It taxes
one’s best powers and calls for technical skill, wisdom, patience,
foresight, clear vision. Especially is it necessary to put aside
provincialism and be willing to be guided by the experience of
older communities which have successfully coped with similar
problems. Above all, we should be onour guard against taking
short views, against being content with low standards. The
smaller the community the easier it should be to take an advanced
position, because housing evils have become less entrenched
there, and the hardship involved in more stringent legislation will
be but slightly felt. This would seem obvious to us all, but Iam
constantly surprised to find views directly opposed to this gen-
erally held in the smaller communities. One often hears it
said: “Of course we cannot expect to have our laws as
stringent as those of the larger cities like New York and Chi-
cago, because our conditions are not so bad.” To illustrate:
It is impossible, in a city like New York, to limit the height of
future non-fireproof tenement houses to three or four stories.
Owing to high land values it is necessary to permit such houses
to be built six stories high. Yet in most American cities where
land values are very much less, it is entirely feasible to limit
such height to three stories, and in others to four stories. Yet
frequently we find people in such communities believing that
they cannot make their laws more stringent than those of New
York.A PROGRAMME OF HOUSING REFORM i

Similarly with regard to percentage of lot that may be occu-
pied. Ina city like New York it is impracticable to require
more than thirty per cent of an interior lot to be left unbuilt
upon, but in many cities forty and even fifty per cent is entirely
feasible. As a matter of fact, the present practise in most
cities, so far as one can judge, is nearer the fifty per cent basis
than the thirty. Here, again, the smaller community can safely
enact more stringent requirements. Failure to realize this
means disaster. No surer way of getting bad conditions could
be devised than failing to put up the bars high enough to shut
out the invading host.

Having secured legislation, many housing reformers think
they have accomplished what they sought to do, whereas, in
fact, they have just begun. Heretofore they have been pre-
paring the soil, and this is seed time, not harvest. If they want
to get the fruits of their efforts they must be prepared to stay
at the work for many years to come. How often have we seen
important laws completely nullified through lack of enforce-
ment. Housing reform in this respect differs somewhat from
other great social causes inasmuch as there is always an inter-
ested opposition ready to take advantage of the slightest relax-
ation on the part of the community. Eternal vigilance is in-
deed the price of liberty in this field.

Moreover, there are great opportunities to be taken advantage
of. he next step; therefore, is to see to it that tie housing
laws which have been obtained with such difficulty are properly
enforced. They are sure to be not properly enforced unless
the people responsible for them do stand by and prod and aid
the public officials. The ways in which they can help are man-
ifold. Inthe first place, laws often, even when clearly drawn,
are susceptible of different interpretation by different persons.
The public official who has to enforce them may have had no
knowledge of the conditions which led to their enactment or of
the considerations involved in framing them, and may place an
entirely different interpretation upon them from what was in-
tended, either causing unnecessary hardship to owners and
architects, or unconsciously defeating some of the law’s pri-
mary purposes.NATIONAL HOUSING ASSOCIATION

Again, the public official often needs the support of the most
influential members of the community in insisting that the new
laws shall be fully enforced. In many communities while there
have been housing laws on the statute books for many years
they have been dead letters, and when it is proposed to enforce
them there generally spreads over the community a storm of
opposition which vents itself upon the official responsible for
their enforcement. He would not be human if he did not re-
spond to this wave of public sentiment.

It is vitally important, therefore, to see that there is a counter-
wave of sympathy insisting that the new law shall be enforced,
and enforced inall respects. Itis interesting to see how quickly
selfish opposition is beaten down when a strong, disinterested
support for these reforms is made manifest.

Moreover, much of the opposition which arises is through
ignorance. Owners and builders have been told by persons
who are seeking to defeat the legislation that the law is imprac-
ticable and have been led to believe all sorts of extraordinary
things about its operation. They need to be talked to and
reasoned with by the friends of the law, who can sit down with
them and show them how the law actually works. It is extra-
ordinary what beneficial results flow from this frank, friendly
meeting on neutral ground of those who would otherwise be
enemies.

In addition to these ways in which those interested in the
improvement of housing conditions can be helpful at this par-
ticular period of the movement’s development, is the impor-
tant part they can play in securing for the branches of the city
government responsible for the enforcement of the law, ade-
quate financial support from the city authorities to enable them
to do their work. None of us can work without tools, and the
tools of the public official are men and money. He must have
the money before he can have the men. Without the men he
can do little.

Let us beware of the experience of an important city in the
East, where after much effort an important housing law was
enacted and the good citizens who had brought it about sat
down content, expecting that the inspector of buildings wouldA PROGRAMME OF HOUSING REFORM 9

see that it was properly enforced. They were much surprised
some years later to learn from a visitor to their city who found
the laws unenforced, that their building inspector had no assis-
tants and spent his entire time in his office, practically never
going out to see whether the buildings were being built accord-
ing to law or not. Under these circumstances an improved
housing law is not of very great advantage except possibly as
marking an expression on the part of the community of what it
believes its standard should be.

The steps we have hitherto considered—investigation, educa-
cation, legislation and enforcement—are the big, vital steps in
the movement for housing reform in every city. Before con-
ditions have been made adequate probably many years will
elapse and until these particular things have been done it is
generally unwise to develop other forms of remedial effort, but
these may be very appropriately developed after the essential
matters have been achieved. Bearing this in mind, we may
consider further phases of our programme.

Of first importance is the consideration of the types of
houses utilized in the community for the housing of the work-
ing people, and a consideration of whether new types might
not be developed and encouraged through private enterprise.
Sometimes there is a real dearth of proper housing accommo-
dations for the working people and this must necessarily be met
at an early stage of the movement’s development.

What is the best type for one city is not necessarily the best
type for another. The question can be determined only after
careful study of local conditions, of local land values, of the
cost of building, the prevailing rentals, the habjty and desires of
the people, of what they have become ac¢eusiamed to in the
way of housing accommodation.

In New York city, unfortunately, the tenement house is prac-
tically the one type that is possible to-day except in the out-
lying sections, and it is questionable whether even in those
parts of the city anything but the tenement house can be ex-
pected. But this condition is strictly peculiar to New York.
There is no other city in America where such conditions pre-
vail, no other city where the tenement house is a necessity as10 NATIONAL HOUSING ASSOCIATION

the chief type of dwelling for the working population of that
city. Even in Chicago, which in recent years has been built
up so extensively with tenement houses, even there the small
house is still practicable. So it is in all our other American
cities.

The type of small house that can be built and rented at
rentals within the means of the working population necessarily
varies in different cities. In some cities where land values are
high, single-family houses can not be built which will rent at
reasonable rentals and be commercially profitable, but two-
family houses can. This is an excellent type of house and one
to be encouraged wherever land values are so high that the
single-family house can not be successfully built.

The two-family house is primarily of two kinds—one the
double house with a party wall in the middle, with separate en-
trances on each side and each family having one-half the house
throughout the entire building. The other type is that in which
one family has the ground floor and possibly the basement, and
a second family has the second floor, or sometimes the second
and third floors, with separate entrances for each family.

The great advantage of the two-family house is that gener-
ally the owner occupies half of it and sees to it that the house
is well maintained and properly kept up. He generally is able
to get his rent free by means of the return from the other half
of the house.

Where land values are not so high that two-family houses or
tenements are essential, but where they are too high for the
development of the detached one-family house with land around
it, there is stilk Rossilsle the one-family house built in rows, the
type of house'whiéh the city of Philadelphia has developed
with such extraordinary success. Building these on a narrow
frontage of fifteen feet, as is done in that city, and having the
lot only about forty feet deep, it is possible to erect houses of
this kind; and by having the operation on a large scale and
building rows of a great many at once, so to cheapen construc-
tion that these houses are quite within the reach of the average
working man. As is well known, houses of this kind are built
in Philadelphia to-day,—brick houses, two stories high, withA PROGRAMME OF HOUSING REFORM IOA

good cellar and comprising four rooms and bath, which sell
with the land and with all improvements for about two thousand
dollars a house.

What Philadelphia has done every other city in the United
States can do except New York and possibly Boston. We
should hear no more talk of tenements in our other cities, model
tenements or others. Let our philanthropists who wish to build
houses for the working man do it by all means, but let them
build small houses, not gigantic barracks of tenements. The
tenement is neither necessary nor desirable

Another form of useful effort is in the formation of com-
panies for the management of workingmen’s houses. Many of
the bad conditions which prevail are due to lack of proper man-
agement. The problem in many of our cities is sanitary, not
structural. It is the problem of good housekeeping; and suc-
cessful management is the best way to overcome these evils,
plus of course always proper supervision by the health author-
ities. It is not safe to trust to enlightened self-interest alone,
as there will always be a considerable number of landlords who
cannot be relied upon to administer their property properly.

Management of workingmen’s houses is both a science and
an art. We have to learn the business and should realize, be-
fore undertaking work of this kind, that it is not so easy a task
as it appears on the surface. It has generally been found that
women make far more successful managers of such property
1an men, and a new field opens for the social worker in this

3)

direction—“ friendly rent collecting,’ as it is called in Eng-
land, where it was started many years ago, and has been car-
ried on so efficiently by Miss Octavia Hill and her associates
and disciples. It is not unknown in this country, and wherever
it has been tried in America it has proved uniformly suc-
cessful.

Closely allied to these forms of effort is the attempt to bring
about ara improvement of the older dwellings in an organized
way. This can be done in several ways. The one which has
been most generally adopted has been to buy up some old
property and gradually improve it, attempting to keep the
same tenants in the building where possible. Such tenantsIOB NATIONAL HOUSING ASSOCIATION

have generally been found to respond to the improved envir-
onment.

Another successful way, and it seems to me a better one, is
to buy up such old property, put out all the tenants, radically
improve the property so far as it will stand the expense, and
then sell the renovated building to a newowner. As one house
or row of houses is thus put in condition and disposed of ad-
vantageously at a profit, those engaged in the operation are free
to invest their capital in another row of houses and repeat this
work continuously. The capital thus invested is live capital
and is constantly being turned over and increased. The efforts
of the group of people engaged in this particular phase oi
housing reform are thus multiplied a hundredfold and their
area of influence greatly increased. This form of effort is
especially successful when there has been organized in the same
city a company to see that workingmen’s houses are properly
managed; thus one group puts the houses in condition and
leaves their management to a second group, until ultimately all
of the houses of the city have been put and are kept in proper
condition.

As an outcome of this movement for better management of
workingmen’s houses, comes naturally a plan for the selection
of tenants. A good manager will not take into his house ten-
ants whom he knows to be destructive or disorderly. It is bad
policy to do so; it means loss of rents through bad debts, it
means deterioration of property and it means generally the
driving out of the better tenants from the house. None of
these things is desirable, either from the point of view of the
owner of the property, or from the point of view of the com-
munity, or of the tenants’ welfare. Tenants who are orderly,
pay their rent promptly and are careful of the property should
be protected from either disorderly or disreputable neighbors.
Nothing is easier. It is perfectly simple for any landlord to
find out all about prospective tenants before he takes them in,
just as a visitor of an associated charities finds out about the
poor who come to it for aid, by going to the places where the
family last lived and making inquiries as to its reputation and
character.A PROGRAMME OF HOUSING REFORM Ioc

To be most effective, work of this kind should be carried on
in an organized way by which there will be a practical clearing
house for landlords, who could thus make a white list of the
good tenants and keep track of the tenants who are undesirable.
In a short time practically all tenants in each community would
become listed. It would then be a very simple matter, requiring
almost no investigation but simply a telephone inquiry, for a
landlord to find out whether a prospective tenant was desirable
or not.

Similarly a clearing house for tenants might be advantage-
ously established, so that respectable working people might
have some place at which to apply in order to get information
as to the best houses in the city that are for rent upon the
most reasonable terms and in which the owners are known to
be fair in their treatment of tenants and to see that the houses are
kept in proper condition. Where a town is well organized
from a labor-union point of view, such effort could be best
developed in active codperation with the labor unions, who
necessarily represent, as a rule, the best paid and most intelli-
gent elements of the working community.

Where such efforts are started there will naturally develop a
movement for the education of the tenant. None of us who is
familiar with the housing evils which prevail in our large cities
can fail to recognize that many of them are due to the habits of
the tenants,—due largely to ignorance of proper methods of
living and especially to a lack of sanitary standards. Nothing
is more urgently needed in every American city than an organ-
ized effort for the education of the tenant in the fundamental
principles of rational methods of living.

There are several ways in which this can be brought about.
The most effective is through personal influence and here there
is a tremendous opportunity for intelligent women. No field
of social work offers greater chances than this. Every city
should have on its health-department staff a woman sanitary in-
spector, whose chief function shall be the education of the ten-
ants, a sort of combined visiting nurse and sanitary inspector,
but who, unlike either visiting nurse or sanitary inspector as we
know them in most cities, does not simply visit families upon10D NATIONAL HOUSING ASSOCIATION

complaint or request, but who spends her time systematically
visiting the homes of the poor, going from house to house,
from door to door, from apartment to apartment, one after an-
other, getting acquainted with the families, winning their con-
fidence and gradually bringing home to them in practical ways
the best methods of living from a sanitary point of view. At
the same time she will see that the unsanitary conditions which
she discovers are promptly remedied; where the landlord is re-
sponsible, forcing him, through orders from the health depart-
ment, to clean up and remedy the bad conditions; where the
tenant is responsible, leading her, through education and per-
suasion, to change her habits, and where this is impracticable,
forcing her through fear of the law to live in a more cleanly and
decent way.

Wherever a woman inspector has been appointed to do work
of this kind—and a number of cities have taken up this form of
effort—her success has been immediate and emphatic. We shall
come to see in a few years that the work of our health depart-
ments is more along these lines than along any other, and I
predict that the time will soon come when every city will have on
its health staff not only one but a corps of women sanitary in-
spectors. It is essentially woman’s work.

More difficult than the education of the tenant is the educa-
tion of the landlord and the builder, but hopeless as this may
seem to some it is not to be despaired of. Landlords are still
human, even though they are landlords, and can be trusted to
respond to the same influences to which most men respond;
only before we can impress upon a man that we know more
about managing his property than he does we must know more.
We must be able to show him in terms that he will understand
the advantages to be gained by the methods of management
which we urge him to substitute for those which he has fol-
lowed for so many years.

Similarly, there is much successful work that can be done in
educating builders, in showing them new methods of construc-
tion which can be advantageously adopted, new conveniences
which can be provided for the future occupants of working-
men’s houses, which will make the houses more attractive.A PROGRAMME OF HOUSING REFORM IOE

An excellent illustration of this is had in New York’s tene-
ment houses. Here in recent years it has been noticed that the
sinks which have been supplied in the kitchens are entirely too
low and cause women much inconvenience, if not injury to
health, by having to stoop ever to too great an extent. The
mere calling of this matter to the attention of sink manufactur-
ers, plumbers and builders of new tenement houses would un-
questionably bring about an improvement.

Similarly, through private effort, we can encourage builders
to utilize open iron fences between their houses, like the ‘‘ hair-
pin” fence of the Philadelphia small house, rather than the un-
sightly wooden fences which prevail in many cities. This will
mean a great improvement for the neighborhood, because yards
will be kept in a more tidy condition when they can be seen by
the neighbors, there will be a freer circulation of air through-
out the interior of the block, and in every way conditions will
be materially improved.

In cities where the tenement house prevails, the intelligent
janitor is the important element in the effort to bring about
successful and efficient management. A training school for
janitors which will instruct them not only in the theory of their
work but in the practical side of it, would be a most profitable
development in many cities. The time is not so far distant
when we may look forward, I confidently predict, to the estab-
lishment of a sanitary institute where janitors of multiple dwell-
ings may be trained in all the problems which apply to such
buildings, and where, in addition, our health inspectors and
other government officials performing similar functions may
secure a thorough course of practical training before taking up
their important duties. The effort to bring about such condi-
tions might well occupy the attention of housing reformers as
part of our programme.

I have said little hitherto about congestion and overcrowding,
and many of my auditors may be surprised that I have made no
mention thus far of city planning or of garden cities as an im-
portant development, nor have I alluded to the importance of
developing our transit facilities as a means of solving the hous-

ing problem.1OF NATIONAL HOUSING ASSOCIATION

Iam not unmindful of the great interest which exists with
regard to these subjects, nor of their relation to the housing
problem, but they are not the immediate problem, or the im-
mediate remedies with which housing reformers have to deal in
the great majority of American cities. Outside of New York
city and some parts of Boston and a few isolated and limited
areas in some of the other cities, there is practically no prob-
lem of congestion in any of our American cities to-day, using
the term in its proper sense of land overcrowding. I do not
mean to say that there are not in all cities problems due to
uneconomic use of land; for instance, the crowding of small
houses too close together so that they darken each other while
adjacent to them is land which is worse than wasted, a catch-all
for refuse of every description. There is, too, in many of our
smaller cities, a tendency on the part of some real estate owners
to build tenements of the worst types though there is abundance
of vacant land for small houses. These all must be guarded
against. Yet with them clearly in mind it may be said that the
housing problem of most American cities is largely a sanitary
one and the nation’s housing problem may be said to-day to be
in great degree the problem of the alley, the problem of the
vault and general uncleanliness. These are the three great
national manifestations of bad housing conditions as they prevail
to-day, and it is clearly unwise for us as housing reformers to
focus our attention upon a particular problem like that of con-
gestion, which does concern us very much in New York but
which is of little moment at the present time in the majority
of our cities.

The same thing cannot be said of room overcrowding. This
is a problem which is common to all American cities, appear-
ing at the present time, it is true, only to a slight extent and in
isolated instances in most cities but still a problem which should
be met and dealt with adequately. It is but one phase of the
numerous details of the sanitary regulation of workingmen’s
dwellings with which our housing laws should deal.

Room overcrowding, as we know it in America (always ex
cepting New York) is still quite capable of being adequately
dealt with through very simple laws, if strictly enforced, but thereA PROGRAMME OF HOUSING REFORM roe

must be a well-developed body of public sentiment in each
community calling for their enforcement before this can be
done.

The garden-city movement is a most important one. Every
effort should be made to encourage and develop it. But for
my part I feel clear that it is unwise for those who are taking
up housing reform as a new problem to allow their attention to
be diverted from the fundamental and primary necessities of
decent housing for the poorest elements of the community by
the attractiveness of what must necessarily, for many years to
come, be a development for the better-paid members of the
community, and essentially a suburban or rural one. City
planning vitally affects the housing problem and should be
given the closest attention.

The problem which presses upon us and cries aloud for im-
mediate solution, however, is the problem of the city slum, and
we cannot wisely or fairly, in my judgment, divert effort toward
some of the more interesting and attractive forms of housing
until we have dealt with this serious social menace which
threatens to overwhelm American institutions if not adequately
met.NO

OO OS Or Es

NATIONAL HOUSING ASSOCIATION

SUMMARY

Form Citizens Committee.
Local Housing Association.
Make Investigation of Housing Conditions.
Education of the Community.
Secure Remedial and Preventive Legislation.
Aid Law Enforcement.
Provide Right Types of Workingmen’s Houses.
Organize Better Management of Workingmen’s Houses.
Improvement of the Older Houses.
Selection of Tenants—Clearing House for Landlords.

Clearing House for Tenants.

. Education of Tenants.

Education of Landlords and Builders.

. Training Schools for Janitors and Inspectors.

. Congestion and Room Overcrowding.

Garden Cities.

. City Planning.

Improved Transit Facilities.National Housing Association Publications

 

THE AWAKENING OF A STATE— INDIANA
By ALBION FELLOWS BACON.

Three cents by the hundred; two cents by the thousand.
WHAT BAD HOUSING MEANS TO THE COMMUNITY
By ALBION FELLOWS BACON
Three cents by the hundred; two cents by the thousand.
TEACHING THE TENANT
By JOHANNA VON WAGNER
Four cents in quantities of one hundred or more.
ONE MILLION PEOPLE IN SMALL HOUSES
By HELEN L. PARRISH
Four cents in quantities of one hundred or more.
HOUSING AND HEALTH
By LAWRENCE VEILLER
Three cents by the hundred; twocents by the thousand.
THE SURVEY AND THE SMALLER CITY
By GEORGE THOMAS PALMER
Three cents in quantities of one hundred or more,
THE HOME AS A FACTOR IN PUBLIC HEALTH
By JOHN IHLDER
Three cents by the hundred; two cents by the thousand.
SUN-LIGHTED TENEMENTS —Thirty-five years experience as an Owner
By ALFRED T. WHITE
Ten cents each; nine cents by the hundred.
THE WORK OF A HOUSING COMMITTEE
By JOHN IHLDER

Two cents apiece for twenty-five or more; one cent by

the hundred.

HOW SOCIAL WORKERS CAN AID HOUSING REFORM
By MARY E. RICHMOND

Three cents by the hundred.

WHAT KIND OF HOMES ?— How a Chamber of Commerce is Helping
to Solve the Housing Problem.
By HOWARD STRONG
Three cents by the hundred.

 

Single copies of the above pamphlets may be obtained from the National
Housing Association, 105 East 22d Street, New York City, for five cents,
except Sun-Lighted T’enements, ten cents.

Other Pamphlets in Preparation.“EVERY CITY HAS A HOUSING PROBLEM i

HOUSING REFORM

A HANDBOOK FOR USE IN AMERICAN CITIES

 

By LAWRENCE VEILLER

Secretary Tenement House Commission of 1900; Deputy Commissioner New
York Tenement House Department under Mayor Seth Low; Director
Department for the Improvement of Social Conditions of the New
York Charity Organization Society; Joint Author The Tenement

House Problem; Secretary National Housing Association.

CONTENTS
Foreword, by Robert W. deForest. VIII. Municipal enone and Munic-
; : d Their Sig- ipal Regulation.
: eee - aoe IX. Essential Principles of a Housing
Il. Some Popular Fallacies. x om ete L Should
Ill. Congestion and Overcrowding. , Gis OUEUAS aay oy

IV. The Housing Problem a Threefold xo the

nee Laws.
V. How to Start a Movement for XII. How to Secure Legislative Re-
Housing Reform. fee

VI. The Essentials of a Housing In- | X]J]. The Field of Private Effort.

Enforcement of Housing

 

vestigation. XIV, A Chapter of ‘‘Don’ts.”
VII. Model Tenements and Their Lim- Sample Schedules for Housing
itations. Investigations. Index.

A Model Tenement House Law
By Lawrence Veiller

The basis for a state law or local ordinance. It contains all the provisions
which should go into a tenement-house law, so worded and arranged that there is
no repetition or confusion. The meaning of each section is clear to builder, archi-
tect, city official and housing reformer. This model law is the result of fifteen years’
experience on the part of its writer as organizer and administrator of the New York
Tenement House Department and as executive officer of volunteer organizations
which have worked to improve living conditions.

It has been used by the framers of housing laws in Indiana, Ohio, Rhode Island,
Kentucky, California and Massachusetts.

One edition—in ordinary book form—contains notes giving the reasons for the
various provisions in the law.

A second edition—a working copy—is printed on but one side of the paper
and is double spaced so as to permit interlining with pen, changes or modifications
made necessary by local conditions.

Price each, postpaid, $1.25

 

CHARITIES PUBLICATION COMMITTEE
105 East 22d Street, New York CityIndustrial Housing

LAWRENCE VEILLER

UNIVERSITY oF VIRGINIA LIBRA

ANNAN

X002645976

Prick TEN CENTSINDUSTRIAL HOUSING

LAWRENCE VEILLER
Secretary, National Housing Association, New York City

It is unnecessary for me, I know, to do more than
merely refer to the conditions that prevail to-day in
many industrial towns in this country. They are too
well known and have been too often described to require
extended comment.

Speaking generally, it may be said that the great
majority of workers in those towns live in squalid and
sordid surroundings, in homes that are not beautiful,
and many of which do not have the basic elements of
civilized life.

These conditions are the natural consequence of our
respect in this country for “laissez faire’ principles
and the rights of the individual, expressed so often in
the statement that the conditions in a man’s home are
no business of his employer.

Until this year, the average employer of labor has
been reluctant to concern himself with the conditions
under which his workmen live, and, when urged to
give consideration to this question, has generally dis-
missed the subject by saying: “‘My business is to make
automobiles. I know nothing about housing work-
men, and I don’t want to bother with it. I do know
how to make motors and cannot possibly take the
time to learn how to house workingmen. Nor, do I
want the complications in my relations with labor that
are bound to come from such work. I have troubles

EP]enough in that direction now without having any
more.”

That, I think, is a fair statement of what has been
the point of view and the attitude of the average em-
ployer of labor—until this year.

Hovusine FAMINES

But this year has seen a great change. We have had
nearly every manufacturer in the country who owned
a machine shop have demands made upon his plant
that it could not meet. We have seen communities
suddenly import into their towns 10,000 workers in a
single year; we have even seen one community import
as many as 30,000 workers in a single year.

Of course there are not houses enough for such sud-
denly augmented populations and naturally we have
housing famines.

The situation for the manufacturers is serious,
however, for they cannot run their plants unless their
workmen have proper places to live in. And so,
whether they want to or not, many employers of labor
are being forced to take up the question of housing.

Not Merrety Moret Houses

Their problem is not, as many of them seem to think
to get merely a sufficient number of houses in the
shortest possible time. Difficult as that may be, itis a
comparatively simple problem compared with the real
problem of providing homes of the right kind within
the means of the workingmen and which shall prove a
permanent betterment to the community, and not a
detriment.

L2]It is quite natural that the employer of labor who
finds himself in the situation Just described, and who
has put off too long the consideration of the housing of
his new workers, should in desperation be willing to
accept any kind of house that can be put up in the
shortest possible time and that he can induce working-
men to live in.

To many employers, confronted with such a situa-
tion, to talk of the right kind of houses, of good plan-
ning, of intelligent city development, of garden suburbs,
of beauty, of economic construction, of studying the
future needs of the community—to talk of any of these
things seems “‘idealistic’—and the man who suggests
them is likely to find himself classed as impractical
and a dreamer.

On the other hand, there are many employers of
labor who have had the vision to realize the vital im-
portance of these considerations and who have acted
upon that realization. They have seen clearly that
it is bad business for them and for the community in
which they live, to build houses which are not to be
an influence for good in that community and which
are not going to react favorably upon the efficiency of
their employees.

I am glad to state that there are to-day in this
country as many as 80 large employers of labor who
have acted upon this realization and have undertaken
the housing of their workers.

As soon as employers of labor throughout the country
realize that it pays to house their workmen properly,
instead of 80 concerns undertaking this work, we shall
find 8,000.

[3 ]How Berrer Hovsine Pays

That it does pay in all sorts of ways is beyond
dispute. If anyone doubts it, let him talk with the
employers of labor engaged in work of this kind and
let him learn from them the advantages to their in-
dustry that have resulted in what may be termed the
by-products of this social enterprise.

It pays in the greater efficiency of the worker, in
an increased interest in his work and a higher degree of
skill. It pays in greater continuity of service; it
means less “hiring and firing” of employees. It pays
in reducing the amount of days’ labor lost through
illness and intemperance. It pays in a more contented
community. It stabilizes labor. It reduces strikes and
labor troubles. For the man who has a contented
home and is living under nearly ideal conditions
thinks not merely twice, but many times, before
he is willing to sacrifice his home and put in jeopardy
the proper upbringing of his children and the proper
domestic life of his whole family.

In discussing this question, we wish it understood
that we are not discussing the housing problem in gen-
eral, but one aspect of it, viz., Industrial Housing.
That is, the housing of employees at industrial plants
as distinguished from the general housing of all the
people of a community.

Many Prospitems Not ONE

This problem of building houses for workingmen
needs to be considered from various angles. Different
phases of the problem need to be clearly differentiated
or there is likely to be confusion of thought and con-

ta]siderable misunderstanding. There are several prob-
lems involved, not one, and some of them wear quite
different aspects.

For instance, the questions involved in housing the
single worker are totally different from those that need
to be studied in connection with the housing of men
with families. This is too often lost sight of and in dis-
cussing this question it is, as a rule, discussed solely
with reference to the problems of the man with a family.

The chief problem of industrial housing so far as the
type of habitation is concerned, to my mind, is the
problem of the single man—single, that is, so far as
America is concerned. He may be unmarried or his
wife and family may be in Europe. The effect is the
same in the consideration of the best method of housing
him here in America.

Again, we need to differentiate clearly between the
best type of house for the higher paid skilled mechanic
earning $25 a week and more, and the house best suited
to the unskilled day laborer whose earnings seldom
rise above $15 a week.

Also, we need to differentiate in both these classes of
dwellings the housing of the American workingman as
distinguished from the alien.

Unless we carefully observe these various consider-
ations we shall come to grief in our housing enterprises.

THe SKILLED WORKER

Considering first the type of house for the skilled
mechanic of American birth earning $25 a week and
more, I believe there is no real problem. Enough has
been done in this country through a long period of time
to demonstrate conclusively not only that the best type

[5 |of house for this class of worker, but the one that he
demands and is accustomed to get, is the two-story,
single family, detached house.

There are no serious problems involved in the devel-
opment of the plan of a house of this type, consisting,
as a rule, of five to six rooms.

The question of whether its exterior walls shall be
built of wood or of brick or concrete or hollow tile
blocks or concrete slabs or some other form of material
depends largely upon local considerations and variations
in the cost of such materials in local markets, as well as
the cost of various kinds of labor. Climatic conditions
also enter into the question to some extent.

Of course, the ideal type of house is a fireproof one,
but the prevailing type that is used to the largest extent
in America is undoubtedly the frame house. The time
is soon coming when the frame house will disappear
and will be replaced by a house with fireproof walls
and roof, if not wholly fireproof; as the cost of lumber
goes up and the cost of fireproof material comes down,
the result is bound to be that the frame house will dis-
appear and be succeeded by a building of greater fire-
resistive qualities.

The interior arrangement of a house of this kind
presents few problems. The type is almost universal—
a parlor, a kitchen and three or four bedrooms, with
bath; in some cases a dining room as well as a parlor.
Intelligent planning would necessarily place the living
rooms on the lower floor and the bedrooms on the
upper.

When it comes to the placing of such houses upon
the land, I regret to say that there is still need for much
educational work in this country.

[6 ]Notwithstanding the fact that in most industrial
communities land values are low, there has been entirely
too much crowding together of workingmen’s dwellings
and entirely insufficient space left between adjoining
buildings.

For houses of this kind there should be a clear space
of 20 feet between buildings if we are to have the right
kind of conditions as to light and air and also have an
adequate treatment of open spaces with grass plots and
flower gardens such as the higher paid mechanic is
capable of developing and in the development of which
we wish him to take pride.

Certainly, the minimum space between such build-
ings from the point of view of health and sanitation is
12 feet. We know, however, that the practice in
many parts of the country is very much less than this.
We are all familiar with the shameful huddle that indus-
trial communities, as a rule, present, with one house in
close proximity to the houses on each side of it and
nothing but an objectionable narrow slit, often as little
as 3 feet, left between the two buildings.

Such spaces are worse than nothing. ‘They are a
greater fire danger than where houses are built close
together with no space between, and from the point of
sanitation they are highly objectionable. No sunlight
is furnished to the windows which open upon these
dark pockets and they become a dark damp place
which cannot adequately be treated and which in a
short time often becomes a gathering place for various
kinds of objectionable waste materials.

It is far better to build dwellings in a row or “ter-
race’’ unless adequate space can be left between build-
ings.

LeThe only serious problem, it seems to me, involved
in the housing of workers of the type that we have been
considering is the question of financing the enterprise
and that problem underlies all phases of the question of
industrial housing. Wherever in any community local
capital can earn 10% to 12% in industrial enterprises
it will seek investment in those enterprises and it will
naturally be difficult to secure capital for housing enter-
prises which return 5% or 6% at best.

Tue $15 A Week Man

When it comes to the question of housing the
unskilled laborer earning on an average $15 a week,
we find that there zs a housing problem and that there
are many questions that require the most careful
consideration. So true is this that many housing
reformers feel that it is the only housing problem and
constantly give vent to that feeling by brushing aside
the consideration of every other question, saying
in effect: “All that is of no moment. What about
the man who earns $15 a week? How are we to house
him?”

That he can be housed satisfactorily, and must be so
housed, there can be no question. That he is not
housed satisfactorily to-day is equally obvious.

All of us would like to see this type of worker
living in as fine a house, with as much space, as many
rooms, with all the conveniences and in the same type
of single-family, detached dwelling as the higher paid
skilled worker can afford.

Of course this cannot be done. The man of low earn-
ing capacity can no more afford to buy the best quality

[8]of housing than he can afford to buy the best quality of
food or milk or clothing or any other commodity. It
would be as reasonable to expect him to be able to
afford certified milk at 20 cents a quart as it would be
to expect him to afford the detached cottage of the
skilled mechanic. Some of us, I fear, sometimes lose
sight of fundamental economic laws.

If, then, the unskilled worker cannot be housed in a
single-family detached. cottage such as his more fortu-
nate co-laborer can afford, the question arises ‘What
is the type of house that he can afford and what is the
best type of house to place at his disposal?”

In some communities, I regret to say that they
have answered this question by providing the multiple-
dwelling and house the unskilled workers in huge
barracks of tenements, or in the objectionable “three-
decker.” It has never occurred to them, apparently,
that there were any types but these two—the detached,
single-family cottage or the tenement.

There is, however, a very excellent type of dwelling
that is suited to the man of low earning capacity; and
that is the single-family dwelling built in rows or
groups, what in some parts of the country is known as
a “terrace.”

Tue Row or Grovur House

This type of house is the common type of working-
man’s dwelling, in fact, one may say the universal type,
in Great Britain. Where land values are high, where
building is costly, and especially where it is necessary
to keep down the rent to $15 a month or less, this is
the only type of single-family dwelling, in most parts
of the country, that can be built and rented at this

[9]figure and at the same time yield a fair return upon the
money invested.

One of the great mistakes we have made in attempt-
ing to house this type of worker has been to neglect
all consideration of how much land he can afford to
pay for. In most communities where they have
been dividing their property into lots of 25 feet, 40
feet and 50 feet frontage with depths varying any-
where from 100 to 150 or 200 feet—a type of sub-
division excellent for men of means and in some
cases entirely appropriate even for the skilled mechanic,
but quite inappropriate for the man we are now con-
sidering—they have gone on and, without thought,
have assumed that the workingman earning $15 a
week should build a house upon property of this type.

The workingman of low earning capacity can no more
afford to pay for more land or more house than he can
afford to use than he can afford to pay for more clothes
or more food than he can afford to use. The $15 a
week man does not need a house 25 feet wide nor can
he afford it.

I realize that there will be considerable dissent
from this statement and that to many it will come as a
new suggestion and like all new ideas will be keenly
resented at first. But, students of the problem are
quite agreed on this point and find that the best type
of house for this type of workingman is a house of
about 15 or 16 feet frontage, two stories high, built in a
row or group, containing not more than five rooms and
bath and preferably not more than four rooms; with
two living rooms on the ground floor and a bath and
two or three bedrooms, as the case may be, on the
second floor.

[10 |Such a house is best exemplified in the ordinary
commercially built Philadelphia house, built literally
by the hundred thousand in that great city, serving as
the habitation of over a million people. In speaking
of the Philadelphia house, there are two types which
should be distinguished. What is referred to here is the
four-room house, and not the more recent type of
development, a house with six rooms with an extension
on the ground floor.

It is an axiom in housing that no house is “model”
that exceeds two rooms in depth. In fact, in Great
Britain a house deeper than this is practically un-
known. It could not be rented or sold.

How Many Rooms

How many rooms can the $15 a week man afford to
pay for? How many does he want?

This raises a host of novel questions, I appreciate.
The writer has personally had this question borne
in upon him with considerable emphasis recently
through the study of the trend of development in the
housing of certain portions of the population of one of
our large Eastern cities, where the trend toward
a smaller number of rooms has been strikingly noticea-
ble in recent years.

In seeking the causes for that trend it has developed
that the average workingman of this type cannot
afford to occupy more than four rooms and _ that
usually when he rents or pays for more than four rooms
he does not occupy them all, but supplements his
income by taking in lodgers or boarders.

It was also discovered that he cannot afford to heat

Ein]more than four rooms; that his wife, as a rule, does not
wish to take care of more than four rooms. Finally, the
furnishing or equipment of more than four rooms
proves a burden. Of course in exceptional cases where
there are very large families, four rooms are not suffi-
cient. These, however, are the exceptional cases and
not the rule.

If one can gauge accurately the present trend of
social development, families are likely in the future to
continue to grow smaller, and to need fewer rooms.

A house of the type we have described can be built
complete, with outer walls of brick, with cellar, fur-
nace, running water and all modern improvements,
even in some cases including electric light fixtures, and
sold including the land and improvements such as
curbing, paving and grading, for $2,000 and can be
rented without difficulty for $15 a month, and yield a
commercial return. This is what is done in the city of
Philadelphia. It is made feasible there by operating
on a wholesale scale and building many houses at once.

It is also made possible through the more intensive
use of the land which the smaller size lot lends itself
to. It is thus possible to get a great many more houses
on the same area of land than in the case where a
larger unit is employed; and, of course, the cost of the
smaller house is also considerably less than that of the
larger house.

This is the type of house which has been developed
very successfully in a number of so-called “model”
dwelling enterprises.

The Schmidlapp houses in Cincinnati, at least the
later ones and better ones are of this type. The houses
recently built by the Octavia Hill Association in

[ 12 ]Philadelphia are of this type, as are also those of the
Improved Housing Association in New Haven.

Most people when they hear the suggestion that
houses should be built in rows or terraces seem to think
that there must be a stereotyped monotony to the
buildings.

This is of course quite unnecessary. It depends en-
tirely upon the artistic taste, ingenuity and skill of the
architect. He can vary his types of architecture just
as easily with the row house as he can with the de-
tached house.

A happy medium between the two and a plan
which lends itself very easily to artistic treatment is
the “group”’’ house. That is, the row house broken up
into groups of three or five or seven or nine or eleven,
as may be desirable.

A treatment which gives variety and is pleasing to
the eye is a skillful variation of groups of this kind,
having a group of three houses intervene between two
groups of seven or five houses, ete. Such a treatment
has been worked out for years in the case of the English
garden suburbs and is very well exemplified in Mr.
Grosvenor Atterbury’s treatment of the Forest Hills
development of the Sage Foundation, built for a
different class of people, however.

Tut Two Famiry Hovuset

Where land values are so high that it is not possible
to house the workers in single family houses even of the
row or terrace type such as has just been described,
it is still not necessary to resort to the tenement or
“‘three-decker,”’ for there is another type of house that

[13 |is infinitely better than either of these. That is the
two-family house. This is of two types—the so-called
“double house’ or semi-detached house, which is
nothing more nor less than two single-family dwellings

of the cottage type, with light and air on three sides
instead of four; one side of each house being a party
wall common to the two.

This is well exemplified in the very attractive
houses constructed a year or two ago in Salem by the
Salem Rebuilding Trust. It is a splendid type of
house for the workingman and even a good type for
the skilled mechanic, though as a rule, it is better for
him to have a completely detached house.

The other type of two-family house, sometimes
called the “two-flatter”’ is frankly a multiple dwelling,
but of the least objectionable kind, for it is only two
stories high and contains but two families, one upstairs
and one down, with separate entrances, with separate
cellars and oftentimes with separate back yards.

Such a house has few of the objectionable features of
the tenement, for nothing is used in common except
the foundations and the roof. Houses of this type are
well exemplified by the buildings of the Washington
Sanitary Improvement Company developed by the
late General Sternberg. As a rule they are built in
rows and should contain practically the same number
of rooms as it would be deemed wise to provide in
the single-family dwelling of the terrace type, namely,
four rooms and bath, or at the most, five rooms and
bath.

Such houses, however, cannot have the great ad-
vantage which the Philadelphia house has, of being
but two rooms deep. In order to get the necessary

tas]number of rooms for each flat it becomes necessary to
build the building deeper and this means practically a
series of courts for the lighting of a certain number of
the rooms. No housing plan which contains this
feature can be deemed either model or desirable. It
is at best a compromise and should be frankly recog-
nized as such.

THe HovusinG oF THE SINGLE WORKER

All that has been said heretofore has had reference
to the housing of the man with a family. What about
the single worker? How is he to be housed?

We all know how he is housed in most manufacturing
communities. He either lives as a lodger or boarder
or as one of several lodgers or boarders in the home or
flat of some other workingman. The evils which flow
from this method of living are too well known to re-
quire comment here. They have been discussed
again and again for many years. I regret to say that
thus far in this country that is all that has happened
and the lodger problem still remains the great unsolved
phase of America’s housing problem. The time is
rapidly approaching, however, when that problem
will be grappled with.

The other method of housing the single worker is to
house anywhere from 20 to 100 men in barracks or
“bunk houses,’ as they have come to be called, with a
boarding-house boss, a man and his wife and such
children as they may happen to have, living on the
premises and “looking out for them”; the wife, as a
rule, doing the cooking for this vast number of men
and rapidly wearing herself out.

[15 ]The men, as a rule, are housed in huge dormitories,
with anywhere from 20 to 50 men in a large single
room, sleeping on cots or in bunks in the way that is so
common in the lower class lodging houses of our great
centres of population. In the worst of these bunk
houses there are double-deckers, or one tier of bunks
above another. This, however, is not the customary
condition but the exception.

“WAREHOUSING THE WORKERS”

That this method of housing men is neither sanitary
nor decent is too obvious to require comment. It is
not the housing of workers, but what someone has
well described as the “‘warehousing’’ of workers. It
gives rise to a host of sanitary evils as well as social
evils. The men do not rise from their night’s sleep
refreshed as they should be, nor can they go to their
work in the morning in the physical state that they
ought to be in, after spending the night in a room
filled with twenty or thirty other men, with inadequate
ventilation—for if one man wants a window open,
another man wants it shut—in a close and stifling
room containing the body odors of twenty or thirty
other men.

These are the conditions under which they sleep.
The conditions under which they eat are, as a rule,
almost equally objectionable. One might really say
that there are no conditions under which they lie,
for their life is mere existence—excessive toil, food,
sleep. So far as any real social life is concerned there is
little opportunity.

I am referring now to the workers and the average

Etoconditions of living in the usual bunk house in the

usual industrial community, not to those communi-

ties where intelligent employers of labor have provided
bathing and recreational faci

tunities for their men.
are doing this is, I a
year.

But the point that I wish to emphasize is that in the
homes of these men there is no opportunity for even
ordinarily decent social life.

It is not strange, therefore, that the average foreign
worker who lives under these conditions spends his
leisure, as they often do, in drinking and gambling.
What else is there for him, when we come to think of it?

It is this type of habitation that, to my mind, con-
stitutes the chief feature of the problem of industrial
housing to-day. I regret to say that thus far little or
nothing has been done toward its solution. We do
not as yet even know what is the best type of bunk
house or lodging house. How large a unit is it safe to
develop from the social point of view, in other words,
how many men can we wisely house in one building
without too much social friction? And on the other
hand, how small a unit can be economically developed
without undue overhead charges?

lities and social oppor-
The number of employers who
m glad to say, increasing each

Wuat Is tue Best Typr?

Is it feasible to do away entirely with the dormitory
or bunk house type of building? Can we, from the
financial point of view, provide each worker with
his own private room in which he shall have adequate
light and ventilation and sufficient space to provide

Lanhim with his bed, a chair and table and the usual things
that a man needs in his room?

In other words, can we wisely advocate the doing
away not only with the bunk house but also with the
“oubicle” and insist that single men have a right to
light and air in their rooms as much as men with
families?

I for one am convinced that the time has come when
we must absolutely prohibit the cubicle type of lodg-
ing and insist that every room shall have a window
opening directly to the outer air.

In the ordinary industrial community this is not
difficult for land values are not high. In our great
centres of population the problem is not so simple.

There are still many questions to be solved even as
to the type of dwelling. For instance, how large a
room is adequate for a single worker living under these
conditions? The writer’s own judgment is that 790
square feet is the minimum that should be provided
and that 7 feet is the minimum width for such a room;
and that where it is possible, a room of 90 square feet
much more nearly approximates what is desirable.
In considering this question of the size of rooms we
must not lose sight of the fact that the amount of
space available for the use of the occupant as shown
on our plans is a very difierent thing from the actual
space that is available when the room has been filled
with furniture. This is too often lost sight of.

Some of the other questions that present themselves
“1 connection with this problem of the housing of the
single worker are, how shall he be taken care of? Man
at best is a non-housekeeping animal. Without a
woman he makes a sorry mess of it. It is pretty gen-

[18 |erally accepted, therefore, that to make single workers
comfortable they must be cared for by a woman.

THe HovusreKkeEpince PROBLEM

This means that, as a rule, there should be one
woman to supervise each unit to see that it is kept
clean, to look after the cooking and in general to
“mother” the men. Whether it is best to have this
woman the wife of one of the workers, as is now the
custom where the boarding-house boss type of bunk
house exists or whether she should be employed
directly by the company operating the buildings is a
broad question of policy.

One thing is clear. Any enterprise of this kind must
be carefully supervised if it is to succeed. As a rule
it will be found distinctly advantageous to put the
supervision of the entire property—I do not refer to
the single unit housing thirty workers or so, but to the
whole congeries of units—under the supervision of a
trained rent collector or social worker who can super-
vise not merely the collection of rents but the whole
management of the property. This is even more
necessary in the case of the housing of the single man
than it is in the development of a community of dwell-
ings for workingmen with families.

How much per week the single worker can afford to
pay, or is willing to pay—which is quite a different
thing—for his room and how much for his food, we
do not know.

Similarly, to what extent we should provide laundry
facilities for the men to wash their clothes, in the
buildings in which they live, is an open question, and

[ 19 ]whether it is better to provide them with their meals
or to let them get their meals where they choose re-
mains to be answered.

One thing that greatly complicates the whole sub-
ject is the mixture of nationalities that we have among
the workers in our industrial communities. It is
well known that certain races do not mix, even when
there is no European war on. In developing lodging
houses for the housing of the single worker this ques-
tion of race should be given most careful consideration,
and, so far as practicable, an attempt should be made
to house in the same building men of the same race or
of allied race. The small unit lends itself advanta-
geously to this treatment and this is an important
reactor in determining how small the unit should be.

The whole question, however, needs to be studied
from the ground up. The field 1s virgin territory. It
offers most valuable and interesting opportunities in
the field of research and it is a social problem well
worthy of consideration by all of us.

Renting Versus OwNING

A subject about which there is much difference of
opinion is the question of whether it is better to build
houses to sell to the workingman so that he may own
his home, or whether it is better to merely rent the
houses, thus keeping control of conditions.

In the case of the average American skilled mechanic
earning $25 a week and more, there can be little ques-
tion. That type of worker is entirely capable of owning
his home and should of course be encouraged in every
way to become a home owner, In fact, as a rule he

[ 20 ]needs little encouragement but is keenly desirous of
this.

With the great mass of unskilled workers, however,
the $15 a week man, it is not at all so clear that it is
desirable that he should own his home. I know that
many people will differ with me but I am clearly of the
opinion that it is not either for the best interest of
that type of worker or of the community in which he
lives that he should own his home.

Home owning involves not only social and moral
responsibilities and qualities, but very definite financial
ones. The man of low earning capacity has not suffi-
cient financial reserves, nor can he accumulate them,
to make it desirable or advantageous for him to be-
come a property owner. He cannot, earning as he
does a low wage, accumulate a sufficient reserve to
enable him to acquire property without unduly sacri-
ficing either his family or himself. We have all seen
communities where workers of this type have been
encouraged to own their home and do so by own-
ing the mortgage. I have in mind a southern city
consisting largely of single-family dwellings where the
workingman “‘owns his home,” upon the payment of
$25 down, and then spends the rest of his life in trying
to pay off the interest on the mortgage and secure a free
and clear title.

This, as a rule, results in an improper standard of
living for him and his family. He frequently makes
his wife and children go without necessary food in order
to put aside money to pay off the mortgage on the
home; the recreational facilities of the family are
slighted, they are improperly and inadequately clothed
and frequently improperly and inadequately housed, for

[ 21 ]a house owner of this type, as a rule, is unable to
make the expenditures that are necessary to keep
his house in proper condition.

After making a study of this question through many
years I am convinced that we are doing the working-
man of this type an injury, not a service, in advocating
the owning of his home and that we should frankly
and clearly recognize that for the $15 a week man,
home-owning is not a possibility.

From the point of view of the community it is
undesirable to have home owners of this kind, for
property thus held rapidly deteriorates and causes
the neighborhood to assume a slumlike aspect; it
means also that the health authorities of that com-
munity find it increasingly difficult to secure from
property owners of this type a compliance with the
proper standards of sanitation that are essential to
the well-being of the community. One of the most diffi-
cult problems that the health officers of this country
have to face is just this sort of problem, namely, the at-
tempt to get necessary improvements made in houses
where the householder is so poor that he is unable to
carry out the most essential and fundamental require-
ments of sanitation and health.

Henry Forp’s EXPERIENCE

Henry Ford’s experience in Detroit on this question
is quite illuminating. When he started in, a year or so
ago, with his plan to pay all his workmen $5 a day he
expressed the belief that all that was necessary to do
for the workingman in America was to give him an
adequate wage and he would take care of himself and
that it was poverty that caused all of the troubles that

[ 22 ]we are familiar with in our great cities; that men lived
in slums because their wages were inadequate, that the
workingman took lodgers or boarders into his home
because his earnings were inadequate, and that when
he received an adequate wage such conditions would
entirely change.

Well, he tried it, and he was amazed to find after
a few months that his men were living under exactly
the same squalid and sordid conditions that they had
lived under before they received the $5 a day wage and
that most of them had not changed their methods of
living in any degree but were simply either putting
away the additional money or spending it on personal
indulgences. They were living in the same houses,
many of them, still bunking six men to the room, sleep-
ing in the clothes they worked in, not bathing suffi-
ciently and either banking the extra money or squander-
ing or drinking it up.

Mr. Ford saw a great light. He realized that his
earlier views were mistaken and at once put into opera-
tion a plan for the investigation and supervision of the
conditions under which his men lived. So that to-
day he is making his efforts count and the men who
continue to live under the same squalid conditions
that they lived under, with the old wage, lose their
jobs. He does not want that kind of man in his plant
and he is right.

This illustrates perfectly the importance of keeping
control and of renting rather than selling in the case
of the unskilled worker.

As I have already stated, the situation is quite
different in the case of the skilled mechanic, the man
who gets $25 a week and up.

[ 23 |

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  

Ta a a a a eg ial Bie ace ea ak i os -ContTROL ESSENTIAL TO SUCCESS

The experience of the English garden suburbs has
been quite similar. They started out, too, with the
idea of having the workingman own his home, but
most of them have come to the realization, through
bitter experience, that they cannot maintain their
garden suburbs as such unless they do keep control, and
so the co-partnership plan has been evolved. By
this the company keeps control but the tenants are
given an interest in the property and are enabled to
become owners of it through purchase of shares of
stock.

It is not strange that this should be the case if we
stop to think of it. How can we expect to maintain
satisfactory conditions if we leave the control of all the
intricate details of management to a hundred or a
thousand men of all sorts and varying degrees of
intelligence and standards of living?

It is just as necessary to have centralized control
in an enterprise of this kind as it is in a high grade
apartment house such as we find in our large cities.
Few of us would care to live in the best apartment
houses of New York City if there were no resident
janitor or superintendent on the premises.

Few of us would care to travel on a railroad train
if the direction of the engine were left to all the passen-
gers. We need some one person who shall be responsible.
As in railroading so in housing enterprises, if we do not
have a responsible engineer or manager on the job, the
directors of the corporation may cease to expect
dividends and may expect collisions.

[ 24 ]Community DrvELoOPMENT

Thus far we have considered the problems involved
chiefly with regard to the individual house. What
about the whole community?

As a rule, an industrial housing enterprise involves
not merely the building of a certain number of houses
but practically the development of the entire com-
munity. This is certainly the case where the plant is
located in the country away from centres of population.
Here it becomes necessary to develop not only the
homes of the workingmen, but the streets, the open
spaces, the recreational opportunities, the transporta-
tion facilities—in a word, the whole city plan.

It is in enterprises of this kind that the Garden
Suburb, which has been developed to such an ex-
traordinary extent in England, becomes a practical
possibility for America. Here far-sighted employers
of labor have a wonderful opportunity. They can
develop their community in such a way that it will
not only furnish a healthful and delightful dwelling
place for their workers but will be a real asset to the
industry.

John Nolen has pointed out most clearly that while
we should not, as a rule, build houses that will not
pay a commercial return, that is, a return of at least
5% net, there are other services which the employer
of labor can render his workers, and should render
them, without any danger of pauperizing them or of
economic disadvantage. There are all sorts of things
that go to the making up of a model community that
the industry which dominates the town can well afford
to pay for and which can much better be distributed

[ 25 |in the cost of the product made in that town, than upon
the shoulders of the individual workers who make the
product.

The street development, the park system, pro-
per transit facilities, everything that goes to make up
what we have in mind when we talk of a Garden
Suburb can very advantageously be paid for and
developed by the industry.

I am convinced that one reason why we have not had
the Garden Suburb or Garden City movement de-
veloped to a greater degree in this country has been
because employers of labor have not clearly grasped
this point, but have attempted to assess upon the
individual worker or home owner the entire cost of the
community development. The average workingman
in America cannot afford to pay for such community
development, nor should he be asked to.

Just as the intelligent real estate developer, when
he cuts up acreage and farm land into building lots,
realizes that it is advantageous to his development to
donate certain portions of the land to park space, so
the employer of labor needs to realize that it is to the
advantage of his industry to develop these features of
community service and not to expect such develop-
ment to come from the individual worker.

Similarly there are other community services which
the industry can very well provide, such as central
heating, lighting and fuel. Where the workers’ homes
are located near the plant the extension of community
services of this kind can be done at comparatively
low cost, though ordinarily it would seem that a cen-
tral heating plant is not an economical proposition for
much less than 300 families. This, of course, will vary

[ 26 ]with varying climatic conditions in different parts of
the country.

SHALL THE WorKeERS Live N EAR THE PLANT?

Another question that needs to be determined jn
developing a community of this kind, and one which
is often lost sight of, is whether it is better to live
near the industrial plant or some distance away from
it.

No hard and fast rule can wisely be laid down. It
depends largely upon the lay of the land and the
nature of the industry. Speaking generally, it is
advantageous to have the worker live near the industry
so as to save time in getting to and from his work.

Where, however, the industry is of such a character
that there is a considerable degree of noxious smoke or
odor or gases, or undue noise, the case is different,
and the worker then should be housed away from
the industry and not near it. In such cases a con-
sideration of the prevailing breezes and their relation
to the plant should be the dominating factor in decid-
ing upon the location of the workers’ dwellings. This
is generally considered in developing the better resi-
dential quarters of a town, but, too often, it is thought
that the workers can live anywhere.

GARDENS

Another question is whether it is better to en-
courage the individual garden around the house or
whether there should be a community open space,
what they call “allotment gardens” in Europe.

[27 ]The determination of this question depends very
largely upon the kind of worker that we are planning to
house. For the skilled mechanic earning $25 a week
and up it is unquestionably wise to encourage the
individual garden, both flower and vegetable, around
his house.

In the case, however, of the unskilled worker earning
but $15 a week I am clear that far better results both
to him and to the community will come from the
development of allotment gardens and from the com-
munity control of all open spaces.

We have already seen that this class of worker can-
not be housed in detached dwellings except in rare
instances. This means that we shall have no side
yards. In my judgment it would be better to have
no rear yards either for workers of this type, but in-
stead to have the community take control of all
open spaces at the backs of buildings, treat them as
small parks or playgrounds for the use of the people
whose houses immediately abut them, and see that
they are properly and adequately maintained, pro-
viding at the same time, either there or in some central
location, allotment gardens where the worker may
raise his own vegetables and such flowers as he may
wish.

These are some of the considerations involved in
this question of industrial housing.

The whole future of industrial housing seems to me
very bright. Employers of labor are looking on the
whole question in a new light. Business men, too,
are coming to realize that a community has no right
to invite new industries to settle there, unless adequate
provision is made for the housing of the new workers,

[ 28 ]and that when they do this they are injuring their com-
munity rather than helping it.

We stand on the threshold of a new era in the housing
of the country’s workers.Sad ea ae Se

aNATIONAL HOUSING ASSOCIATION
PUBLICATIONS*

WHAT BAD HOUSING MEANS TO THE COMMUNITY—s51TH EDITION
By ALBION FELLOWS Bacon. No. 6 S

ONE MILLION PEOPLE IN SMALL, HOUSES—2p EDITION
By HELEN L. PARRISH. No. 7

TEACHING THE TENANT—2zp EpItTIon
By JOHANNA VON WAGNER. No. 8

HOUSING AND HEALTH—4«th Eprtion
By LAWRENCE VEILLER. No.9

THE SURVEY AND THE SMALLER CITY
By GEORGE THOMAS PALMER. No. 10

SMALL HOUSES WITHIN THE CITY LIMITS FOR UNSKILLED WAGE
EARNERS—2pD EDITION
By GEORGE M. STERNBERG, M. D., LL. D. No. 27

BRIEF LIST OF BOOKS ON HOUSING AND CITY PLANNING
INo:32. Gratis

THE RELATION OF HOUSING TO THE PUBLIC HEALTH MOVEMENT
By LAWRENCE VEILLER. No. 33

LOW PRICED HOUSING FOR WAGE EARNERS
By Jacosp G. ScHMIDLAPP. No. 34. 10 cents

INDUSTRIAL HOUSING
By JoHN Noten. No. 35. 10 cents

INDUSTRIAL HOUSING
By LAWRENCE VEILLER. No. 36. 10 cents

WHAT TYPES OF HOUSES TO BUILD
By PERRY R. MacNEILLE. No. 37. 10 cents

THE DISTRICTING OF CITIES
By LAWSON PurpDy. No. 38. 10 cents

THE MENACE OF THE THREE-DECKER
BY PRESCOTY Fo ary. Noogo. To certs

Single copies of the above pamphlets may be obtained from the National
Housing Association, 105 East 22d Street, New York City, for five cents,
with the exception of Nos. 34 to 39, which sell for 10 cents a copy.

Other pamphlets in preparation.

HOUSING PROBLEMS IN AMERICA

Proceedings of the Second National Conference on Housing in America.
Cloth bound. $2.00 postpaid.

Proceedings of the Fourth National Conference on Housing in America.
Cloth bound. $1.50 postpaid.

Proceedings of the Fifth National Conference on Housing in America.
Cloth bound. $2.50 postpaid.

*This list does not include those publications which are out of print.

 

 

 

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