TA776 The President's Homes Commission) Appointed by President Theodore Roosevelt v.1-4 PUBLIC HEALTH Committee on Improvement of Existing Houses and Elimination of Unsanitary and Alley Houses REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON BUILDING OF MODEL HOUSES BY GEORGE M. STERNBERG, CHAIRMAN INTRODUCTION. The very notable reduction in mortality rates which has occurred in the principal cities in this country and in Europe during the past thirty years is without doubt largely due to the enactment and enforcement of sanitary regulations, based upon reliable information as to the causes of disease; to the purification of water supplies; to the construction of sewers and to the improvement in housing conditions. It may be safely predicted that this reduction in mortality rates will continue until something like ideal conditions are attained. But there are many practical difficulties in the way of the attainment of such ideal conditions. It is necessary not only that sanitary officials should be informed as to the proper measures to secure the desired result, but that the public generally should be educated with reference to the causes of the preventable diseases and the best methods of combatting them; and especially that legislators should appreciate the importance of sanitary legislation and should learn to give as earnest consideration to questions relating to the public health as to those concerning commerce, taxation, the administration of justice, etc. In the present state of our knowledge it is quite possible to formulate sanitary regulations which, if enforced, would bring about ideal conditions and reduce mortality rates to the minimum. But there are practical difficulties to contend with which to some extent, at least, appear to be insurmountable. Thus we know that epidemic influenza, or grip, is an infectious disease which causes, directly or indirectly, a considerable number of deaths, especially among the aged. But to stamp out this disease by isolation of the infected individuals appears to be quite impracticable. The same is true of tuberculosis, although the difficulties in this case are not quite so great, and segregation of the sick in hospitals and sanatoria is being carried out to an increasing extent. So, too, with reference to housing conditions. It is easy enough to enact laws requiring substantial and fireproof construction, bath 188817 rooms with sewer connections, well-ventilated bedrooms having a given air space for each occupant, etc. But the practical question at once presents itself as to who will build such houses for the poor, if they cannot afford to pay rents which will yield a reasonable interest on the cost of construction. The slums of our great cities have developed, partly because the absence of suitable building regulations has permitted the erection of cheap structures with small, dark rooms, inadequate toilet facilities, etc., and partly by the decadence of localities where the houses were originally good enough, but where dilapidation and decay have necessitated a lowering of rents and have brought them within the reach of the poor, on condition that overcrowding to the limit possible is permitted. It is evident that when, in a growing city, building regulations are enacted which prevent the profitable investment of capital in houses for the laboring classes a house famine is bound to occur, and there will be a constant tendency to overcrowd the old houses available for occupancy. Regulations to limit this overcrowding will be difficult to enforce, for shelter of some kind is a prime necessity for everyone. And in a growing city a considerable proportion of the population must consist of unskilled laborers, whose ability to pay for shelter is limited strictly by the amount of wages they receive. It is commonly, and we think justly, estimated that a workman should not be obliged to pay more than one-fifth of his income for rent. For the clerk and the mechanic whose pay is better and who works but eight hours a day it is quite practicable to establish a home in the suburbs, where land is cheap and a frame cottage can be built at a comparatively small cost. But cities need many unskilled laborers to work upon the streets and upon buildings under construction, as porters, drivers, etc., and these laborers need shelter as near their place of work as is practicable. It is the business of the municipality to see that the houses in which these laborers live are sanitary in their construction and in their surroundings, and that they are not overcrowded; but whose business is it to build such houses, and who will do it unless it can be shown to be a safe and reasonably profitable investment? In some European countries, and especially in England, an attempt has been made to solve this problem by governmental action, general or municipal, and in many instances there has been co-operation between the municipality and private corporations. Space will not permit me to give a review of the extensive housing enterprises which have been carried out in Europe and on the Continent, but the English method of financing such enterprises is worthy of special attention. I quote from "Housing-Up-toDate" (1907), by W. Thompson, author of the "Housing Handbook." "The Public Works Loan Commissioners.-This body gets its funds from the National Debt Commissioners, supplemented by the proceeds of local loan stock, £20,000,000 of which has been borrowed from the Savings Bank, which gives 22 per cent to its depositors. "The Commissioners are supposed to assist minor housing authorities with loans, and also housing companies and societies, as well as individuals willing to erect dwellings for the working classes. The total amount advanced for housing purposes up to 31st March, 1906, is £3,938,604, viz., £2,318,765 to local authorities on the security of local rates, and £1,619.929 to companies and private persons on the security of property. "The period for repayment is limited as follows: Local authorities, England and Wales, 50 years; companies and private persons, England and Wales, 40 years; local authorities, Scotland, 30 years. "The rates of interest are fixed by Treasury minute from time to time. From April, 1904, to September, 1907, they were as follows for local authorities: per cent per annum. Loan period not exceeding 20 years, 32 per cent per annum. per cent per annum. Loan period not exceeding 50 years, 44 per cent per annum. "On September 13th, 1907, a Treasury minute reduced these rates to 31⁄2 per cent for 30 years, and 334 per cent for 50 years. The fees payable to the Board vary from £10 10s. for a loan of £1,000, and £22 5s. for a loan of £3,000, to £31 for a loan of £10,000, in addition to fees for services by the office of works and for out-of-pocket expenses. The mean rate of interest for the last 32 years is about 31⁄2 per cent, and the average rate in 1906-7 was £3 13s. 7d., the highest rate for 21 years. The amount advanced has averaged about £2,637,322 per annum, and the amount now outstanding is £49,636,955, of which only £945,165 is for housing loans. "HOUSING LOANS TO SOCIETIES OF PUBLIC UTILITY AND TO INDIVIDUALS.-In lending money for housing purposes under Section 67 of the Act of 1890, it has been the practice of the Public Works Loans Commissioners to discriminate between those borrowers who will agree to restrict the dividends to not more than 5 per cent, and those not so agreeing. "The Treasury minute of 1904 provides for lending to the companies and individuals who will agree to restrict their dividends to not more than 5 per cent, at the same rate of interest as that charged to local authorities. "The London County Council up to 31st of March, 1906, had provided accommodation for 33,853 persons, calculated on the basis of two persons to a room, in 6,326 dwellings of one to six rooms each, and 1,147 cubicles in lodging houses. The cost of buildings and the housing valuation of the land amounted to about £1,900,000, and the gross rental value of the dwellings completed and opened was approximately £136,000 per annum, or 7 per cent on the estimated outlay, the net rental being £121,583, and working expenses and interest, £101,690, leaving £11,106 for sinking fund, £5,441 for repairs, renewals and reserve, and £3,346 net surplus. "In addition to the schemes carried out under the Housing Acts, the Council has provided dwellings capable of rehousing 11,198 persons, in place of dwellings of 10,988 persons displaced in connection with the construction of tunnels, the widening of streets, and other public works." In Germany large sums have been lent by the Imperial Government and by several of the states to corporations organized for the purpose of building houses for the working classes. In France savings banks, hospitals and benevolent institutions are authorized, by law, to invest their funds in similar corporations, and the state exempts such companies from paying two of the heaviest taxes, namely, that of ground rent and that on doors and windows, the exemption to be for a period of twelve years. To profit by this exemption the highest rent of such buildings must not exceed $110, or if these dwellings be in the form of separate houses, $132. In America the problem of building sanitary homes for the laboring classes has been left entirely to philanthropy and private enterprise. Mr. Thompson, in his "Housing Handbook," says of private enterprise: "It has been assumed by thousands who ought to have known better that private enterprise, unstimulated, unregulated, unassisted, undirected, has hopelessly failed. It has left us face to face with a very deficient supply; it has given us the old slums; it has given us only often acres and acres of new slums in the suburbs, jerry-built "brick boxes with slate lids" dumped down on dust heaps, and put up mainly with the object of getting a quick profit in the few years which will elapse before they degenerate into slum dwellings almost as bad as the old ones in our midst. Where the new houses are well built and on good sites, they are of an unsuitable type, and the rents are so unreasonably high as to be beyond the means of one family, so they have to be sublet to other families, and thus by overcrowding, with the increased wear and tear following in its train, they rapidly deteriorate |