1901 Tenement House Act
In 1894, the lack of cleanliness and sanitation in the tenements was starting to affect the health of tenants. The Tenement House Commission defined the tenements as unsafe and hazardous for health reasons. With no running water and piles of garbage all over the streets, it made it very hard for tenants to keep their selves clean and be able to wash clothes. Soon, many people became ill with diseases like cholera, typhoid, smallpox, and tuberculosis that spread throughout the tenement like a wild fire. Within one year, twenty cases of typhoid were reported from just one tenement. Many babies died and tenements started to be known as “infant slaughterhouses.”
Due to all of these diseases and health issues, the Tenement House Act of 1901 was passed. This law banned dumbbell tenements and required many improvements in the existing buildings. Landlords were forced to put lighting fixtures in the hallways, and install at least one indoor toilet for every two families. A department was made to make sure that this time the regulations were enforced.
Early Tenements
After the American Revolution, New York became a part of the United States and the city expanded rapidly. Back then, before cars and subways existed, people had to live close to their work place. The Lower East Side became very crowded with working men and women who had families. In 1833, architects realized that they could make a good deal of money by building small, cheep dwelling for families. Soon after, the first tenement was built on Water Street in October, 1833. It was four stories high and was called a “single decker” meaning one apartment per floor. Within a few years, tenements had taken the place of one-family homes in the neighborhood....
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... major tenement house law was passed in 1867 by the state of New York, which led to dumbbell tenements. This law required basic sanitation and health in newly built tenements. There had to be at the minimum, one outhouse for every twenty people, and a window in every room to provide enough ventilation.
However, those regulations were rarely enforced and the law failed to provide the satisfactory housing for most families. This led to another series of laws that were passed out in 1879, which required any new tenement to take up no more space than 65% of the 25 by 100 ft. lot on which it was built. This meaning that people could have at least a little bit of a back yard. The living area had to be ventilated with windows, which unfortunately ended up being opened to a small airshaft. Despite the intentions of the new regulations, these buildings improved very little.
The Quartering Act of 1774 was passed “for the better providing suitable quarters for officers and soldiers in his Majesty’s service in North America.” This act ensured that housing was provided to the stationed British soldiers in the colonies. It also allowed governors to house the soldiers in other buildings, such as, “uninhabited houses, out-houses, barns, or other buildings,” if suitable quarters were not provided. This also meant that the British soldiers were allowed to stay in private homes, even if they were occupied. Luckily, for the colonists, this act also had an expiration date of March 24,
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire most of all impacted all forms of industry, and changed the way workers worked. Along with the legislations that impacted women and children, laws also centered on the safety and well being of all workers. One of the main reforms and changes came through the formation of the New York Factory Investigating Commission, or the FIC: a legislative body that investigated the manufacturers for various infractions. They were based on protecting the workers: both their rights and their lives. The FIC investigated countless factories and “enacted eight laws covering fire safety, factory inspections and sanitation.” The FIC was highly focused on the health and safety of industrial workers, making reports and legislation that focused on “fire safety, building construction, machine guarding, heating, lighting, ventilation, and other topics” and on specific industries like “chemicals, lead trades, metal trades, printing shops, sweatshops and mercantile establishments.” Thirteen out of seventeen of the bills submitted by the FIC became laws, and “included measures requiring better fire safety efforts, more adequate factory ventilation, improved sanitation and machine guarding, safe operation of elevators” and other legislations focused for specific establishments.” Fire safety and new fire codes such as “mandate emergency exits, sprinkler systems, and maximum-occupancy laws,” such as the Fire Prevention Act of 1911, were put into place to limit the likelihood that another fire like the one at Triangle would occur, or be as drastic and deathly. Other organizations like the Joint Board of Sanitary Control “set and maintain standards of sanitation in the workplace,” as well as actually enforcing these stand...
Typhoid fever, smallpox and diphtheria were some of the diseases that ravaged the slums. Many children suffer from juvenile diseases such as whooping cough, measles and scarlet fever. Infant morality rate was very high. Along with immigrants, blacks suffered greatly as well. Immigrants couldn’t afford better housing, but blacks were trapped in segregated areas.
African Americans first migrated to Chicago during the Great Migration of the 1920's. They were seeking employment, schooling, and a better quality of life compared to the poverty of the rural south. With almost all mass migrations of poor people Ghettos' were formed very soon after. The tenements previously inhabited by ethnic whites, such as the Irish, were giving way to Black Ghettos'. The housing was typical of the urban Ghetto's of the time. Ramshackle dilapidated buildings, disease, and crime.
Dumenil, Lynn, ed. "New York City." The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Social History. N.p.: Oxford UP, 2012. Oxford Reference. Web. 8 Apr. 2013.
There were also problems associated with the rising rates of urbanization. Due in part to the increasing number of immigrants and the trend to move toward the cities, many sanitation and safety issues came into question. Members of the working class made their homes in ghettoes and tenements where they faced overcrowding, lack of sanitation and general safety concerns. Laws such as the New York Tenement House Law of 1901 came into existence with the purpose of establishing a regulated housing code for safety and sanitation.
... town had to supply clean drinking water as well as improved sewage and drainage systems. These short term social problems of sanitation and working conditions resulted in long term social reforms of the Factory Act and The Public Health Act.
laws. I wish that they would let these people sleep on the floor or something
During the nineteenth century, in Nebraska most of the pioneers lived in a sod house. Some people loved living in them, but others found it unendurable. In the sod homes they had dirt floors. If the family had money they would use carpet, or some used logs. During the winter they used a stove in the house for heat. Families could only live in their houses for six to seven years unless they had whitewash or stucco covering the exterior of the house. Nothing ever seemed to be clean with the dirt floors. The walls were thick on the houses and insulation was good. Their schools were built of sod and had dirt floors to keep the teachers feet from frosting, this caused fleas. The walls on the house are three feet or so thick. The house probably had
As the days went by and the number of deaths began to increase, the Board of Health in London began to improve people’s living conditions by creating the indoor restroom, This, however, caused more problems for the people of London, due to the lack of a proper sewage system, “London needed a citywide sewage system that could remove waste products from houses in a reliable and sanitary fashion,...,The problem was one of jurisdiction, not execution,”(Page 117). London didn’t have a place where the sewers could lead off to which keep the disease spreading when people used the restroom. After months of battling the type of disease London was faced with, Mr. Snow convinced the Board of Health to remove the water pump that was on Board Street. By getting rid of this pump, Mr. Snow helped stop major outbreaks from recurring, “The removal of the pump handle was a historical turning point, and not because it marked the end of London’s most explosive epidemic,..., It marks a turning point in the battle between urban man and Vibrio cholera, because for the first time a public institution had made an informed intervention into a cholera outbreak based on a scientifically sound theory of the disease.”(Page 162- 163). This marked the end of the London epidemic and how the world of science
Hastings County, Social Housing, “Boxed In” April 2005 (pg. 6, 7, 15, 16, 23, 24, 108) Local Sources (pg. 110-114) Retrieved from: http://www.hastingscounty.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=115&Itemid=88
C-14-41 which made it illegal for anyone to sleep in public downtown areas. The commissioners argued for this law insisting that it would preserve the property values and prevent deterioration of the downtown area. Their goal in passing this law was to make more “inviting and connected gathering places” (CITE). Violators of this law could be charged with a $500 fine and 60 days in prison. Although there was much speculation and argument about this law, it passed by 5-0 votes. This law was passed to “to establish, maintain, and preserve aesthetic values and preserve and foster the development and display of attractiveness; to prevent overcrowding and congestion; to regulate auto traffic and provide pedestrian safety; to secure safety from fire, storm, panic, riot, vandals, and other dangers;”
¬¬¬The sanitary era is one of the main movements responsible for proactive commitment of public health (Hamilin & Sheard, 1998). Numerous problems existed prior to the implementation of public health practices, such as clean water, proper sewage and waste disposal, and proper animal carcass removal. It became clear to a few members of the public health community that changes needed to be made for the betterment of the lives of those living in the late 1800s. The changes made required time to implement and people who believed that many were suffering and dying from preventable diseases. Most of the sanitary era movement took place within England and the United States during the nineteenth century.
Cleanness in the Victorian era was one of the top priority of them right next to beauty, this was another thing the victorians were obsessed with, despite the cities being dirty and it was a constant battle. Washroom/Bathrooms were almost a necessity in the middle and especially the higher class. Heated- Baths that were heated by gas, quite dangerous by how they were designed, it was in a way if you were not careful it was possible to “Boil” yourself alive. Toilets were pretty dangerous too since they had a way of having a spontaneous combustion, because methane gas of the Sewer system causing too much pressure. It wasn’t til Thomas Crapper invented the ballcock in which prevent the methane gas from causing too much pressure and possibly seeping into the bathroom.
Most people aren’t familiar with ways our government is trying to lower health care costs of the homeless by putting them in houses, here is their chance to learn. “Housing First” approaches are aimed at reducing the number of homeless people in metropolitan cities, especially in USA and Canada. In Tulsa, the Mental Health Association operates housing models that are successful using the Housing First approach, but only with a success rate of around nine percent. These programs are able to help people achieve self-sufficiency. Special consideration is given to people who have mental illnesses. The main advantage of the approach is it makes an efficient use of the existing systems and services, and then eliminates the need for new ones. The approach has been said to lead to better quality of life, less alcohol and substance use among the beneficiaries, and less use of emergency services by the beneficiaries. Despite all of the advantages and purposes, the program has many challenges that make one think it’s not as successful as first projected. This could lead to program loss or the challenges being dealt with appropriately. If the government wants to use money to help end homelessness, they should put it towards resources and organizations that can, not towards homes where the homeless go to be ignored.