Housing / by Percy Alden and Edward E. Hayward.

  • Alden, Percy, 1865-1944.
Date:
[1907]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Housing / by Percy Alden and Edward E. Hayward. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    difficulties of those who have a practical concern in this matter, and have to administer the law as members of our public authorities. The minimum for the average working man’s family is a cheap, but well-built house with four or five suitable rooms, together with a quarter- acre garden, or at least with a fair-sized court- yard. The site should be a healthy one and the house perfectly sanitary, well-lighted, well-ven- tilated and well-drained. And this accommo- dation must be supplied at a low rental, or it will be found beyond the means of the working classes. All who have any knowledge of the subject say that such accommodation is seldom or never found either in town or country. The first diffi- culty is a financial one. A sufficiently high standard of dwelling is not provided for the masses of our people, because they cannot afford to pay the necessary rent. The wages of the unskilled labourer are for the most part subsistence wages, and do not admit of paying the high rents which are charged in our big cities for even the poorest accommodation. It is probably true that in some cases overcrowding is due to care- lessness and failure to use to the best advantage existing accommodation, but this will not go far to explain the miserable conditions we have described. 4.—The House Famine. The most important factor in the whole Housing problem is the serious house famine which exists generally in this country. The dearth of houses will explain
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