New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1853-04-22
HOUSES FOR THE POOR.

zen to take walk in the upper part of the
City without being struck with the number aud
elegance of the dwellings recently erected. In the
cross streets long lines Of lofty and highly .fnished
houses with fronts of free-scne, meet the eye; while
in the avenues many mansions assume paatial size
ind mapni6cence When We ask the cost Of these
new houses and of the lots on which they built,
we are startled the receive. New ideas
of the vast wealth OF this great commercial metropolis
break in upon the mind and new trains of reflection
are excited OF these last is which rarely fails to
present an important inquiry, which we as rarely at
tempt to answer: "Where do the poor live, and
where are they to live hereafter" Poor is of
q comparative term. In the remarks we are about to
offer we intend to confne it to men and women who
have no capital in advance, and who earn their yeli
hood by manual toll. There is still poorer class, who
from various causes unable to support themselves
by labor These are, ought to be, provided for at
the public expense. To such suggestions do not
apply.
OF course the poor are not freeholders and have
houses of their own they able nthe City hire
houses In the country the class to which we refer
usually hire small tenement for 25 or $40 year, or
where they are engaged in agriculture provided for
by the farmer who employs them. But in the City of
NeW.Yorh no poor nan hires house The rent would
equal nearly the whole of his annual income. He hires
not house but room, rarely two rooms, and very
frequently only part of q room.
OF course good houses in eligible situations and
furnished with modern conyeniences are not let in
single rooms to poor tenants The houses thus appro-
priated are chiefly old aud dilapidated-hoases which
for the most part decent family having the means OF
living in house by themselves would occupy The
rooms in these miserable tenements are let at exorbi-
tant rents the most cOmfortless seldom bringing less
than five dollars per month. Hence the proprietor
finds the old house more profitable than new one
would be- because the capital invested is smaller But
such the demand for rooms, that some new houses
are built as a pecuniary speculation TO meet the de-
mand These are chiefly in cheap and unpleasant Oca-
tons and although respectable in their exterior,
cparsey finished within Not few of these houses
built on the rear of lots, better house and store
fronting on the street. OF course these houses
omen upon little contracted court, into which it
is scarcely possible for a current of fresh air to
enter In all these various cases, the object Of the
landlord is to get high rent as possible, while the
great demand for rooms together with the nsucency
of the supply, compes the poor laborer to pay most
excessive price for place in which he and his wife and
children may lay their heads 1t may be safely affirmed
that throughout the City, business locations excepted
the rent of house is in inverse proportion to its cost
The rent of palace in the Fifthav far smaller per
centoge on the capital invested than the de-
rived from a runous tenement at tie Five Points OF
course the day aborer pays higher rent 10 proportion
to the space comfort and convenience he enjoys, than
any merchant. prince in the City.
But how. it NAV be asked is il possible to furnish
w ;,,nt
as well undertake to feed and cothe to lodge them
at the expense of the benevolent and could it all be
done it would be but giving high bounty onideness and
mprovidence. STILL much may be accomplished without
levying contributions on the charitable, or mpairing
the selfndependence and industry of the INDECENT
classes One of our respected fellow citizens Mr.
Haisht has made a judicous beginning in his Model
Houses in Thirty scventbst, but these excellent es
adjustments are limited in extent, and are designed
rather for thrifty mechanics, and for small families
than for the poor properly so called He he's done an
admirable thing, but would incte others to take up
the work and carry in rather lower sphere
than he has aimed at.
The efforts now making in England to improve the
dwellings of the poor in the highest degree both
laudabe ard instructive, and may well rouse the
benevolent among 10 similar exertiOD. In that
country population nearly equal that of the United
States is crowded into area not as large as the
State of Virginia OF course, there is necessarily
vast amount of destituton while the phlanthrOpic en-
deavors to relieve it are unexampled in any Christa
country Parliament has instituted an official nquir
into the state of the dwellings occupied b. the poor,
while two large societies are engaged in erecting tene'
mepts for their use The first of these is, The So
ciety for Improving the Condition of the Laborng
Classes" under the patronage of the Queen and the
presidency Of Prince Albert.
The Chairman of the Executive Committee of This
Society is the excellent Earl of Shaftesbury atey Lor
Ashey) the reputed author of the StaAOrdHOuse Anti
Slavery Address Among the various modes in which the
Society aims at improving che condition of the aborng
classes the erection of model lodging houses holds
prominent place. They have less than six piles of
buildings in different parts of London. The LIST lodges
90 families and 80 aged single females; the 2nd l04
single men the 3d. 4e families; the 4th, 20 families and
12s single women the 5th 50 single and the 9th,
81 single women; total 81 families, 2l5 single women,
and Is6 single men, These lodgings instead of being fur
nsbed atuitousy are let at moderate rents and the
port of the Society asserts that the result oese erpsri
ments shous sufficiently remmeratire return" In the
first building set of family apartments consisting of
sitting room and three bedrooms, lets for 81 week.
Single rooms for single women cost 6 per week The
ond building is regarded the most finished model of
all" Here s combined all that is deemed essential
and valuable in such an esabshment-cOmplete ven-
.tiation and drainage, an ample supply Of water,
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