The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-01-18
Demand for Flats at
Moderate Rent Is Great

A young married woman whose hus-
band gets a salary of $100 a month,
started out last week to hunt for a fiat.
The man and wife had just come to
St Paul and knew nothing about the
conditions here.
Il would like to look at some Of your
fats" said the woman to the manager
Of renting agency on Fourth street.
Il want something from SIS to $50
a month"
The manager of the agency smiled.
L am sorry" said he, 'but we
haven't a single fiat to rent. I can
give you three rooms in a tenement
house for S. a month. That's the best
can do. Of course, you wouldn't want
them.
The woman went to eight other
agencies but none of them had moder-
ate priced flats to rent
AS a matter of fact, st. Paul is al
most destitute Of homes for young
married couples with moderate means.
The renting agencies absolutely have
no flats for rent for less than about
$50 month. These flats in Chicago
or San Francisco would rent for about
SIS month.
The young woman who was seeking
for an abiding place for herself and
her husband went to a three-s story
building on ST Peter street, near Ninth
A fiat of four rooms was vacant on
the second floor. The young woman
looked it over.
How about heat?"
You'll have to get a couple of stoves
to heat the apartments"
There's no water in the fiat. What
do we do for Water?"
There's faucet across the hall. You
can get all the water you want for
cooking and bathing from that"
What is the rent?''
Thirty dollars month"
"Too much"
''All right. There's plenty of people
who will take the fiat at that price"
Experience Is Common.
At the rental agencies the universal
opinion was that such experiences were
not uncommon. 1t was said on every
hand that st. Paul was utterly without
homes for people of moderate income.
Il don't understand it." said ". J.
Rothschild There is the demand.
There ought to be the corresponding
supply. A number of fiat buildings
are going up in st. Paul. They win
be finished in the spring. The rent
for the apartments runs from $50 to
500 a month. And at that the flats are
all engaged in advance.
What st. Paul needs is a hundred
nat buildings in which the rent would
be from SIS to $25 month. Such an
investment would pay and I don't see
why capitalists do not make it."
What is the cause of the great de-
mand for flats and this scarcity"
The only way I can account for it
is in the steady, rapid growth of the
city. ST. Paul is becoming the city
of homes-that is, it would become the
city OF homes if homes We're available.
Young married people are coming here
from all parts of the country. They
want little homes of their own.
The wife wants to try her hand at
housekeeping; the husband wants to sit
at his own f1reside. They don't want to
board or live at restaurants
And yet / fancy that at least a
thousand young men and their wives
are looking for moderate priced homes
at the present time. They are looking
in vain, too
The manager of r. M. Newport's
renting agency declared that they had
at least twenty applications a day for
flats, but that they, were not in the
market to be rented.
Turn Many Away.
1--WE have to turn every one down."
said he, who comes to inquire for a
fat. We could give them rooms, but
the rent for the house is too high to
suit the incomes of the young couples.
They've got to board or live in furnish
ed rooms and eat at restaurants"
Il am sorry, madam" said the man
ager of Meyhert Burners renting
agency to a ured-looking young woman
who came into the office yesterday, but
We have no flats to rent l can recon-
mend several good places to board,
however
"At what price ?"
For you and your husband, SIS a
week"
The woman went away with a dis
heaFtened look on her face. She want
ed fat for SIS and expected to pay