Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-07-19
INSPECTION PARTY
FINDS BAD CONDITION
[Continued from First pagc.l

But there are SoreSpotS that must
be healed; there is evil that must be
| corrected. There are districts in
Harrisburg, where living conditions
are bad beyond description. Bad is
too mild an adjective; horrible is
the term.
DIR. Raunick as Escort
Yesterday DR.. Raunick, city health
officer. who has been urging for
years the adoption of a model hous-
ing code, accompanied Telegraph
representative through several of
| the worst localities. What they saw
fairly sickened the little party.
The found rooms without win
dows, halls that never see the light
of day, cellars full of water, houses
without cellars. families housed in
one and two tiny rooms unfit for
human habitation, sewers that have
been stopped up fpr weeks, build
ings made largely OF scraps of wood
and tin gathered from the public
/ dumps, whole groups of houses with
only an outside hydrant and no run
ming water inside; departments"
over stables and over garages in
which gasoline is stored. and filth
! beyond description
I The party found families with
! fairly good incomes living in sur
roundings that by comparison would
make Hogan's Alley look like a
Paris boulevard; not that all of
them want to live that way. but be-
cause they are comparative new
eomers and can find no houses in
Harrisburg for rent within their
means. Rents for these shacks are
as high as they ought to be for
good houses, in many cases, and one
OF the evils encountered in this re-
spect is subleasing, the owner per-
mitting an agent to lease the build
ing for reasonable sum and then
renting it out by the room at figures
beyond belief. Ten dollars a month
for single room with one window.
no light, no water and only outside
toilet. is not the highest rental en-
countered by any manner of means
Near Heart of Town
The first stop was made in Cow
den street, just north of Strawberry.
where there are several rundown
dlsreputable appearing apartment"
houses. An intelligent colored man
who said he had resided in the
Elghth ward for many years. told
the investigators that he lived on
the top floor of No. 16 Cowden
street, which is an attic room with
sloplng roof ventilated with one
small window. Il pay $40 a month
for my room, with a bed, bureau
and chair thrown in," he explained
The place is dirty and unfit for
human habitation, but I have no
place else to go. l eat my meals
with the family for whom I work.
Others who live in even worse rooms
than |, without air in summer or
heat in winter. do their cooking in
their rooms. on oil stoves. Ten dol
lars for single room of the kind is
pretty high; don't you think so?
The house is owned by a Steelton
man and sublet by a woman who
lives in Steelton."
The same man piloted the inspec-
tors to Strawberry street, lust
around the corner. where conditions
are even worse. These buildings are
old and reconstructed so as to give
maximum number of rooms with
out regard to light, air or privacy.
A family may have as many rooms
as 1t can afford. Here the health
officers were shown toilets that had
been stopped up for several weeks
and water in cellars that reached
at times halfway from floor to cell
ing. The place was like a pigpen.
although the interiors of some of
the rooms showed efforts on the mart
to keep them as clean as the sur
roundings will permit The apart-
ments are dark and dingy and the
halls without light. The stems are
narrow and shaky and glass in the
few windows that exists is in MANY
cases smashed.
Rotten" said Or. Raunick. as
he inspected conditions, but much
better than when we got after them
six months ago"
Many families live in these houses
under conditions bound to result in
disease, immortality and crime of all
sorts.
In Capitol Street
Strange as it may seem. one of
the worst housing conditions in the
city exists in Capitol street right in
the heart of a district surrounded
by fine types of houses occupied nv
prosperous people who have COM
planned again and again with no re-
suits against a continuance of the
nuisance.
The four-story brick house at 500
Capitol street has been transformed
INTO what its owner designates as an
apartment house" 1t looks as
though it might be a relic of the San
Francisco earthquake so far as the
interior is concerned. 1t was once a
high-class residence. 1t is we'll
built and capable of being trans
formed into a really desirable dwell
ing place. At present it is unsani-
tary, dark, filthy and run on the
basis of the most profit for the least
outlay. The plaster is dropping from
the walls, the floors of the halls are
grimy the backyard is a litter of
plaster-covered bricks and pools of
stagnant water and there is no light
within at night save that which
leaks in from far-off street lamps.
Whole families live in one room
each and they use a common kitchen
in the basement. The garbage must
be carried out through the build
ing, because the thrifty owner has
erected garage across the whole
OF the rear yard. And for these
palatial quarters the renters are
charged as much as $40 each per
month per room, although a few
apartments" may be had 70 rless.
Several hundred dollars judiciousIy
expended would transform the place.
conditions are so bad here that even
with houses as few as at present
not all the apartments" are filed.
Two old tumble down houses next
door are even in worse condition.
They will fall down shortly if they
are not torn away.
Another apartment House
n ~