The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1920-05-04
HOMELESS" TO Get
TENTS IN new YORK
THOUSANDS TO BE THUS CARED
FOR. PLEASURE SEEKERS TO
ADD TO HOUSE SHORTAGE.

NEW YORK.-Thousand of New
York families, some of the 73, ia
registered as homeless" by the ten
ement house department, are eX-
pected to live in tents furnished Dy
the United States army until the
present housing dearth is remedled,
according to men interested In the
building trade here. Just where they
will locate their new domiclles has
NOT vet been decided although an
army of real estate agents "moblllz-
ed" as it were, overnight in Great.
er New York, has vast acreages OF
vacant land to lease IN four OF the
five boroughs. =,
''From l 500 to 1000 families will
live in tents in Pelham Bay park
alone" declared Walter c. Martin,
Superintendent of the Bronx tene-
ment house department, "and l have
no doubt but that many other sec
tions will have whole colonies OF tent
jewellers after May /. In view OF
the anticipated increased demand Tor
tentage, especially by evicted faml-
lies. | shall write to the war depart
ment for sufficient canvas to meet
all possible need in the Bronx"
On top of the present housing
shortage looms the prospective OF
the usual horde of pleasure seekers,
many of them with abundant war
profits or earnings, who are coming
to the metropolis for their summer
outing. Some of these will offer
landlord attractive prices for tenn
porary quarters, and, where tenants
are occupying apartments from
month to month and paying eXorbi-
tant rents, the result is expected to
be an increased number of evic-
tons on May l and June l.
Evasion of the anti-rent profiteer-
ing laws recently passed at Albany
is a common charge in many cases
against landlords up for trial in the
municipal courts. Thousands of ten
ement Owners" to circumvent the
law which compels the landlords to
prove their rights to raise rents more
than rs per cent a year have notl-
fled tenants to vacate their proper
ty by September /. They then plan
to rent the apartments to the high
est bidders.
Decrease in Apartments.
An indication of the competition
for shelter in New York is afforded
by the tenement house department
figures which show that, due to
light building and the remodeling of
one time tenements into more prof
table business structures, there are
today actually fewer apartments In
the city than there were this time a
year ago. On January 1, 1919, there
were 9S3,139 living apartments IN
New York, large enough approx
mately for 3,931,704 persons. Under
the law, it must be remembered,
tenement" may mean building on
Riverside Drive as well as in the
lower east side. Since January l the
city has had an estimated increase
of 538,604 in population, but the
building construction which has been
done since that date is sufficient to
house only 465,490 persons, accord
ing to the real estate board.
Meanwhile the war is over and
trainloads of oil, steel, lumber and
automobile men and thousands of
other prosperous Americans are said
to be planning to invade the great
WIlIUS way. 1IdlAllOcltto 1lASeluy nave
arrived. For most of them it will
be no short vacation. Many are
bringing their families and they are
prepared to pay fancy prices for ac-
Communications. All of which gives
Joy to the landlord and real estate
dealer, who see visions of a bOunti-
full harvest.
So while tired mothers with babies
in arms leave baby carriages outside
courtroom doors, and with worried
husbands plead against eviction from
their homes the magistrates after
granting them temporary stays, post
pone the hearings to read up" on
the new legislation put through at
Albany. And while Mayor Hylan's
committee struggles for solution of
the complicated problem city mar
shals accuse each other of profiteer-
ing in eviction cases. Hundreds of
men, said to be without authority,
were also reported posing as ''mar-
shals' and serving dispossession no
tees, some of them earning" as
high as $4,000 month.