Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1920-04-18
NEW YORK FAMILIES
 WILL LIVE IN TENTS
 BECAUSE SHORTAGE
Even Places to Put These Are Difficult to
 liHd

New York, April 17.-Thousands of New York families, some or the 73- ll4 registered as homeless" bv the Tenement House Department, are expected to live in tents furnisnad Inv the United States army until the pre- sent housing drearth IS remedied, ac- co1d1ng to men interested in the building trade here Just where they will locate their new domiciles has not yet been decided although an army of real estate agents "mop- ilized' as 1t were, overnight in Great CT New York, has vast acreages of vacant land to lease in four of the five boroughs.
 From 1,500 to 2,000 families will i've Tn tents in Pelham Bay Park alone," declared Walter c. Martin, superintendent of the Tenement House Department, "and ] nave no doubt but that many other sections will have whole colonies of tent dwellers after May 1. In view of the anticipated increased demand for tentage, especially by evicted fami-, 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 prospect of the usual horde of pleasure seekers, ma. ny of them with abundant war prof. US or earnings, who are coming to the metropolis for their summer out ing. Some of these will offer land- lords attractive prices for temporary quarters and, where tenants are oc. cupying apartments from month to- month and paying exorbitant rents, the result is expected to be an in-. creased number of evictions on May l and June l.
 Evasion of the anti-rent profiteer- ing laws recently passed at Albany is. 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 the rents more, than 25 per cent. year, have noti- fled tenants to vacate their propcrtv by September 1. Then they plan to rent the apartments to the highest bidders.
 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 1 one-time tenements into more profi- table business structures, there are today actually fewer apartments in the city than there were this time; year ago. On January l, 1913, there were 983,139 living apartments in New York, large enough approxi. mately for 3,931,7 ,7O4 persons. Under the law, it must be remembered, q tenement" may mean building on Riverside Drive as we'll as in the lower East Side. Since January |, the city has had an estimated in- crease of 538,604 in population, but the building construction which has been done since that date is suffi- cient to house only 465,490 persons, according to the Real Estate Board.
 Meanwhile the war is over and trainloads of oil, steel, lumber ani automobile men and thousands of other prosperous Americans are said to be planning to invade the Great White Way. Trainloads already have 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- commodations. All of which gives joy to the landlord and real estate dealer who see visions of . bountiful harvest.
 So while tired mothers with babies in arms, leave baby carriages ont side courtroom doors, and with wor1 ried husbands plead against eviction i from their homes the magistrates after granting them temporary stays. postpone the hearings to tread up'' on the new legislation put through " Albany. And while Mayor HylsnR committee struggles for . solution of the complicated problem, city msrs shals accuse each other of profiteers ing in eviction cases. Hundreds Of men, said to be without authofftxS were also reported posing as max% shals" and serving dispossession no-| i tices, some of them learning" a& high as $2,00O month. t | A curious instance of extreme co}s or blindness recently came to ilghts | xo.krfF;no o!ov.ir antaIA 4ESi 1S1