The courier-index., 1920-04-30
Homeless in W. Y.
 LiUing in Tents

New York, April 28.-Thousands of New York families, some of the 73,114 registered as Homeless" by tenement house department, are ex- pected to live in tents furnished by the United States army until the present housing dearth is remcdied, according to men interested in the building trade here. Just where they will locate their new domiciles has rot yet been decided, although an army of real estate agents, "mo- bilized," as it were, overnight in Greater New York, has vast acre. ages of vacant land to lease in four of the five boroughs.
 "From 1,500 to 2,000 families will live in tents in Pelham Bay Park alone," declared Walter c. Martin, uperintendent of the Bronx tene- ment house department, land I have no doubt but that many other sec tions will have whole colonies of tent dwellers after May 1. In view of the anticipated increased de- mand for tentage, especially by evicted families, l shall write to the war department for sufficient can vass 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. many of them with abundant war profits or earnings, who are com ing to the metropolis for their sum- mer outing. Some of these will of fer landlords attractive prices for temporary quarters and, where ten ants are occupying apartments from month to month and paying exhor- itant rents, the result is expected to be an increased number of evictions on May 1 and June l.
 Evasion of the anti-rent profit eerlng laws recently passed at Al bany is common charge in many cases against landlords up for trial in municipal courts. Thousands of tenement 'owners" to circumvent the law which compels the landlords to prove their rights to raise rents more than 25 per cent a year, have notified tenants to vacate their property by September 1. Then they promise to rent apartments to the highest bidders.
 An indication of the competition for shelter in New York is afford ed by the tenement house depart ment figures which show that, due to light building and the remodeline of one-time tenements into more profitable business structures, there are today actually fewer apartments in the. city than there were this time a year ago. On January 1st, 1919, there were 983,139 living apartments in New York, large enough, approximately, for 3,931,- 704 persons. Under the law it must be remembered, a tenement may mean building on Riverside Drive as well as in the lower East Side. Since January 1, the city has had an estimated increase of 53S,- | 6O4 in population, but the building construction which has been since that date is sufficient to house on'y 465,49O persons, according 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 Ito be planning to invade the great vh.te 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 accommodations. All of which gives j.y to the landlords and real esta,e e dealers who see visions of a bounti- full harvest.
 So while. tired mothers with ba- bies in arms, leave baby carriages outside courtroom doors, and with worried husbands plead against eviction from their homes, the mag istrates after granting them tenn porary stays, postpone the hearings to Tread up" on the new legislation put thru at Albany. And while Mayor Hylan's committee struggles for solution of the complicated problem, city marshals acuse each other of profiteering in eviction cases. Hundreds of men, said to be without authority, were also re- ported posing as "marshaIs" and serving dispossession notices, some of them earning" as high as $2,- 900 month.