New-York tribune., 1921-06-05
Flat Building OutIook
For From Pro ''ising Here
Construction Cost Is So High That Tenements Cam
not Be Erected to Rent 10 People Of Moderate
Means; 500 Room Will Have To Be Asked

"The future of the housing situation
in New York City is uncertain" says
Allan Robinson, in his annual report
made yesterday, as president of the
City and Suburban Homes Company.
"The cost of building is SO great that
tenements cannot be put up for rent
to people of moderate means. There
are a number of people who have saved
from $4,000 to $4,000, and these people
are IN position to obtain homes built
TOR them on an easy payment plan,
and many such homes are likely to be
constructed. in the next Two years; but
the multi-family house which, after
all, is the only solution for the housing
problem in New York City, will not be
erected in any considerable numbers
until labor production materially in
creases and the labor wage somewhat
decreases.
Labor says that if it cannot afford
to rent at the present wage it could
not afford to rent at a lower wage
There is much to be said for this point
of view,~ but the fact remains that
rents are a matter of supply and de-
mand and the greater the nurnber of
houses produced the greater th- fall in
rents will be. A $4,000 house has
market to-day, but there is a larger
market for $500 house, still larger
one for $4,000 house and very much
larger market for a S3,500 house. If
we could get our building costs geared
to the $4,000 house. such large num-
ber of them would be produced that
rents throughout the entire CITY would
fail and labor would benefit along with
the general community"
Labor Big Fault
Citing from his own experience in
the erection of the City and Suburban's
Homewood Garden apartments, com
pleted last October, Mr.. Robinson at
tributes large proportion of the in
crease in New York City rents to the
high wages and low productivity of the
building trades worker. Labor and
material costs reached their peak in
the summer of 1920, he says, the high
level in that year showing an increase
In wage scales and in the list prices of
materials of approximately 120 per
cent over pre-war levels. Actual build
ing costs were higher, labor was only
SO per cent efficient and materials
could not be had in many instances at
list prices.
Before the war" says Mr.. Robin
son, "bricklayers used to Law from
l.500 to 1000 bricks day, but last
summer in our Homewood development
the average was from 900 to 1000
bricks a day. Other trades showed the
same falling off in efficiency, so that
builders found when they came to put.
up dwellings that the cost of the fin
lshed structures amounted to two and
half and three times what the same
development would have cost in 1914.
One Of the important industrial in
forests of the city, members of which
were concerned with the problem of
housing their employees, asked for bids
on several million dollars worth of
fivc-story walk-up tenements and one
of the largest construction companies
in the country estimated the cost of
such buildings in May, 1920, at SO cents
a cubic foot This compares with
pre-war cost of less than 20 cents
cubic foot. The president of the larg-
est tenement owners association in the
city stated last winter that tenements
could not be built to rent for less than
S20 room per month"
46@o Interest on Company Flats
Since 1916 Mr.. Robinson's company
has increased its rents in all of its
Manhattan tenements 46 per cent The
company's stock is now paying 4 y per
cent and earning enough to pay per
cent unless conditions should arise
during the year to make unforeseen
inroads into earnings.
The increasing cost of operation to
which owners of tenement properties
have been subjected has performed one
useful service for our tenants" says
Mr.. Robinson. st has stimulated
US to devise new ways of cut
ting down operating expenses so that
when normal times return the lower
cost of our operation as a result of the
changes that we have been able to
make will put the company in posi-
tion where it can offer its homes at
still more advantageous terms as COM
pared with other similar buildings"