New-York tribune., 1922-01-06
House Famine
Called w Orst i'm
City's History

Continued from page one>
the tenement house district for the
New York Infirmary for Women and
Children, 52l East Fifteenth Street.
She told the committee, in reply to
questions by Samuel Untermyer chief
counsel that the district below Four
teeNth Street was suffering the most.
| The crowding of two families and sev-
eral boarders into q one family apart
ment was quite common.
hese are very poor people, she
salo. ihey cannot afford to pay for
their medicine or doctor and they live
IN the most run down apartments.
Wallpaper is falling off the walls and
plaster coming off the ceilings. Plumb
ing IS always out of order, and the
glass broken in the windows.
these are the conditions NEST of
the working people have to put up
with at present. | find them living
IN places that no one would have
thought of occupying before the war
They are paying rentals OF from s. To-
81 an apartment. The structures are
rickety, dilapdated houses The aver
age rental is about SIS. The places are
lnto!erably unsanitary"
DR.. Daniel added that She found
numerous places in which the rooms
nad not been cleaned by the landlords
for years.
DR.. Copeland pointed out the great
danger to the health of the community
II conditions are permitted to continue.
The overcrowdng is so bad" said
DR.. Copeland, that if typhus or cholera
ever broke out and got good star,
more than 100000 people would be
wiped out in month. Only tho grace
of God has saved this city from paying
terrible price for this crowded con
dition. 1t is exactly as though YOU
IN stacks against valuable property
and hoped nobody would throw a Gig
aret into the heap. We have not been
visited by scourge OF contSct dis
eases. In the present situation. due
to the housing shortage, we should
have been nearly helpless.
Overcrowding in Harlem
Dr. Copeland said that a survey re-
Gently made by his department showed
that in one block in Harlem there were
4.7o0 persons in fifty houses in 1921,
while in 1920 there were i,716 persons
in tifty-threc houses.
Dr.. Copeland urged the extension of
the rent laws not only until conditions
were normal, but until houses we're
built which, he said. would enable the
city to destroy "the unsanitary rocker
les which are a disgrace to the citys
name"
Tenement House Commissioner Mann
said that conditions were moro acute
than they had ever been. A census OF
vacant apartments in February of 1921
showed only one-titth of l per cent
vacancies in the citys existing apart
ments. Another census under way now
showed only onc-tenth of l per cent
unoccupicd. "And ,hcse vacancies are
only due to casual migrations; they
may not be empty the next day. he
added.
Commissioner Mann said that the
city had built about 25.000 apartments
each year up to 1917. Since that time
apartments aggregatIng 29,l2o had been
added In 1917, he said, there were
1913, 2,706; 1919, 1924; 1920, 1892;
1921, 5.667. The Commissioner said
that to this should be added rooms for
about $4,000 families in 1921, due to
tax exemption on one and two family
houses.
10000 Apartments Needed
"Therc is a shortage of 10000 apart
ments right now" continued the COM
missioner, "as against 20 coo last year
Were that made up we ought to have
now buildings each year with from 2o,--
00o to $4,000 apartments" Hc added
that the emergency rent laws should
as to court procedure. He pointed out,
too, that the crowding of tenements
had reached the point where 1T had
greatly increased the fire hazard and
was Il menace to morals.
Judge Levy characterized the situa-
tion in the courts due to the housing
shortage as 'woeful." "There are more
than 100000 rent cases pending before
the municipal courts" he said. "lt viii
the greater part of these by non-jury
trials If the tenant demands jury
trial which is often done TO inconven-
ience the landlord, the case is tied up
in the court for more than a year
The congestion, he declared, has
caused a temporary breakdown in the
administration of justice. He advised
the extension of the rent laws for an
other year as healthy cxpedient.
Charles G.. Edwards, president of the
New York Real Estate Board, opposed
the extension of the laws on the ground
that conditions had changed since the
time they were adopted. Mr.. Edwards,
under Mr.. Unternyer's questioning,
pointed to Professor Lindseys figures.
which purported to show there was
surplus of $4,000 apartments here in
stead of a shortage Of $4,000.
Professor Lindsey, who teaches polit-
ica science at Columbia University
admitted receiving $500 from the real
estate men to "makc survey OF the
housing situation and to make all un-
biased report to the Real Estate Board"
1t developed also that the pamphlet
which Professor Lindsey had written
on the subject had been used by coun
sci for the real estate men as part Of
their fight before the United States Su
premc Court in test Of the constitu-
tonality of the rent laws.
High-Priced Places Plentiful
Stewart Browne, president OF the
United Real Estate Owners Assoca
ton, declined to say definitely if there
still was an emergency. He admitted
there was overcrowding in the apart
ments renting for $40 room, but said
there were plenty of $50 a room apart
ments Browne said that when the
emergency laws were passed his inter
ests were all with the tenants. Now
they were all with the landlords. He
sand it was impossible for a landlord
to get justice in municipal court in
this city. Mr.. Untermyer resented
o..:4;.;.,, no,,rfr ocJ aid