Evening star., 1933-08-20
$10,ODD,0OO STARTS
SLUM CLEARANCE
Government Step Toward
Better Housing Launched
in Five Cities.

A grant Of $4,000, 900 for slum-
clearance projects in five cities tenta-
lively made last week by the Public
Works Administration, marks one OF
the first definite steps toward the
Governments goal of better housing
conditions for the poor and the elimi-
nation of sordid, insanitary. and crime
breeding districts in our big cities.
Boston, Philadelphia, New York,
Brooklyn and Hutchinson, Kans., will
benefit by this first allotment, which
is made in the form of loans for build
ing model six-story elevator apart
ments The work is to be undertaken
by such organizations as the Spence
Estate Housing Corporation, which Is
what Is known as a limited dividend
corporation, working under the New
York State model housing laws.
These limited dividend corporations
are composed of public-spirited per
sons. who. while providing the capital
for building model homes for workers
of low income. voluntarily limit their
profits. usually to 6 per cent. They
receive certain cooperation and aid
from the State and city governments.
for it has been found impossible for
private enterprise alone to reclaim and
rebuild the neighborhoods.
SI1 Per Room.
In the Brooklyn plan a whole block
of sordid. ill-ventilated and unheated
flats near the water front will be re-
placed by siX-story. fireproof elevator
building of modern apartments of three
and four rooms and bath, which Will
rent at about an average Of S11 room
a month. The developments in the
other cities are similar.
These isolated projects apparently are
the best that can be achieved under
existing conditions, but are said to be
far below the ideal developments which
are the aim of social workers and hous-
ing reformers everywhere in the coun-
try. These point, rather ruefully. to
the work accomplished in Europe,
where public opinion Is thoroughly
aroused to the disgrace and menace of
the city slum, regarding the huge sums
being spent for their elimination as an
economic investment for the moral and
physical welfare Of the nation.
London some years ago eliminated
one of her worst slums by cutting
through it the wide, handsome Kings.
way, with theaters, restaurants. and
the highest type of Office and CONNER
cial buildings taking the place Of
squalid tenements and filthy alleys.
Many such developments have been
completed or are still in course of con-
struction. The recently completed
Tabord Garden is typical Here an
area covering 18 acres and housing
$500 people. a district of narrow alleys
10 to 20 feet wide solidly built up with
dismal rows of two-story brick houses,
was entirely replanned.
New and wider streets we're laid out.
5-acre playground created and the
new buildings erected covered only
about 80 per cent of the land instead
Of 80 to 80 per cent.
Rents in the new model tenementS
range from So to 81 room, depending
largely on the locality.
While the London model homes are
plain and thoroughly substantial, they
have few frills, and this is true in many
of the Germany developments, which
are built by maSS-construction methods,
on modernistic lines which subordinate
everything to utility. Vienna has man
aged to Undue her workers homes with
splendid spirit of cheerfulness and
well-being.
Public Laundries Equipped.
York State Housing Board, who recently
returned from a visit to these European
city developments, said in discussing
the new day in housing:
Before the war many of these
(Vienna) workers dwellings had no
kitchens and no halls; only % per cent
had running water; in 90 per cent the
toilet was outside the building. The
municipal tenementS now erected cover
less than so per cent of the land; they
are architecturally attractive. provide
Fairgrounds, public bath. kindergartens,
day nurseries and public laundries
equipped with the most modern electric
washers ironers and driers. There are
fountains and wading pools Some of
the buildings have statuary in the
courts and corridors. The living room
floors are parquet, the halls are tiled.
almost every apartment has bal
cony."
Rents in these ideal apartments are
nominal, a small one costing only 81 a
month, leaving a wide margin for other
expenses in the workers budget, even
if he does draw only monthly pay roll
Of $50.