The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-01-08
Liberal Viewpoint
by DR.. HARRY ELMER BARNES

4
THE elaborate plans for "rehousing America"
l. now under consideration by the Federal
Government and local agencies, can never sue
| coed as they should unless the human element
is taken into consideration as well as the con-
struction Of model tenements AS Miss Beatrice
Greenfield Rosahn points out in an article on
"Rehousing the Stun Dweler" in The Ma
tional Municipal Review, Housing experts and
social workers have long realized that the 'slum'
IS the result of two things: the substardard
dwelling and the ignorant or shiftless tenant"
1t will accomplish little for social better
ment if model apartments are inhabited by
those who keep coal in the bathtub decorate
the walls with crude crayon drawings, never
sweep the floors, and smash window a day.
Along with the construction of buildings must
come the education of the prospective tenant
who is drawn from the former slums where
there has been neither example nor incentive
TO clean and decent living.
That even tenants with a slum background
can be taught to assume an air OF solicitude and
pride in their habitationS has been amply proved
by past efforts in this field. Perhaps the first
impressive success in rehabilitating the morale
of Slum-dwellers was that of Octavia Hill in
London following 1864. Inspired by John Rus
kin, she started out with three dilapidated old
houses in the worst London slums. At the time
of her death in 1912, she controlled 1000 houses
and flats in the city of Lnodon.
CHE had two basic principles:
~ 1.-The first, to demand strict fulflment of
the tenants duties, including the prompt pay
ment of rent; and second, to endeavor to be SO
unfailingly just, patient and helpful that the
tenant learns to trust and respect the rule over
them"
Miss Hill found that her method got results
NOT Or11v in on
but also in the development of habits of cleanli-
ness on the part of tenants. AS she put it:
81 have learned to know that people are
ashamed to abuse place they find cared for
They will add dirt to dirt till place is pesti-
lential, but the more they find done for it, the
more they will respect it, till at last order and
cleanliness prevail"
The Octavia Hill system has been adopted in
Amsterdam, Edinburgh, Glasgow and many other
European cities, well as in New York and
Philadelphia. The City and Suburban Homes
Co., which was organized in New York in 1896,
consciously adopted the Hill system, and its, So
cial supervisor reported the same satisfactory
results:
1T is a matter Of record how careful the
tenants are Of the property and how determined
they are that it shall not run down. The old
coal-in-the- bathtub story has never been war
ranted in my experience. This is encouraging in
view of the fact that we make no dempr at rent
ing to families with children
II QUAIL success has been achieved by other
- organizations which have operated on SIM
liar principles, notably the Lavanburg Homes
in East Side, New York, the Better Housing
League of Cincinnati. the Michigan Boulevard
Garden Apartments in Chicago, the Amalga-
mated Apartments in the Bronx and the Paul
Laurence Dunbar Apartments in Harlem. The
essentials in the human side of better housing
for America have been admirably summarized by
Miss Rosahn:
IF slums are ever to be eradicated entirely,
the problem Of the 'unteachable tenant ulti-
mately must be faced. 1t may be that in time to
come undesirable tenants will have to be housed
as public charges in special municipal institu-
lions similar to those maintained by the COM
munity in Amsterdam, Holland.
"It is obviously no solution of the Slum prob
lem to refuse admittance to the less desirable
families, as has been the practice of certain
model housing projects. These families must
settle somewhere, and as they usually find quar-
tiers in the cheapest sections of the city, SlumS
will again develop there.
From the standpoint of crime prevention 1t
would be more practical to house the worst fam
lilies first and gradually work up. -.
THE utopia of a city without slums may in
deed be long way off; but if we are truly to
progress toward this ideal state we must prepare
today, not only to rehouse the present slUm
dweller. but also to re-educate him"