Evening star., 1942-06-17

the rooming houses are concerl
abolish 1mprovised bedrooms set up
in dark and poorly ventilated attics
and cellars and to assure . roomer
adequate heat. light and sanitary
facilities. Cleanliness in the ham
ding of food is. the theme OF the
new regulations as they apply to
boarding houses.
Alone. the rooming house business
has become big business in Wash
ington. mushrooming here as in all
other defense areas. Even so there
is an acute need for more-at least
more accommodations for the steady
influx of Government workers.
81 l,o0e, 80 \ Msnth Business.
1t is estimated conservatively
there are between 5000 and 10000
rooming houses here now with
total income Of more than $1,000
600 . month. These figures do not
include the private homes which
have opened their doors in . spirit
of patriotism to a war worker or
two. In q legal sense, these are not
rooming houses A real rooming
house, according to the definition
in the new housing code, Is "any
building or part thereof, other than
q hotel or private club, containing
sleeping accommodations occupied
for q consideration by four or more
persons who are not members OF
the immediate family Of the owner
or lessee ."
Up to now there has been no
widespread or concerted effort to
check on conditions in the ROOM
ing houses, chiefly because of the
lack of inspectors to do the job.
About all the sanitary office could
do with its small staff Of two full
time inspectors and II working part
time was to follow up complaints.
No time was left for a periodic
visit to those places against which
no complaints had been filed. More
over, there were not 50 many ROOM
ing houses and relatively few COM
plants until the national defense
program brought thousands of new
Government workers to Washing
ton. Now, however, the sanitary
inspection ONCE is svamped. Com
plants jumped 80 per cent in the
last year.
Improvement Expected.
Five more full-time inspectors. to
be added to the rooming house stan
by July /, will not enable an imme-
didate checkup OF all complaints
and of all rooming houses. but Dis
triet oiicials feel confident that
with the tighter regulations which
give the Health Department con-
troll over both boarding and room
ing houses, there will be q marked
improvement in a long-neglected
situation.
Lack of adequate toilet facilities,
too infreQuent changes Of bed linen
and careless maid service constitute
the bulk of the complaints received
at the Health Department from
rooming house occupants. From
the proprietors also have come COM
plants of a different character
complaints against undesirable ten
ants which they have been unable
to evict. - |
Expressly to prevent overcrowd-
ing in the rooming houses-cases
have been reported of four. five and
even six girls sharing a small room
the new regulations forbid the
use of any room for sleeping pur-
poses which does not have at least
so square feet of floor space per
person.
Sanitary Problem Serious.
The bathroom problem, serious
one in many of the large old houses,
has been partly solved in the new
regulations. Separate toilet and
bath facilities must be- provided for
each 10 occupants. And at least
twice a week individual bath and
face towels "of adequate size" must
be provided for each roomer.
Other features Of the new code
all designed to make life in ROOM
ing house more comfortable and
more healthful-are:,
1. Lighting-"No. room shall be
used for purposes of habitation that
is not provided with one or more
windows opening to the outside air
and equivalent in glass area to at
least 12Ea per cent Of the floor area
Of such room. Such habitable rooms
shall be provided with artificial
lighting reasonably uniformly dis
tributed so as to provide an illumi-
nation OF an intensity Of 6-foot
candles for general habitation. and
lo-foot candles for reading and