Evening star., 1942-10-11
Housekeeping Aides
For War Workers
Patterned After WPA
N roined Persons Now
Helping Needy Families
: Under D. c. Project

1t Is dinicult to decide whether to
send housekeeping aide to a home
where the mother has just died or
to send one to help an expectant
mother who may become seriously
Ill II some one doesn't tighten her
housekeeping chores.
But decisions like this must be
made every day by Mrs. Mary
Brundage, director of the WPA
Housekeeping Aide Project, spon-
sored by the District Health De-
partment.
There are hundreds Of motherless
families In the. District who cannot
AFFORD a maid, old people who need
help and mothers with newly born
babies and also other children who
must be prepared for school, fed
and kept clean. And today, in war
time Washington, there are added
The thousands OF families whose
mothers are working.
Mrs. Roosevelt asked at a recent
press conference what is going to
happen to American households with
both housewives and maids leaving
for war work.
The WPA Housekeeping Aide
Project seems to be the kind OF SER
vice to answer what Mrs. Roosevelt
mad IN mind. 1t sends trained house
hold workers into homes where
mothers are i'll or absent. Today.
according to employers, former
housewives now holding war Jobs
lose many days and hours on the lob
because they have to do the laundry
stay home with sick child or attend
to household chores.
Service for War Workers Planned.
To avoid this loss of working
hours, a housekeeping aide service
Tor war workers is now being
planned. Mrs Florence Kerr, as
slstant commissioner of WPA, who
is in charge of war public services
under the Lanham Act, is consider
ing means Of aiding families where
women are employed in war work.
The Lanham housekeeping aide
projects would be patterned after
the WPA model, which in the Dis
trlct employs 40 aides and in the
Nation some 10000 women.
Mrs. Kerr stresses that needy
families must not be neglected and
that the demand for housekeeping
aides is greater than ever in war
time because crowded hospitals and
shortages of nurses are forcing more
patients to be cared for at home.
The WPA Housekeeping Aide
project, which has operated in the
District since 1888, is essentially the
same type of service that will be set
up with Lanham Act funds. War
workers, however. instead of low in
come families, will be the recipients
OF the service and under Lanham
fund operation, families would pay
on sliding scale for the housekeep-
ing aide service.
Mrs. Brundage, District house.
keeping aide director, pointed out
that this type of work is we'll suited
to middie~sged women with families
Of their own who could not accept
employment as private maids be-
cause, they could not work the 10
or 12-bour day required in private
domestic service At 1923 North
Carolina avenue Sc. where the
aides receive their weeks intensive
training in cooking, cleaning. laun-
dry and bedside care, middle -aged
women can be seen every day learn
ing household skills. After their
first week, the aides are sent out to
homes of families needing help.
Aides are sent only to the most des-
perate cases reported to the WPA
by the Public Assistance Division or
other welfare agencies. The number
OF families that can be served has
dropped sharply because at one time