Evening star., 1946-05-10
Report Assai|s
Health Problem
of D. T.. S|ums
Housing Conditions
Worst Yet Studied,
Survey Expert Says
By Harold B. Rooers

Slum area conditions here are
really appalling" and present to
the District of Columbia "per-
haps its major health problem
of any kind"
Levelling this indictment against
dwellings for loW-income people
here, a sanitation survey by three
outside experts today charged that
housing conditions in the District
appear to be worse than in any
city so far studied" under procedure
drawn up by committee of the
American Public Health Association,
The three surveyors for the Metro
polital Health Council, in the first
chapter of their official report made
public today estimated there prob
ably are nearly $4,000 substandard
dwelling units in the District.
Report on Sanitation.
The 18-page report on sanitation,
is the first chapter in the compre-
hensive analysis of health and hos
pltal jurisdictions the District of
Columbia and its contiguous coun-
ties in Maryland and Virginia. Sue
ceeding chapters are to be made
public from day to day,
The experts disclosed some of the
findings at a meeting last week of
health and social welfare leaders
of the area.
To meet the serious housing prob
lem for the loW-income group here.
the experts put forward four hous-
ing recommendations for the Dis
trlct. They are among nine propo-
sails designed to meet the sanitary
needs OF the entire Metropolitan
Area.
Inc surveyors proposed:
Elimination as rapidly as possible
OF the grave dangers presented by
the $4,000 outdoor toilets and yard
hydrants in the District, and by
other extreme conditions of insan-
itary housing.
More Personnel Urged.
Strengthening of the legal regu-
lations of the District for the con-
demnation of insanitary housing and
appurtenant facilities and for the
licensing of lodging houses of various
types.
Substantially increased personnel
for the Division of Public Health
Engineering of the District Depart
ment of Health
The inclusion, as basic part of
such increase in personnel, of a
group OF inspectors, free from re-
sponsibility for response to nuisance
complaints, so that they can devote
their efforts to regular comprehen-
slve inspection of all dwellings in
selected substandard areas so as to
establish basis for really effective
housing control"
The survey was made for the
Metropolitan Health Council by
three widely known as experts in
their field. They were DR.. D. E. A.
Wlnslow of New Haven, Conn, pro-
fessor emeritus, department of pub
lie health, Yale University; DR.. Ira
". Hiscock, chairman of the depart
ment of public health of Yale, who
also is vice president of the National
Health Council, and DR.. Claude w.
Munger, administrator of st. Lukes
Hospital, New York City, who is
president of the American College
OF Hospital Administrators
The census figures of 194O," de-
clared the report, showed that Of
the 172,760 dwellings for which fig
ures were available, per cent were
in need of major repairs and Is per
cent lacked either bathing or plumb
ing facilities, or both, within the
dwelling unit.
Intensive studies of certain areas
have shown appalling results"
One such study. it was pointed
out, was made by the Washington
Housing Association according to a
method devised by the Committee
on the Hygiene of Housing of the
American Public Health Association
which permits the expression of de-
grees Of "slumminess" through an
collective quantitative penalty
score"
THE dwellings in the Washing
ton slum area studied showed a
medium penalty score of 141 points
as compared with So penalty points
for one of the worst slum areas in
a New England city survey by the
(See HEALTH, Page A-3.)