Evening star., 1952-12-15
City Heads Plan
ToRuIeSoonon
Tenement Law
Donohue Says Boord
Will Act on Issue as
Hearings Resume

A1OC IONdy SdIU IIIc plcScuG bOdTQ
of Commissioners intends very
soon to settle the long pending
and controversial question of reg
ulations for tenement houses.
Mr.. Donohue made this asser-
ton as the city heads resumed
hearings on the proposed regula-
tions today.
A witness, Paul Miller, repre-
senting the Washington Guest
House Association, had suggested
that the hearing be postponed
since both Mr.. Donohue and En-
gineer Commissioner Bernard L.
Robinson would be leaving soon.
He said it should be held over for
the new Commissioners to tackle
Mr.. Donohue said the hearing
would be conducted by this Board
of Commissioners and the issues
will be determined by this board
New Features Added.
The hearing started with Robert
F. Kneipp. chairman of the Com
missioners' Regulations Commit
tee, explaining the new regul-
lations are compilation of all
current laws relating to tenement
houses. Some new features are in
cluded. One is that operators of
tenement houses must register
with police.
Tenements are defined in the
regulations as one or more rooms,
other than an apartment, which,
are under the exclusive controll
Of the occupant.
The Commissioners began hear
ings on the regulations last July.
They were postponed until Octo-
ber and number of changes made
between the two dates. A furtherI
postponement until today was
granted when interested partiesI
complained they had not seen the
revised proposals.
Approval Is Urged.
Health Director Daniel L. Seek
niger and William H. Cary, jr.,
director of the Health Depart
ment's public health engineering
department, both advocated ap-
proval of the regulations.
Mr.. Cary gave the Commission
ers sets of photographs showing
poor conditions in some tenement
houses which he said these regu-
lations would enable the Health
Department to clean up.
Herman Schmidt, a real estate
man. said the regulations were too
severe. He said the District did
not have enough inspectors to en-
force the regulations. He said he
knew of a case where dead cat
stayed in an alley for seven weeks !
because the District didn't have
anybody to send around to pick
it up
Commissioner Renah F. Cam
alier told MI. Schmidt that was
an isolated incident and asked
him what he thought should be
done about the bad conditions.
Mr.. Camalier said it would be
better to clean up the tenement
houses rather than criticize the
District.
"Too Many Inspections"
Frederick Ballard, chairman of
the Joint Committee on Housing |
Enforcement, opposed the use of
the word tenement. He also said
the regulations called for too
many inspections by a half-dozen
District agencies.
Charles Bauer of the Building
Owners and Managers Association
said the regulations could not be
enforced. He objected to holding I
the operator of tenement houses
responsible for the right of entry
to the rooms. He also said there
was no right of appeal established
in the proposals.
Says Regulations Are Good.
John Childress, of the Washing
ton Board of Trade, said the regu-
lations as a whole were good.
Mrs. Arthur Wagner, of the
Capitol-H Southeast Washing
ton Citizens Association, also ap-
proved the regulations. She urged
approval as essential in the fight
to keep homes in the city from
becoming slums.
Grosvenor Chapman, represent
ing the Washington Building Con-
gress, pointed out what he termed
inconsistencies in the plumbing /
regulations. He suggested changes
in this section of the regulations.