Of the total 274 family groups there were 104 without lodgers and 170, or 62 per cent, with lodgers. For the most part the lodgers were found in "2a" classification—in families. There were ninety-two such groups and only sixty-one families with no lodgers. Forty-two couples had lodgers, and in thirty-six instances a man or woman living alone had lodgers. Thirty-nine couples were living alone, and in only four instances was there a parent alone with a child.
The Negro colony in Woodlawn approaches most nearly the normal family grouping. Home ownership in that district is fairly common, and the houses for the most part are substantial and well fitted and suited to the families. In the eleven Woodlawn families there was but one where the mother or father was dead or not living with the family. Lodgers were found in only four of the eleven families: two were couples, one a family, and the other a single woman. In the eleven families there were seventeen children.
A marked contrast with this section is found in the congested Negro district between Thirty-first and Thirty-ninth streets. Out of a total of ninety-nine families seventy-two had lodgers, or 72 per cent as contrasted with 36 per cent in Woodlawn and 62 per cent for the total 274 cases. In this district there were forty-two families with children, thirteen couples without children, and seventeen where a man or woman took lodgers. There were only fourteen families without lodgers, and thirteen couples living alone.
North of Thirty-first Street in this South Side area were similar conditions. Of forty-six households studied, twenty-seven, or 58.7 per cent, had lodgers: of these sixteen were families with children, nine were couples and two were man or woman with children. Of the households without lodgers, there were twelve families with children, five couples living alone, and two instances of parent and child.
The percentage of families with lodgers was highest in the Lake Park district, 75.6 per cent. On the West Side it was 68 per cent, a trifle higher than for the entire 274 families. On the North Side it was 57 per cent, on the South Side between Thirty-ninth and Sixtieth streets, 41.6 per cent, and in the Ogden Park district 40 per cent.
The Ogden Park district, with a relatively low percentage of families having lodgers, resembles the Woodlawn district in many respects. The houses are built for single families and are largely owned by Negroes who have lived in that locality for many years. Of the fifteen families there visited, nine had no lodgers; and of the seven with lodgers, four were families and two were couples without children.
Room crowding.—A study of Negro housing made in 1909 by the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy brought out the fact that, although Negro families find it extremely difficult to obtain a flat of three or four rooms, they do not crowd together as much as white immigrants; that Negroes take larger flats or houses and rent rooms to lodgers to help pay the rent, and thus lessen crowding among the members of the family. Among the 274 families studied by the Commission there was comparatively little overcrowding. One room to a person is a standard of room occupancy generally accepted by housing authorities as involving no overcrowding. Of these 274 Negro households, only sixty-seven exceeded the standard. There were, of course, wide divergences from the standard. For example, there were eight instances of six persons living in five rooms; six of eight persons living in six rooms; four of six persons living in four rooms; one of six persons living in three rooms; one of seven persons living in three rooms; two of seven persons living in four rooms; two of eight persons living in five rooms; one of nine persons living in five rooms; and one of eleven persons living in five rooms.
In the cases of unusually large families, either in the number of children or lodgers, there was a corresponding increase in the number of rooms. Thus in the case of fourteen persons making up one family, they were living in ten rooms.
The five-room dwelling was the most common, with fifty-nine families; six-room, forty-seven; seven-room, forty-two; four-room, forty-one.
In the Ogden Park district the standard of one person to one room was most closely adhered to. All the fifteen families studied in that district were housed in four-, five-, or six-room dwellings; ten of them in five-room dwellings. In Woodlawn the tendency was toward somewhat larger dwellings. There were no four- and five-room dwellings, but five of seven rooms and three of six rooms, one each of eight and three rooms. The four-room dwelling was most prevalent on the North Side. Of the fourteen families studied there, six were in such dwellings. There were two dwellings of six rooms, two of seven, one of five, two of three, and one of eleven rooms.