Good housing that pays /

by Fullerton L. Waldo

As for houses for negro tenants owned by the Association, an interesting group will be found along Naudain Street between Seventh and Eighth, and in the vicinity. Here simple rooms may be had for a couple at the low figure of 80 cents a week, or $1.00 for larger rooms. The standard of self-respect and cleanliness among the tenants is high. Many of the houses were formerly dens of the lowest order, and the Association does not relax its vigil to prevent a recurrence to former conditions. In all there were, in 1917, [125] colored families in houses owned or controlled by the Association. It is probable that in the near future the Association will take over other properties west of Broad Street and south of Lombard in the district into which negroes are moving. The Association is hopeful of doing much more in the future to help the negroes find good homes.

The number of houses owned by the Association at the beginning of 1917 was 179; the number of families in these houses was 244. The agency properties in charge of the Association numbered 224, and there were 460 families housed in them. This gives a total of 704 families in 403 dwellings.

Agency properties have been handled by the Association, to the expressed satisfaction of owners, since it was in the second year of its existence.

The Association charges 7½ per cent. for its management; a charge fully justified by the quantity and the quality of its executive supervision.

The properties handled for others may be thus classified: first, houses received from owners who built with an intent frankly philanthropic, and who realized that the Association was qualified by experience to run these properties to the greater advantage of owner and tenant; second, houses bought at the suggestion of the Association and left in its hands for reconstruction and management; third, houses held as ordinary business investments, and committed to the oversight of the Association for the sake of an assured lucrative result; fourth, houses received from trust companies or estates; fifth, houses turned over by charitable or philanthropic institutions which have received them as bequests.

In the last connection, it is to be observed that the legacy is made to perform a twofold service. Low-wage families are assured a good home at a small cost; and the legatee receives a return which may be put to philanthropic uses. Of course in some cases there is so much to be done to rehabilitate the property bequeathed that for a time there is no income from it. But the possible dual objective of a legacy is worth the thoughtful consideration of those who would have a bequest mean as much as possible to those who come after them.

It is seen from this brief review of the impersonal side of the business operations of the Association that in certain particulars the procedure of Miss Hill has been modified. Miss Hill relied largely on volunteer collectors. The Association in addition to its unpaid collectors employs several who are paid. Miss Hill obtained purchasers for houses which she desired to improve. The Association, as a stock company, has purchased outright a number of houses. It has realized that whereas certain landlords on a grand scale in London controlled vast areas, in Philadelphia, aside from the Girard Estate, with its admirable model homes for persons who can afford them, there are very few owners of large, undivided tracts where blocks of model houses might be created. So it has been accustomed to purchase its groups piecemeal from a number of owners.

It is probable that in the future the Association will undertake to an increasing extent the construction of new dwellings. For a long time to come, if not always, it will continue to renovate old dwellings, for the old dwellings, situated in the congested areas, are the abodes of most of the poor, who are traditionally averse to uprooting; and often the poor feel much more at home in an old house “fixed up” than in a new house to which the adjustment only comes by the slow stages of a social education. Of course a point is reached, especially on a soaring market for all building materials, when it pays better to build anew than to make over the old. The philanthropic side of the Association’s endeavor will cling to the old houses. The sheer business astuteness of the enterprise will erect new dwellings. The problem is to keep the due proportion between the business and the philanthropy.

The tenants of the Association are not allowed to sublet or to take in lodgers without explicit authorization. That this regulation is sensible is obvious. Any other course would lead to all the evils of overcrowding and of positive immorality which the organization was created in large part to fight. The housing of the single man is not attempted. The Association is aware of the importance of the bachelor’s problem. It is a matter that the munition-factories and other industrial plants in quest of shelter for their employes are daily called upon to consider. Were its means and its executive facilities less limited, there is no doubt that the Association would grapple as courageously and as successfully with this issue of the housing of the single man as with the problem of the housing of families.