Charles H. Ludington, President of the Association, says in his report for the year 1916: “It is also the desire of the Board to give as much publicity as possible to the special lines of service which the Association is now prepared and equipped to offer—(1) Advice with regard to the restoration to approved standards, and the altering for profitable use of old or unsanitary dwellings. (2) Undertaking, after submitting estimates, the entire carrying out of such improvements and the future supervision and management of the property for the owners if desired. (3) The management of residential properties held by institutions or corporations, insuring for them the maintenance of sanitary and proper conditions, together with the social service offered to the tenants by the Association through rent-collectors trained in our methods. We have frequently been able to render valuable assistance of this kind both to individual owners and to institutions owning real estate of this character, which, through neglect or merely formal management, has deteriorated. Instances have been brought to our attention where, entirely without the knowledge of the owners, conditions have existed not merely unsanitary but also otherwise highly objectionable and which would have subjected the owners to just criticism. This the standards of management of our Association will absolutely prevent. (4) Industrial housing by employers for their employees. The interest in this subject is showing marked increase, and the Association is ready to place its experience and facilities at the disposal of corporations or firms considering the matter, and to prepare plans, procure estimates and supervise construction, and if desired to undertake the management of such properties in and about Philadelphia. (5) Improved housing for wage earners. The experience and information which the Association has gathered, especially in recent years, qualifies it in the judgment of the Board in tendering its services as an expert to anyone who may be ready to consider this character of investment. There is unquestionably in our judgment a need in Philadelphia for new building of this kind, i. e., for dwellings that will rent for under $15.00 per month. The operating builder is supplying only houses of a more expensive grade and for quick sale, because there is more profit in this for him. That sanitary, durable and comfortable dwellings can be built for rental at less than $15.00 per month, and made to yield under proper management a return of 5 per cent. has been repeatedly demonstrated in this and other cities. To any interest that is willing to consider such investment with the further view of meeting a community need, we should offer our services. From our own actual experience in this field and our knowledge of similar undertakings elsewhere, our organization can, we believe, render valuable help in the planning and execution of such projects.”
IV
DAYS AFIELD
To read of the work of the “friendly rent-collector” in cold print is one thing; to feel the pulse of it by personal contact is another matter.
Dr. E. R. L. Gould, in a report that he made to the Commissioner of Labor in 1895 on “The Housing of the Working People,” described at length Miss Hill’s system of rent-collecting, which made the process so much more than a soulless, impersonal proceeding.
He said, “There are abundant testimonies to the efficiency of rent-collecting as practised by Miss Hill. Her system has been adapted with uniform success in many large cities in Europe and to a smaller extent in this country.... The moral influence of Miss Hill’s system has been to admit women to a greater extent into the management of housing companies, a practice which has undoubted advantages. Several of the large London dwelling companies acknowledge that their success, financially and morally, only began with the introduction of rent-collecting through lady volunteers.”
A bad tenant is not turned into a good one merely by a periodic demand for money. If all tenants were always in comfortable circumstances, if they never suffered from lack of employment, if protracted illness disabling the bread-winner of the family never spelt acute privation for the rest, if every poor and ignorant foreigner understood from the first his relation to the community and to society at large, and scrupulously maintained this relation for his part, the “friendly rent-collector” might be superfluous. But as conditions stand, the very soul of the Octavia Hill system is this personal contact which has the business transaction for its immediate warrant; and by the acid test of business results its efficacy is demonstrated.
In the great majority of cases the rent-collector does not have to ask a leading question: the tenants are ready enough to flock round her and pour their woes into her ear. Her appearance is often the signal for a fusillade of questions, petitions, and complaints.
“Am I going to get that paint for my stairway, please ma’am?” “The rain last week leaked into the cellar something terrible.” “The water in the backyard won’t drain off. The bricks around the hydrant has all sunk down.” “It’s been four days since the man was here to take away the garbage.” “The neighbors keeps puttin’ ashes in the garbage can, and garbage with the ashes. Sure I dunno who’s been doin’ it.”
Such are the petty complaints that all the rent-collectors hear on all their rounds. These matters might be considered to be wholly within the domain of the superintendent and his mechanics. But the tenants do not differentiate. Their appeal is to anyone who may be supposed to be connected with the Association. Sometimes they ask modestly, meekly. Sometimes they ask in accents of more or less defiant challenge. Miss Hill herself describes how she was locked into a room by an irate woman who said she wouldn’t pay the rent till the mantel was repaired, in a house so recently taken over by the new landlady that there had not been an opportunity to attend to the matter.
The friendly rent-collector bides her time, keeps her tongue behind her teeth, and makes allowances for the previous condition of servitude to low ideals and to grasping landlords, which has been that of many of her charges.