Housing[150] is the form of aid that called for the largest individual grants. About one-fourth, 23.7 per cent, were under $200; 41.6 per cent were between $200 and $300; and one-fourth were $500 or over. The sums granted for transportation and for tools, on the other hand, were very small, 84.2 per cent of the former and 94.5 per cent of the latter being for amounts under $100.
[150] Bear in mind that the bonus grants are not included (see [Part IV], [p. 239] ff.), nor the camp cottage expenditures (see [Part IV], [p. 221] ff.).
TABLE 46.—GRANTS AND REFUSALS TO APPLICANTS WHO POSSESSED RESOURCES, BY AMOUNT OF RESOURCES
| Amount of resources | Total number of applicants | Applicants to whom relief was refused | APPLICANTS TO WHOM RELIEF WAS GRANTED | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number | Per cent of all appli- cants | |||
| Less than $100 | 785 | 73 | 712 | 90.7 |
| $100 and less than $200 | 673 | 71 | 602 | 89.5 |
| $200 and less than $400 | 1,235 | 162 | 1,073 | 86.9 |
| $400 and less than $600 | 770 | 144 | 626 | 81.3 |
| $600 and less than $1,000 | 576 | 143 | 433 | 75.2 |
| $1,000 and over | 1,271 | 480 | 791 | 62.2 |
| Not stated | 922 | 201 | 721 | 78.2 |
| Total | 6,232 | 1,274 | 4,958 | 79.6 |
To summarize, 77.1 per cent of all grants were for less than $200, and of these more than half, or 41.1 per cent of the entire number, were under $100. The grants of $200 to $299, constituting 15.7 per cent, are made up principally of sums for housing and business. Grants of $300 and over constitute the remaining 7.2 per cent, and most of these were for business rehabilitation or housing. In the study of business rehabilitation that follows in [Part III], it will become evident that the number of comparatively small business grants included some failures.
A glance at [Table 46] shows that to possess resources other than income did not in itself render applicants ineligible for relief. Of the 6,232 property owners that applied, 4,958, or 79.6 per cent, received aid. Though the percentage of refusals was higher among those with the greater amount of resources, 791 persons, 62.2 per cent of those with $1,000 and over, received aid. Under the grant and loan plan[151] aid to build was conditional on ownership of a lot, and the success of a business plan was usually felt to depend on the applicants’ having something to supplement the grant asked for. Small property owners with small incomes who did not intend to rebuild, needed household or other aid, and there were some property owners who could not, if they would, have their holdings converted into cash. In fact, the persons aided who had resources were, in general, those whose resources could not or should not have been used for refurnishing or for current expenses; those refused were the few who had available cash savings or who had been so fortunate as to receive their insurance money early enough to make an independent start. A thousand and one special considerations and facts entered to make a classification of this group of cases a call for a digest of each case. Such a digest is not practicable in this limited Relief Survey. If made, it would be an index of the individualizing work done by the Rehabilitation Committee. It may be safely said that the Committee rarely erred on the side of generosity. The immediate lesson to be learned is that the presence or absence of resources is only a factor in rehabilitation. No generalizing policy of grants and refusals can be built upon it.
[151] See [Part IV], [p. 253] ff.
In [Table 47], 5,284 refusals of aid are classified by the reasons for refusal and the nature of the applications.
TABLE 47.—REASONS FOR REFUSAL OF REHABILITATION, BY NATURE OF APPLICATION[152]
| Reasons for refusal | APPLICATIONS OF EACH SPECIFIED NATURE REFUSED | Total | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| House- hold furni- ture | Busi- ness reha- bilita- tion | Gen- eral relief | Hous- ing | Trans- porta- tion | Tools | ||
| Not burned out | 13 | 12 | 71 | 56 | 6 | 11 | 169 |
| Not in need | 180 | 87 | 165 | 42 | 6 | 20 | 500 |
| Has collectable insurance | 115 | 53 | 34 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 211 |
| Is earning wages | 837 | 113 | 183 | 74 | 21 | 122 | 1,350 |
| Can work | 150 | 82 | 102 | 13 | 45 | 38 | 430 |
| Relatives can aid | 35 | 15 | 45 | 4 | 9 | 5 | 113 |
| Other members of family already aided | 13 | 20 | 2 | 7 | 1 | .. | 43 |
| Already aided | 187 | 136 | 95 | 96 | 4 | 6 | 524 |
| Has savings | 442 | 191 | 107 | 169 | 7 | 22 | 938 |
| No plan | 22 | 5 | 15 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 48 |
| Plan not approved | 9 | 131 | 23 | 66 | 40 | .. | 269 |
| Plan not definite | 9 | 32 | 7 | 10 | 10 | 1 | 69 |
| Applicant for transportation can well work here | .. | .. | .. | .. | 31 | .. | 31 |
| Advices from applicants’ proposed destination unfavorable | .. | .. | .. | .. | 10 | .. | 10 |
| Not in business before fire | .. | 94 | .. | .. | .. | .. | 94 |
| Not successful in business | .. | 3 | .. | .. | .. | .. | 3 |
| Character defective | 100 | 75 | 58 | 13 | 12 | 6 | 264 |
| Has not complied with committee’s requirements | 47 | 43 | 28 | 52 | 24 | 2 | 196 |
| Committee has no funds (August to November, 1906) | .. | 22 | .. | .. | .. | .. | 22 |
| Total | 2,159 | 1,114 | 935 | 609 | 232 | 235 | 5,284 |