It was further recognized that there should be quick effort made to supply dwellings for the 5,000 persons who before the disaster had paid moderate rentals, but who were housed in tents or other temporary shelters. It was also necessary to make provision for a possible 5,000 persons who were out of the city. No accurate estimate had been or could be made of those who, independent of aid, had readjusted themselves.
The proposal made in behalf of the possible 10,000, a proposal that touched the kernel of the big relief problem, was to use money lying idle to build houses which should be sold on the instalment plan, or rented to families that had been living in San Francisco on April 17. Shelter had to be provided against the rainy season in order that there might be held in San Francisco a population of working people. The proposal was intended also to carry to a workingman the opportunity to own a house of such character as should serve to set a standard for sanitary and attractive dwellings. Through the carrying out of this scheme there were to be brought into happy co-operation the architects, the builders, the municipality, and the Finance Committee itself. The first would supply skill and taste; the second, quick and moderate priced building; the third, suitable conditions of light, sanitation, ventilation, and fire protection; the fourth, capital and business security. To assure the last provision there was a suggestion of the creation of a new corporation to consist of the mayor, the chairman of the Finance Committee, the representative of the American National Red Cross, and representatives from the Executive Commission and the Rehabilitation Committee, all of whom were to be named by the Finance Committee.
The need to incorporate became more imperative when the plans to furnish shelter took, by July 15, the following definite shape:
1. To build a pavilion on the almshouse tract[28] for 1,000 homeless persons.
[28] For account of Ingleside Camp and the establishment of the permanent Relief Home for the aged and infirm, see Part VI, p. 319 ff.
2. To appropriate $150,000 to construct and to repair temporary shelters in the public parks for the use of the homeless during the winter of 1906-07.
3. To appropriate not more than $500,000 to carry out the bonus plan.[29]
[29] For discussion of the Bonus Plan, see [Part IV], [p. 239] ff.
4. To appropriate a second $500,000, to be used for loans to persons who had owned or rented houses within the burned district.[30]
[30] For discussion of the Grant and Loan Plan, see [Part IV], [p. 253] ff.