Hide Article Text (OCR)
By W. F. SHARPE, Director Division of Housing, State Board of Health There is no great housing problem in the small town or village as a gen eral rule, though the health problems are always present. Each family oc cupies an individual house or cottage and usually owns it. In the rear is a small garden plot. Tenements and slums are the exception. There is little overcrowding. Rents are not unreasonable and the landlord and tenant know each other. In the county seats of Indiana and the larger cities, bad housing condi tions are easily found by the inspector and the social worker. Very often in Indiana the Housing Division inspect or finds two or more families crowded into a building where there should be but one. Investigations now show beyond question that this condition contributes to bad health, loose mor als, and a general lowering of vitality. Many large manufacturing concerns throughout the country have brought about better housing conditions for their employes, by going into the su burbs, buying up a tract of land and greeting modern tenements. The in crease of output in the factory be cause, of these better living conditions has ratified the action. It is not of ten that the housing problem of a community can be solved in this way. The city grows by slow degrees from single houses to a point where three or four of them often give place to a single large tenement of two or more stories. The investment is better than for the single or double house and hence has come the natural de sire to cover as much of the lot as pos sible with the tenement or apartment building. States are now finding it necessary to pass housing laws to regulate the construction of this class of dwelling places in order that slum conditions may not develop into a problem for the next generation. Regulation is really a program of securing better health and sanitation. . The up-to date tenement is also more nearly fire proof but it does not prevent con gestion nor does it lower the rents. As a matter of fact it increases the rent. The modern improvements in plumbing, lighting and fire-proofing adds to the cost of tenements and apartments and necessarily adds to the rent. But the added rent is very gen erally offset in securing better living conditions. Increasingly better liv ing conditions, especially in the tene ment districts, always improves the moral and physical well-being of the inhabitants and this reform has now reached such proportions as to be re flected in a few inmates in our jails and asylums.
Newspaper Details
Greensburg Daily News
Greensburg, Indiana, US
Wed, Mar 22, 1922
Page 4
Full Page
Clipped by
Stephen B.
USA 15 Jun 2026
Other Publications Near Greensburg, Indiana
Greensburg Review
Greensburg New Era
Greensburg Decatur Press
Greensburg News
Greensburg Daily News and Greensburg Daily Review
