TENEMENT HOUSES ON FARMS IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK C. JOSEPHINE Durkee Director, Division of Public Health Nursing, State Department of Health During the past summer the attention of the State Department of Health has been called to the existence of tenement houses on farms in certain districts of the State. These tenement houses are conducted by immigrants with a keen eye for possibilities of financial gain at the expense of their own race. The conditions which obtain in these houses surpass in overcrowding any that exist in cities. From the highway these places look like other farmhouses which have been abandoned by the native farming people, except that about them is always seen a swarm of people. When one inspects the premises he understands how persons who have not been previously exposed to infection may contract communicable disease through flies when passing along the highway or at railroad stations. The fly wades in the filth of these places and two or three hundred feet distant alights on the face of a passing child or other person and deposits the infective material. These immigrant usurers have purchased the small farms at a price often twice as great as would have been charged responsible persons. A small cash payment has been made, a mortgage secured, and the tenement house business is begun. Each year may record a cash payment less than a reasonable rental of the place, another mortgage, and some enlargement or alterations to the farmhouse which permit more persons being housed. The farm itself is allowed to deteriorate. The owner may also go into some local business, such as butcher shop, ice cream and soft drinks, motion picture house, drug store, or even the milk business. The tenants of the place remain only during the summer school vacation; they are from the tenement districts of cities. They usually rent a room without seeing it, agreeing to pay $30 for "the season" for a furnished room which is about 10' x 12' or even smaller. The furniture consists of two bedsteads with mattresses, and occasionally a table or a chair, or it may be that the third article is a washstand. In about half of the cases a kitchen with a stove and fire and a dining table is provided. When they are available the landlord permits the tenants to settle the matter of their use among themselves, each family providing its cooking utensils and dishes, and taking care of them, the landlord being responsible for cleaning the kitchen. In no instance does the latter assume any responsibility for the cleanliness of the bedrooms, neither does he limit the number of occupants, except that he claims the right to put in others in the height of the season if he has applicants and thinks he can stow them away. This claim is not announced in advance. The following is an instance of the exercise of this right. A family consisting of a man, his wife and three children rented without seeing, a room with less than 120 square feet of floor space. The room contained only two beds and their mattresses. No kitchen privilege was furnished. After a few days the man returned to his work in the city, and the landlord put another mother with three children in his place. When the state supervising nurse visited the place, food and dirty dishes were on the bed and the floor. So also were the children. A small oil stove for cooking was on the bed. There was no redress for the tenant. He paid in advance; and was at liberty to leave if dissatisfied. It is impossible to maintain physical cleanliness even if the tenant desires to do so. Occasionally there is a neighboring creek or brook wherein baths may be taken, but usually there is no such opportunity. Sometimes there is insufficient water on the premises and it must be brought from a distance in barrels and placed outside the house. Boxes for garbage may or may not be provided, they may or may not be used, or if used they may or may not be emptied. When emptied the contents may be thrown out by the roadside or on the border of the landlord's premises within a few feet of neighboring houses. Fragments of food are everywhere on the floor, the piazza, under the piazza and about the garbage boxes. The privies originally built for a small household are apparently never altered to accommodate this new population. Sometimes there is no vault to the privy, sometimes it is too shallow to merit the name. It invariably offers access to flies, is always filthy and overflowing, and sometimes without seats. Occasionally there is no privy. The following extracts from the note book of one of the supervising nurses of the State Department of Health tell their own story. The notes in every instance were made on the premises. Case No. I. Tenement House-A-SA—— S————, Proprietor. Seven bedrooms, 9 beds; 7 families, 12 adults and 7 children. Kitchen adequate in size; slops and waste thrown in yard; chicken house too small, without light; very dirty; privy with shallow vault overflowing in yard, no seats; I child with poliomyelitis, dead; child age 3 ill with headache and nausea. Case No. 2. Tenement House ·J- H-, Proprietor. Eight bedrooms, 8 families, 17 beds, 12 adults and 20 children; cook and eat in bedrooms; cellar used for storage of food, filthy; I cow, stable dirty; chicken house very dirty; privy vault needs cleaning,- owner says it is cleaned every two or three years; garbage thrown in yard, sometimes burned; well water supply inadequate, brought in dirty barrels and stands uncovered under the trees. Second visit - no improvement. Case No. 3. Tenement House-A M, Proprietor. Eight bedrooms, 21 adults and 3 children; a flush toilet and bathtub; cooking on oil stoves in bedrooms, no screens; food stored in clothes-press with soiled clothes, dishes and garbage; garbage dumped in bushes; outside privy no box, overflowing in yard; 2 horses, manure removed twice a year; chicken house O. K. Second inspection- garbage burned daily; no other improvement. Third inspection - general condition improved; no cooking in bed rooms. Case No. 4. Ice Cream and Soda Water Counter-Dr G, Proprietor. General condition of place filthy, screen door tied back - against wall; clerk was asked to keep it shut; place filled with flies; dishes washed in small vat of dirty water with dirty cloth used for wiping shelves, counters and fixtures, then rinsed in cold water. Second visit — no improvement; clerk said proprietor's wife had given instruction that screen door was not to be used; refused to change method of dish washing except to get a new box of soap powder. Case No. 5. Boarding House - S - S—— H——, Proprietor. Eighteen bedrooms, 43 adults, and 60 children; I bathroom, 3 flush toilets, hot and cold water; no screens. Kitchen very dirty; grounds very dirty; garbage in open cans daily emptied; bag of dead chickens in yard covered with flies; D——— S—, case poliomyelitis isolated in cottage. Second visit-3 more suspicious cases. Third visit I suspicious case proved to be true case; third case of paralysis on place. Case No. 6. Tenement House H, Proprietor. Nine bedrooms, 2 other rooms, 8 families, 16 adults, and 18 children; not enough space to get between beds in some of the rooms; porch used for eating purposes, food thrown about; no facilities for heating water for dishes; small outhouse 150 feet from house used as stable, filthy, full of manure and slops; 9 milch cows, 15 head of young stock, 2 horses; milk pails lying in manure and slop; in removing them proprietor's wife went into filth to her knees; filthy mattress in old shack used for sleeping room; privy about 30 feet from house, overflowing and no seats on one side, other side too dirty for use; bushes and surrounding grounds used for toilet purposes; garbage thrown about yard and sometimes placed in water pails and thrown along road. Rooms rent for $30 per season. The man has a decent unused stable a mile from the house which he keeps to show the local health authorities, who ordered him to discontinue his milk business until he should provide a better place for his milking. The new place is unused. The stanchions are covered with cobwebs. Since he has provided the new place, he has been permitted to conduct his business. You too smart," he said with a laugh when his attention was called to the fact that it evidently was unused. Case No. 7. Meat Market-E- -, Proprietor. Shelves and chopping block very dirty; refrigerator shelves and floor very dirty: chickens and meat thrown on floor; butcher has infected hand. Living rooms up stairs, 4 beds; family consists of 4 adults, 4 children and 4 hired men; hired men sleep on floor on quilts; bedrooms very dirty: |