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APPENDIX E

The Sanitary Code of the Board of Health of the Department of Health of the City of New York 1

1

Dr. Frank J. Monaghan, Deputy and Acting Commissioner of Health of the City of New York, sponsors the following statement under date of June 20, 1921, in a letter to the authors:

"The Department of Health has not put into existence any additional regulations as a result of the housing situation. This is because we have found that the present Sanitary Code has been amply elastic to cover the conditions which have arisen as a result of the housing shortage.

Among some of the conditions which we have corrected have been the locating of kitchenettes in toilet apartments, excessive overcrowding due to the taking of boarders and lodgers and inadequate accommodations for the increased number of persons living on any premises.3"

The following sections form part of the Sanitary Code of the Board of Health of the Department of Health of the City of New York:- 4

Sec. 51. Joint and several responsibility of owner, lessee, tenant, and occupant for existence of nuisance or violation of Sanitary Code.'Only those sections are here printed, which are considered relevant to the subject-matter of this work.

* See § 62, infra.

See § 56, infra.

• Constituting Chapter 20 of the Code of Ordinances of the City of New York, revised and amended by the said Board and filed, as thus revised and amended, with the City Clerk of the City of New York, pursuant to the provisions of Section 1172 of the Greater New York Charter; revised and amended December 31st, 1914; filed, as thus revised and amended, with the City Clerk on April 9, 1915; with the amendments and additional provisions added, and filed with the City Clerk, to May 15, 1920.

The owner, lessee, tenant, and occupant of every building or premises, or of any part thereof, where there shall be a nuisance, or a violation of any section of the Sanitary Code, shall be jointly and severally liable therefor, in so far as they, respectively, have the power to prevent or abate such nuisance or prevent such violation, and, to such extent, each of them may be required to abate the nuisance, or comply with the order of the Board of Health in respect to such building, premises, or part thereof. (S. C. Sec. 13.)

Sec. 52. Inadequate strength, ventilation, light, and sewerage, of buildings, and conditions therein dangerous or prejudicial to life or health, forbidden.-No person, persons, or corporation, shall hereafter, in the City of New York, erect or cause to be erected, or convert or cause to be converted to a new purpose by alteration, any building or structure, or change or cause to be changed the construction of any part of any building or structure by addition or otherwise, so that it, or any part thereof, shall be inadequate or defective in respect to strength, ventilation, light, sewerage, or any other usual, proper, or necessary provision or precaution for the security of life and health; nor shall the builder, owner, lessee, tenant, or occupant of any building or structure in the said City cause or allow any matter or thing to be or to be done in or about any such building or structure dangerous or prejudicial to life or health. (S. C., Sec. 16.)

Sec. 53. Nuisances, conditions dangerous and prejudicial to life or health; duties of owners, tenants, lessees, occupants, and persons in charge of buildings and lots.-Every owner, lessee, tenant, occupant or person in charge of any building or premises within or adjacent to the built-up portions of the City of New York shall keep and cause to be kept the sidewalk, flagging and curbstone abutting on said building or premises free from obstructions and nuisances of every kind, and shall sweep and remove or cause to be swept and removed therefrom all garbage, refuse, filth, dirt, and other offensive material and shall keep such sidewalk, flagging, and curbstone free from garbage, refuse, filth, dirt, and other offensive material. Every such sidewalk, flagging, or curbstone shall be spattered with

wet sawdust, paper or sand, sprinkled with water, or some other equally effective method or material used, to prevent and avoid the raising of dust when such garbage, refuse, filth, dirt, or other offensive material is swept or removed therefrom. Such garbage, refuse, filth, dirt, and other offensive material removed from the sidewalk, flagging or curbstone may be piled in the gutter or roadway between the hours of six and eight o'clock in the morning, but shall not be put or placed in, or swept, shovelled, thrown, emptied, or deposited into, the gutter or roadway at any other time. No such owner, tenant, lessee, occupant or person in charge shall allow anything in, on, or about such building or premises, or any condition arising or existing therein or thereon, to become a nuisance, or dangerous or prejudicial to life or health. (S. C. Sec. 41.) (As amended by the Board of Health, December 28, 1916, and as further amended October 30, 1918.)

Sec. 54. Dwellings; sanitary conditions; duties of owner and lessee. No owner or lessee of any building, or any part thereof, shall lease or let or hire out or allow the same or any part thereof to be occupied by any person, or allow any one to dwell or lodge therein, except when said building or such parts thereof are sufficiently lighted, ventilated, provided, and accommodated, and are in all respects in that condition of cleanliness and wholesomeness for which this Code or any law of this State provides, or in which the said Code or any such law requires any such premises to be kept. Nor shall any such person, having power to prevent the same, rent, let, hire out, or allow, to be used as or for a place for sleeping or residence, any cellar in any building, or any room of which the floor is damp by reason of water from the ground, or which is impregnated or penetrated by any offensive gas, smell, or exhalation, prejudicial to health. (S. C. Sec. 17.)

Sec. 56. Lodging-houses, boarding-houses, or manufactories not to be overcrowded.-No owner, lessee, or keeper of any lodginghouse, boarding-house, factory, workroom, store, office, or place of business, shall cause or allow the same to be overcrowded or cause or allow so great a number of persons to dwell, be, or sleep in any

such house, or any portion thereof, as thereby to cause danger or detriment to life or health. (S. C. § 19.)

Sec. 59. Roofs and skylights to be kept in good repair. The roofs, skylights, walls, and windows of all buildings shall be kept in a condition of good repair so that rain water shall not enter the building. (S. C. Sec. 24.)

Sec. 60. Walls and ceilings to be clean.-All filthy and dirty walls and ceilings of any building, including the walls and ceilings of the cellars thereof, shall be thoroughly cleaned and whitewashed whenever required by the Department of Health. (S. C. Sec. 23.)

Sec. 61. Water tanks on roofs of buildings; their use regulated.Every tank for holding water located on the roof or external part of a building shall be kept completely covered with a tight-fitting cover. Every tank from which water is furnished for drinking and domestic purposes shall be emptied and the inside thoroughly cleaned at least once a year and at such other times as may be directed by the Sanitary Superintendent or an Assistant Sanitary Superintendent of the Department of Health. (S. C. Sec. 62a.)

Sec. 62. Sleeping in cellars or in any place dangerous or prejudicial to life or health prohibited.-No person having the right and power to prevent the same shall knowingly cause or permit any person to sleep or remain in any cellar, in any bathroom, in any room where there is a water-closet, or in any place dangerous or prejudicial to life or health, by reason of the want of ventilation or drainage, or by reason of the presence of any poisonous, noxious, or offensive odor or substance, or otherwise. (S. C. Sec. 18.)

Sec. 183. Nuisances; conditions dangerous or prejudicial to life or health; duties of persons responsible.-It is hereby declared to be the duty of every owner, part owner, lessee, tenant, and occupant, of,5 person interested in, any place, water, ground, room, stall, apartment, building, erection, vessel, vehicle, matter, and thing, in the City of New York, and of every person conducting or interested in business therein or thereat, and of every person who has undertaken to clean any place, ground, or street, in the said City, and of

• So in original.

every person, public officer, and department, having charge of any ground, place, building, or erection, in the said City, to keep, place, and preserve the same and the sewerage, drainage, and ventilation thereof in such condition, and to conduct the same in such manner, that it shall not be a nuisance, or be dangerous or prejudicial to life or health. The term "building" as used in this section, includes a railway car, booth, tent, shop or other erection or enclosure. (S. C. Sec. 10.)

Sec. 184. Regulations and orders; to be observed and obeyed.-No person shall violate, or refuse or neglect to comply with, any regulation or order of the Board of Health, made for carrying into effect the provisions of this Code, the powers of the said Board, or the laws of this State; and the violation of, or the refusal or neglect to comply with, any such regulation or order which relates to the provisions of any section of this Code shall be deemed a violation of such section. (S. C. Sec. 11.)

Sec. 185. Abatement of nuisances.-Whenever in any place or on any premises in the City of New York a nuisance shall have been found, or declared by resolution of the Board of Health to exist, and an order shall have been made directing the owner, lessee, tenant, or occupant of such place or premises to make suitable and necessary repairs or improvements, or to abate the said nuisance, such repairs or improvements shall be made, and such nuisance shall be fully abated, within the time specified in said order. (S. C. Sec. 14.)

Sec. 186. Interfering with or obstructing an inspector.-No person shall interfere with or obstruct any inspector or other duly authorized representative of the Department of Health when making the inspections or examinations required by the Board of Health, or when executing its orders. (S. C. Sec. 12.)

Sec. 189. Notices not to be mutilated or torn down.-No person shall interfere with or obstruct, mutilate, or tear down, any notice of the Department of Health posted in or on any premises in the City of New York. (S. C. Sec. 137.)

Sec. 225. Heating of occupied buildings.—It shall be the duty of

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