Even the little item of polishing their brass letter-plates and door-handles is looked after. The provision of window-blinds and curtains gradually takes place, and even occasionally efforts are made to grow plants. Another feature which is noticeable in the tenants is the efforts made to improve their habitations by adding bit by bit to their scanty stock of furniture and bedding. Many instances are known where the tenants have, by sheer misfortune, had to leave their houses by reason of their inability to pay their rents. In most instances, however, they come back again, and, in several cases, this operation has been repeated several times over. In one case a tenant has been ejected no less than three times, and has now been taken back again for the fourth time.

I have also noticed on my visits to the dwellings a marked improvement in the general condition of the neighbourhood, but I was not prepared to find that this improvement has been so marked as the following statistics, which the Head Constable has kindly prepared for me, indicate

The figures are taken from an area situated very near to the centre of the city, and which contained, prior to its demolition, a population of 1,393 persons, and it is now calculated by the Local Government Board to provide accommodation for 1,236 persons. The returns are taken from the years 1894 and 1904, during which the whole of the houses on this area were pulled down and rebuilt. The statistics, therefore, for the year 1894 are in respect of the area in its old condition, those for 1904 being in respect of the first year after the re-building operations of the Corporation and the houses being occupied. These statistics are worthy of great consideration.

The Head Constable has, of course, had to take for granted that all the addresses given were of residents in the streets named. This is not always the case, but, even assuming it to be so, it will be seen that the item of offences against the law was reduced from 202 in the year 1894 to 84 in the year 1904.

The improvement in the condition of the neighbourhood is even more marked, for, during the same period, cases which happened in this particular area dropped from 62 in 1894 to 12 in 1904. 1

The following figures have been kindly supplied by the Head Constable of Liverpool in respect of two slum clearance schemes— Hornby Street area. (Offences committed in area.)

1 Excerpt from Vol. XXVI, 1905, of the Journal of the Royal Sanitary Institute,

Hornby Street area.

(Offences committed in area and elsewhere by persons residing in Corporation dwellings.)

Adlington Street area. (Offences committed in area and elsewhere by
persons residing in Corporation dwellings.)

1904 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917

Year: 1894

The willingness shown in many cases to pay off outstanding arrears, so as to be able to live again in the dwellings, together with the fact that many tenants are anxious to obtain Social Outlook. the newly-erected dwellings with their improved accommodation, even at an increased rent, are evidence of the improvement in the condition of the re-housed people. There is a consensus of opinion among the various officials who come in contact with the tenants, that the provision of improved dwellings has undoubtedly an elevating influence over the majority, which is reflected in the general behaviour of the districts in which the dwellings are situated. It is also encouraging to observe that the children are better cared for, more suitably clothed, and cleaner in appearance, and generally present indications of being more carefully nourished.

It has taken some little time for the tenants from the old slums thoroughly to appreciate the value of their new habitations to their own and their children's health, and to their social and moral betterment generally. Naturally the forcible removal of a large number of people, accustomed to their happy-go-lucky condition of slum life, was bound to cause grumbling and discontent, especially when they were brought under the disciplinary effects of municipal control; and it is most gratifying to observe that the people's dislike to the new conditions has now disappeared, and that it is quite usual to find those who are now living in the remaining insanitary houses asking for new dwellings similar to those provided for their dispossessed neighbours,

Before demolition,

51

15

he

to

The position may be summed up in the following extract from a speech delivered by the Chairman of the Liverpool Housing Committee

The effect on the re-housed people themselves could only be realized by seeing them first in their old surroundings and then in the new. In the old surroundings the people in the old court houses-ill-ventilated, dark, noisome places, without proper sanitary conveniences, without sunshine or pure air, places where the whole environment was one to make people miserable and unhappy, always unhealthy and depressed places where" sickened humanity loses its heart and nature seems always to frown." In the new dwellings they found that the tenants were adding gradually to their stock of furniture, taking a pride in their new houses, and attempting to grow plants and flowers in neighbourhoods where not a blade of grass would have grown before. Tenants and their families were better clothed, better cared for, and obviously healthier, happier and stronger. Some tenants so improved their position that they asked for better houses; some got well-to-do, and went further out into houses built by private enterprise. It was untrue to say that these people would make slums of any place they went into. It was easy for folk who lived in charming houses, wore lovely clothes, and had lovely gardens, to say that environment made no difference. Liverpool said that in its experience that statement was wholly untrue. Fifteen years ago the people objected to be disturbed. Now some of them wanted to be disturbed, and were anxiously waiting their turn. So extraordinary was the transformation that some few persons were inclined to disbelieve that the tenants of the dwellings were the persons actually displaced.

I am often asked (Gen. Kyffin-Taylor went on) if this sort of thing pays us. In Liverpool the deaths from consumption last year were 140 per 100,000, so that at least 1,000 people died in 1912 from consumption, which means that at least 4,000 people were suffering from consumption last year. The

ts Liverpool Insurance Committee have agreed to pay to the Liverpool Corporation 27s. 6d. per week for every person suffering from consumption occupying a sick bed belonging to the Liverpool Corporation, and, therefore, if only 100 lives have been saved per annum as the result of the policy of the Corporation in re-housing these people for the last fifteen years, then the direct saving to the community, as represented by the Insurance Committee, in each year is considerably more than the annual sum spent by the Corporation in carrying out its policy of housing the actual people unhoused. That is the saving of one item alone, and we save in many other directions, such as the increased earning capacity of the people, less poor-law relief, less hospital relief, fewer police, and a considerable saving in administration and cleaning. Now these results are not likely to be brought about by any other remedy. The cost of building has so considerably increased that even if land were obtained free of charge it would still be almost impossible for private enterprise to house the unhoused poor at rents to cover all outgoings. Therefore, unless they are housed at a rent which is not an economic rent, they will not be housed at all. There is really no likelihood that housing at non-economic rents by local authorities has a tendency to lower wages. It is obvious that the occupation of a decent home under a sympathetic landlord renders the working man more independent and in a better position to demand higher wages. Again, while a minimum wage would enable persons regularly employed to pay a larger rent, it does not follow that such persons would do so, and it would not necessarily increase the income of persons casually employed, who form the overwhelming majority of the unhoused poor in a city like Liverpool. In conclusion, we, in Liverpool, know of no other solution of the problem than the one adopted by us. We believe we are engaged in a great work of social amelioration, and we are all united in our

determination to pursue it, believing it to be a work of lasting and national importance.

1

The particular example of Liverpool has been emphasized, because it proves more conclusively than any other example for which figures are obtainable, that housing by local authorities, even at what are known as "uneconomic rents," is a justifiable policy, whether it is considered strictly from the point of view of finance, or from the broader standpoints of municipal health, energy, politics and morals. Adam Smith says that "what is wisdom in the head of a family cannot be folly in the conduct of a great nation." It might be urged with equal truth that what is wisdom on the part of a great muncipality is not likely to be folly with a great kingdom, and that the arguments which have been adduced to prove the local advantages of a progressive housing policy are equally true, if not truer, when applied to the nation as a whole. The difficulty, indeed, of leaving the whole matter to the local authority, is that to do so is to be dependent entirely, not only on the intelligence, but on the financial resources of that locality. Up to this date, with the exception of such aids as Treasury loans may afford, this has been the policy of successive governments. The objection to this principle of procedure can be stated in a single sentence. It is that while vigorous and wealthy localities have shown to the full realization of both the urgency and the expediency of housing reform, backward districts have failed to adopt a similar policy. As a consequence, housing reform has become too much of a patchwork, and, in the main, great as has been the amount achieved, the method of leaving all financial and other responsibilities to the locality has proved to be, from the national standpoint, a comparative failure. Much has been accomplished, but much remains to be done, the value of which cannot be measured in pounds, shillings and pence.

At the North-western District Conference, held in Liverpool in May, 1910, General Kyffin-Taylor, Chairman of the Liverpool Housing Committee in the course of a paper entitled Re-housing the Dispossessed in Liverpool."

CHAPTER XXVII

DIFFICULTY OF RE-HOUSING THE DISPOSSESSED

Re-housing the
Dispossessed.

THE great difficulty in connection with the housing problem is in the matter of re-housing the dispossessed. This is principally due to the usual inability of the inhabitants of insanitary areas to pay an economic rent which is one of the reasons for over-crowding. Further, the necessity of residing within a reasonable distance of the centres of industries demands that, as far as possible, the dwellings of a certain proportion of the working classes must be situated within a restricted area.

This is really the secret of the Liverpool Housing Committee's success, for, under their schemes, the people benefited are precisely those who most need benefit, and whose condition formed the crux of the housing problem from the point of view of public health. It is also the distinguishing feature of the Liverpool schemes, as compared with those pursued in other towns, and it is largely for this reason that Liverpool is able to take credit for being, not only the pioneer, but also the most progressive city in Europe in grappling with the housing question.

A combination of foresight, imagination, and sound common sense has rendered possible in Liverpool the conversion during recent years of a slumdom almost unparalleled in any city in the kingdom, into an area of bright and comfortable dwellings, where the once disease-ridden toiler may live a life of health and comparative attractiveness.

General Kyffin-Taylor, M.P., at the annual inspection by the Liverpool Housing Committee in 1912, said—

The most interesting thing that had happened recently in regard to the Housing work of the Committee concerned the action of the Town Planning Council in inspecting different housing schemes throughout the country. Several members of the Liverpool Committee formed part of the deputation of inspection. They saw a great deal, but they learnt nothing new in relation to the work carried out in Liverpool. Liverpool was doing a unique work, The deputation could find no building occupation of which was, as in Liverpool, restricted to the people who had been turned out of insanitary property. Every town which, in its building scheme, was not carrying out the Liverpool policy, was simply driving the dispossessed people elsewhere, thus accentuating the evil. In the Bevington Street area they had re-housed no fewer