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195
TEMPORARY SHELTER OR HOUSE
ACCOMMODATION.
The Public Health (London) Act, 1891, (section 60, subsection
4) imposes on the sanitary authority the duty of making
provision for housing poor persons turned out of their
homes during the time necessary for disinfection after infectious
disease. The sub-section is to the following effect:—
"The sanitary authority shall provide, free of charge, temporary shelter
or house accommodation, with any necessary attendants, for the members
of any family in which any dangerous intectious disease has appeared,
and who have been compelled to leave their dwellings (or the purpose
of enabling such dwellings to be disinfected by the sanitary authority."
Several of the sanitary authorities in the metropolis have
failed, so far, to perform this duty. The need for such provision
is sufficiently indicated by the fact that in this parish, last year,
127 cases of infectious disease occurred in families in occupation
of three rooms; 192 cases in families occupying two
rooms, and 73 cases in families herded in single rooms. Of
the sufferers in families living in single rooms, 41 had scarlet
fever, 16 had diphtheria, and 16 had typhoid fever. It need
hardly be said that the need of shelter is imperative in the
case of families living in single rooms. The sanitary committee
requested me to report as to any premises which the
Vestry might obtain for a shelter—meaning the hiring of one
or more houses. No suitable premises have been found.
The only satisfactory plan would be to erect a shelter and
provide it with a proper equipment. Such provision could be
most economically made in connection with a public disinfecting
station. In the absence of accommodation, the sanitary
inspectors are authorised to procure, or pay for lodgings for
people dispossessed during the process of disinfection. It is,
however, not easy to obtain accommodation for the people,
many of whom object to go to a common lodging-house,
where, indeed, they would be neither welcome nor, in their
infective condition, desirable guests.