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153
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 infectious disease has appeared,
and who have been compelled to leave their dwellings for 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,
in 1898, 124 cases of infectious disease occurred in families in
occupation of three rooms only; 210 cases in families occupying
two rooms, and 80 cases in families herded in single rooms.
Of the sufferers in families living in single rooms, 44 had
scarlet fever, 18 had diphtheria, and 18 had typhoid fever. It
need hardly be said that the need of shelter is imperative in
the case of families living in single rooms. This subject was
referred to the sanitary committee, who requested me to
report as to any premises which the Vestry might obtain for
the purpose referred to—meaning the hiring of one or more
houses. No suitable premises have been found, and in my
opinion 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 have been authorised to pay for lodgings for people
dispossessed of their home during the process of disinfection.
It is, however, not easy to obtain accommodation for the
people, many of whom, being respectable, object to go to a