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The detailed survey now proceeding has emphasised several features
to which attention has been drawn from time to time in previous
reports. There is the fact, proved beyond all doubt, that the types of
occupants and their methods play a predominant part in creating housing
conditions, good or bad. Even in clearance areas where the general structure
of houses is collectively senescent and beyond profitable repair, one
finds interiors reminding one of those works of de Hoogh and his Dutch
contemporaries, cleanliness and brightness abounding; while in the
same row one may enter to find dirt, drabness, and muddle. There
is a distinct tendency on the part of voluntary housing enthusiasts to
report cases of the latter type as " bad housing " and to plead for such
to be rehoused. They are not cases of bad housing conditions but of
bad housing habits. The amateur housing visitor may be unable to
estimate real defects but is naturally influenced by general impressions
supported with much hearsay. The personal touch of good housing
management goes a long way to prevent, and often does cure, these
evils.
The importance of Housing Management.
Housing by-laws set up good housing principles, but no amount of"
meticulous reinspection short of a constant sanitary patrol will ever
ensure those principles being observed from day to day. Some tenant
may omit to open his bedroom window during the prescribed period and
thus render himself liable to prosecution, but it would require very
patient observation to catch the offender in delicto flagrante. The problem
of bad housing has largely arisen from lack of proper management.
Management implies not only care and repair of the structure but also
supervision of the occupants to prevent misuse of the house and its
fittings. When one considers the number of ancient buildings in this
country of all types which have withstood the stress of hundreds of years
by wise reconditioning and prompt repairs, is it too much to assume
that the average house if properly cared for need not degenerate to such
an extent that it can be made fit for habitation only at an excessive cost.
Even now in the same street can be found properties of similar type and
age, one group, under intelligent management, showing no sign of structural
decay or dilapidation, while the others hardly managed at all except for
rent collection, are constantly the subject of repair notices and come
under the category of " slum houses." But can good management
supply those amenities which are lacking in old tenement houses ; the
absence of separate sanitary conveniences, cooking and washing facilities
and food storage ? These needs nowadays form the grounds on which
many families appeal for better housing. In some instances these