View report page

20
that the activities of the Health Department have resulted in
the amelioration of many conditions adverse to health. If the
Health Department was to do no work for a year or two many of
these slowly.degenerating houses would probably become slums;
as it is, by the timely repairing and the remedy of insanitary
conditions, even the worst house property is kept in a state that
is reasonably fit for human habitation.
Overcrowding.—It cannot be said that there is any acute
shortage of working.class houses in the Borough, chiefly because
this is not a working.class district. But that there is a certain
amount of overcrowding is undeniable. I do not consider that
the provision of, say, a hundred more houses for the working
classes would diminish this overcrowding to any appreciable
extent, for the reason that it is largely financial in origin. For
example, a family occupies a house; and, because they are in
need of money, they sub.let three rooms, and crowd themselves
into the remaining two. The sub.tenants themselves begin to
take in lodgers, in order to increase their income, and these
lodgers may in their turn take in other lodgers. The final result
is the overcrowded house. To offer each family in such a house
a separate workman's dwelling would not remedy the overcrowding,
for none of the families would be able to afford to accept
the offer.
The whole problem of overcrowding has given the Health
Department much trouble during the year, for the reason that
it is a matter of difficulty to find the right remedy. To take
people to the police.court and to prosecute them for overcrowding
is no remedy, for the infliction of fine would merely add to the
distress of the individuals. Efforts have been made from time
to time during the year to persuade people living in overcrowded
houses to find accommodation in other and more satisfactory
places, and by this means the conditions in some of the overcrowded
houses have been improved.
Some statistical details regarding the work of the Health
Department in the matter of housing are given in Tables D., E.
and L., which last.named table gives the results of house.to.hou&e
inspection of 502 premises.