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37
The occupants of Common Lodging Houses should not, perhaps, be classified
with the homeless, as some of the former occupy the same bed for a period of
many years, and are of a different type to those who hardly every sleep in a bed,
or who always frequent places of free shelter only, like the Medland Hall. Both
of these classes consist of persons lower in grade than the ordinary occupants
of the cheapest and meanest Common Lodging House. They are generally
the "waste" of our industrial system, victims of misfits and failures, who, often
fov long periods are tossed about hither and thither, until finally they are found
settled, as it were, in the East End of London. They never have sufficient
money to pay for a night's lodging, and they are possessed with a dread of the
Casual Ward, on account of the toll of manual labour demanded of them in the
morning, in return for food and a night's shelter.
They gravitate towards the East End of London from all parts of the
Metropolis, and of the Country, because here charitable effort has been focussed,
and a number of places, like the Medland Hall, have been provided, in which
half a pound of bread and butter and a night's rest can be obtained free of
charge. They eke out a miserable existence for a time on the streets, and when
an illness overtakes them, they arc admitted into the nearest infirmary or
workhouse. The expense of their maintenance and the cost of their burial (if
the illness proves fatal, as it frequently does in the case of persons so physically
unfit) fail on the ratepayers of those districts in which these free charitable
institutions are to be found.
During the last few months the number of persons accommodated every
night at Medland Hall is barely one-half the number that used to sleep there.
This is due to the fact that certain restrictions are now imposed which allow a man
to have accommodation for one week only in three months. Should he return
at the end of three months, he is allowed a second week's shelter, but he is then
barred for six months. At the end of that time he may have another week, but
he will not afterwards be allowed accommodation for a period of twelve months.
The cost of their maintenance to the ratepayers must be a very substantial
item, as 50 per cent. of the deaths of homeless persons as well as those admitted
from Common Lodging Houses were due to Consumption, which lasts for a long
time before it terminates fatally. There is another danger in the fact that before
their admission into a public institution, no precaution is taken to prevent the
spreading of the disease among other persons with whom they come into contact.
I am not entering into a discussion of the relative advantages and disadvantages
of free shelters, nor am I considering the question whether free shelters