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60
Therefore the question which the Committee have chiefly to deal
with in considering the Housing question is the extent of overcrowding
in the Borough, and whether, and how best it may be abated by the
adoption of Part III. of the Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1890,
PAST EFFORTS TO HOUSE THE LONDON POOR.
These efforts have mainly been in the direction of clearing insanitary
areas, and the erection in their place of comfortable and sanitary
dwellings with improved surroundings; but as an attempt to reduce
overcrowding, except the overcrowding of houses on a given site, it
cannot be considered a success because —
(a) The accommodation has invariably been less than sufficient
to house those displaced.
(b) The closure and demolition of insanitary dwellings have
always preceded the housing of displaced dwellers, with the
immediate result of increasing the overcrowding of neighbouring
houses or those in adjacent districts.
(c) Owing to the conditions under which the new dwellings have
been built, their rental is too high to be paid by the majority
of those poor tenants displaced.
(d) The schemes have been too local, and their execution
has extended over too long a period to have had any appreciable
effect in solving the housing problem.
OVERCROWDING AND ITS EXTENT.
In order to ascertain the amount of overcrowding in any district, a
minimum standard of house space must first of all be decided upon,
below which danger to health may be anticipated. It has been
ascertained by experiment, that in order to keep the atmosphere of
any inhabited room tolerably pure from the products of respiration, etc.,