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6
Overcrowding in Single Rooms, let and sub-let by absentee
Landlords.
There is no doubt, from the abundant experience and records
of the Sanitary Department of this and other Vestries, that
houses let out in single rooms, and to several families, have
endangered the life of people, have favored the spread of
contagion, and are a source of pauperism and degradation.
The ordinary rules of systematic Sanitary inspection once
a year is not sufficient in these cases. We have power, and
generally succeed in abating nuisances when discovered, but it is
much easier to prevent their frequent recurrence, by registration
and inspection of the worst houses. This is what is wanted.
In accordance with the request of the Sanitary and Public
Health Committee I have drawn up the following brief summary
of the grounds upon which I believe the Vestry ought to adopt
the 35th Section of the Sanitary Act in the Parish.
I have strong reasons for believing that when a proposition of
this kind was brought before the Vestry in 1867, it was withdrawn
from want of due appreciation of the advantages which
the poor as well as ratepayers would derive from it, perhaps also,
in some measure, from misrepresentations and alleged injustice
towards landlords of tenant house property.
In looking over the stringent rules proposed for adoption
in this and other Parishes four years ago, I believe the
failure in carrying out this part of the Sanitary Act resulted
from requiring too much supervision, and from trespassing
somewhat upon the supposed rights of property and liberty of
the subject; therefore it is that I now conceive a more simple
set of rules may be adopted, which in no way can be complained
of as unreasonable towards landlords or any one else.
It cannot be denied that in the class of house property to
which we now refer there is frequently dangerous and immoral
overcrowding; such houses are inhabited by the lowest class of
persons, and amongst them is the largest proportion of sickness
and pauperism. There are persons who let out rooms to weekly
tenants who take in, as a rule, a class of persons not to be tolerated
in respectable tenant houses kept by a responsible landlord or
landlady. The drinking and dirty people for instanee, seek out
the former kind of house, where there is no resident landlord, and
prefer it to the latter. The Parochial Medical Officers and the
Kelieving Officers of Unions are able to show that they have on
their books applicants always verging upon pauperism. The
rents of many back rooms and kitchens inhabited chiefly by
this class, are frequently paid indirectly, if not immediately, by
money received from the Parish Board of Guardians.