Lack Of Housing In The 1880's

Upon reading this essay, one will understand the look of the new urban nation. Housing was often a big problem among the American citizens. All available housing was purchased and remodeled to house many people. However, the living conditions was terrible among these people.

America had a new look as an urban nation. The large number of people caused a lack of housing and this became a major issue in the 1880’s. Therefore, the renters tried to convert warehouses or buildings into a place where a lot of people could live in a small place. Some problems of urban growth included cleanliness, poverty, lawbreaking and filth. Jacob Riis, a police reporter, wrote a best-selling book called “How the Other Half Lives”.
The real estate agents grabbed up all the old houses they could find and partitioned them off without thinking about the poor citizens that would live there without proper ventilation or windows to get out of incase of a fire. Unfortunately, a sweet innocent family might end up living with people of low morals. The landlords raised the rent to cover damages and did not expect much from these renters nor did they care if the rentals were safe. Just when you think things couldn’t get worse for these poor people, the land owners decided to made the living conditions smaller by using blocks. The landlords were allowed to purchase or rent the blocks for a percentage called under-letting. As discussed in the source packet, it was a very sad situation for the tenents at Gotham Court where the renters were dying with a rate of 290,000 per square mile. Furthermore, the rentals were unventilated and some were suffocated by the foul air, especially the children. When a child died, it was reported to the Bureau of Vital Statistics. Some of the apartments
By the same token, it was becoming acceptable for these children to go out on the town and begin dating. However, this brought on other problems and danger with some looking for sexual adventure or possibly a gold digger. By the 1900’s, dating and casual sex were common in an urban world with several men and women being single and young. By the 1910’s, one would not hear the word queer but homosexual and you could see gay sex shows and brothels that catered to homosexual men. The police were even paid to look the other way (Henretta, Edwards, & Self,