Charity organization; Housing -- England -- London; Poor -- England -- London; Working class -- Dwellings
The rooms, as a rule, were re-let at the same prices at which they had
been let before; but tenants with large families were counseled to take
two rooms, and for these much less was charged than if let singly:
this plan I continue to pursue. In-coming tenants are not allowed to
take a decidedly insufficient quantity of room, and no sub-letting is
permitted. The elder girls are employed three times a week in scrubbing
the passages in the houses, for the cleaning of which the landlady is
responsible. For this work they are paid, and by it they learn habits
of cleanliness. It is, of course, within the authority of the landlady
also to insist on cleanliness of wash-houses, yards, staircases,
and staircase-windows; and even to remonstrate concerning the rooms
themselves if they are habitually dirty.
The pecuniary result has been very satisfactory. Five per cent.
interest has been paid on all the capital invested. A fund for the
repayment of capital is accumulating. A liberal allowance has been
made for repairs; and here I may speak of the means adopted for making
the tenants careful about breakage and waste. The sum allowed yearly
for repairs is fixed for each house, and if it has not all been
spent in restoring and replacing, the surplus is used for providing
such additional appliances as the tenants themselves desire. It is
therefore to their interest to keep the expenditure for repairs as low
as possible; and instead of committing the wanton damage common among
tenants of their class, they are careful to avoid injury, and very
helpful in finding economical methods of restoring what is broken or
worn out, often doing little repairs of their own accord.
From the proceeds of the rent, also, interest has been paid on the
capital spent in building a large room where the tenants can assemble.
Classes are held there--for boys, twice weekly; for girls, once; a
singing class has just been established. A large work-class for
married women and elder girls meets once a week. A glad sight it
is--the large room filled with the eager, merry faces of the girls,
from which those of the older, careworn women catch a reflected light.
It is a good time for quiet talk with them as we work, and many a
neighborly feeling is called out among the women as they sit together
on the same bench, lend one another cotton or needles, are served by
the same hand, and look to the same person for direction. The babies
are a great bond of union; I have known the very women who not long
before had been literally fighting, sit at the work-class busily and
earnestly comparing notes of their babies' respective history. That a
consciousness of corporate life is developed in them is shown by the
not infrequent use of the expression "One of us."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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