VIII MANAGEMENT OF MUNICIPAL HOUSES IN AMSTERDAM[3] Footnote 3: Reprinted from _Housing_, the official journal of the Ministry of Health, July 19, 1920, by kind permission of the Controller, H.M. Stationery Office. The Municipality of Amsterdam has provided, either directly or through Public Utility Societies, a large number of dwellings for its working-class inhabitants. Up to the present time 4,000 families have been housed in these municipal dwellings, 6,000 more dwellings are in course of erection, and plans are laid for bringing the total number up to 20,000 at no very distant date. The housing policy of Amsterdam is comprehensive. The town has assumed the duty not only of supplying houses to meet the general shortage, but of providing houses for those for whom no one else is able or willing to find accommodation, and especially for large families. It does not, like most English local authorities, select its tenants, but accepts all, even the worst class, if they are houseless citizens of Amsterdam. In these circumstances the question of managing the municipal houses becomes a very important one. Mr. Keppler, who has presided over the Housing Department of Amsterdam for five years, came over to England to see for himself the methods of managing working-class property introduced by Miss Octavia Hill, and it was decided, as a result of his experience, to appoint women managers to take charge of the municipal houses and their tenants on the same lines. The first two women appointed had been trained years earlier under Miss Hill in London. There is now a staff of thirteen managers working under the Chief Woman Manager. It is the duty of the Chief Manager to receive applications from and to interview would-be tenants, to inquire into their circumstances, and to allot new or empty houses to those families whose need she considers most acute. Great care is taken in assigning the new dwellings. Some groups of houses are designed expressly for families with five or more children and are reserved for them, while families with a member suffering from tuberculosis are placed in dwellings which have a sunny balcony or garden. The managers collect the rents from the tenants in their homes; they take a note of any repairs needed and inform the Repairs Department. They instruct the women in the use of fittings and apparatus (all the municipal houses are fitted with gas cookers and electric light) and insist upon the tenancy regulations being observed. They co-operate with a number of voluntary societies which help the tenants in various ways.