The Vagrancy Problem.: The Case for Measures of Restraint for Tramps, Loafers, and Unemployables: With a Study of Continental Detention Colonies and Labour HousesDawson, William Harbutt
History
The Vagrancy Problem.: The Case for Measures of Restraint for Tramps, Loafers, and Unemployables: With a Study of Continental Detention Colonies and Labour Houses
Dawson, William Harbutt
Poor laws; Poor laws -- Great Britain; Tramps; Unemployed
(5) An enumeration of homeless persons in the administrative County
of London, made by the London County Council on the night of January
15, 1909, showed a total of 2,088. On that night there were also
1,188 persons in the casual wards of London, and 21,864 in the common
lodging-houses and shelters, of whom 10 per cent. were supposed to
belong to the vagrant class. This would give a total of 5,462 vagrants
as follows:--homeless (sleeping out and walking the streets), 2,088;
in casual wards, 1,188; in common lodging-houses and shelters, 2,186;
total, 5,462. As the population of the administrative County of London
at the date named was estimated at 4,795,757, this total is equal to a
ratio of 1.14 per 1,000 of the population. The same ratio for England
and Wales would give a vagrant population of about 41,000.
(6) Dr. J. R. Kaye, Medical Officer of Health for the West Riding
of Yorkshire, in a report upon the influence of vagrancy in the
dissemination of disease, published in 1904, estimated the roving
population at 36,000. He has, at my request, explained the basis of his
calculation as follows:--
"The estimate of 36,000 refers to England and Wales, and it includes
the inmates of casual wards and nomads of the same class who inhabit
alternately the casual wards and the common lodging houses according
to the state of their pockets. The county police here (West Riding),
make an annual census of tramps, and the figure comes out at about
1,000 persons, of whom about 200 are in the casual wards on any given
night. Now the Local Government Board reports give the casual-ward
population of England and Wales at about 10,000, so that if the same
proportions hold good there should be about 50,000 wanderers. Or, on
the other hand, if you take our ascertained 1,000 in the county area
in relation to our population of 1,249,685, and apply the ratio to the
population of England and Wales, we get a figure of 26,000. My figure
of 36,000 comes about mid-way between the two estimates given above."
(7) A final estimate which may be quoted is that made at the request
of the Departmental Committee on Vagrancy on the night of July 7,
1905, by the various police forces in England and Wales of persons
without a settled home or visible means of subsistence: (_a_) in common
lodging-houses; and (_b_) elsewhere than in common lodging-houses or
casual wards. The result was as follows:--
(_a_) In common lodging-houses 47,588
(_b_) Elsewhere than in common lodging-houses
or casual wards 14,624
______
62,212
These totals were made up of:--
(_a_) (_b_)
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