The beginning of housing reform in Pittsburgh.
* * * * *
An important ordinance, dealing with one unsanitary feature of the
city, was passed by councils in 1901. This makes it unlawful to
continue the existence of cesspools and privy-vaults on any lot
contiguous to a public sewer. A state law of 1901 prohibited the
construction of a new cesspool or privy-vault on premises where a sewer
was adjacent, and the same prohibition was previously contained in
the plumbing regulations of the Bureau of Health, issued in 1895; but
existing privy-vaults are made unlawful only by the ordinance of 1901.
This provision is of great value. The privy-vault may be tolerated
in country districts, but in small city yards, close to kitchens and
bedrooms, groceries and butcher shops, its dangers are increased a
thousand fold. The risk is especially great where typhoid is prevalent,
as is the case in Pittsburgh, where as far back as the health records
go the disease has been practically epidemic and where up to 1908 the
typhoid rate was higher than in any other city. That the contagion
of typhoid fever is contained in the discharges of the patient, and
that the specific organism may live in these for a long period is
well known, but only in the past decade has the part played by house
flies in the dissemination of the disease been emphasized: "Flies are
attracted to all kinds of filth. A fly after lighting on the discharges
from a typhoid patient thrown into one of the vaults may have on its
legs the specific bacteria and can then carry the infection from place
to place; it may be to the food of the nearest neighbor, or to that in
a nearby street stand or shop, or it is possible it may carry it to a
greater distance."
For house drainage, Pittsburgh has a good plumbing code in its detailed
provisions similar to those in New York and Philadelphia. It is in
the form of a state act, passed in 1901, and responsibility for its
enforcement rests in the Bureau of Health. Besides containing strict
requirements for new work, it gives the bureau certain important powers
with reference to plumbing in existing buildings.
[Illustration: THE FRANKLIN FLATS OF THE TENEMENT IMPROVEMENT OF
PITTSBURGH. THE ONLY MODEL TENEMENT IN THE OLD CITY.]
Tenement houses,--that is, buildings occupied by three or more
families,--are the subject of special legislation. Two tenement laws
were enacted in 1903. One applying principally to the maintenance of
tenement buildings is enforced by the Bureau of Health. It forbids
the use of tenement cellars for living purposes; a cellar being defined
as a "story more than one-half below the street or ground level." It
permits living in basement rooms only when they are eight and one-half
feet high and are properly lighted and ventilated according to the
specific terms of the law, and are not damp or otherwise unfit for
habitation. It requires for every room in existing tenements either
a window equal in size to one-tenth of the floor area of the room,
and opening upon the street or alley, or upon a yard or court, with
a sectional area of not less than twenty-five square feet; or else
a fifteen square foot window opening to an adjoining outside room
in the same apartment. No rooms may be occupied unless they contain
seven hundred cubic feet of air space, nor unless they are eight feet
high from floor to ceiling in every part, except that attic rooms
need be eight feet high in only one-half their area. Overcrowding
is prohibited by the requirement that in any room there must be four
hundred cubic feet of air space for each adult, and two hundred for
each child occupying the room.
In new tenement houses an independent water supply is required for
every suite of rooms; in existing tenement buildings, or buildings
hereafter converted to tenement use, there must be a water supply
on every floor, accessible to all tenants on the floor without the
necessity for their passing through any apartment but their own. The
space under all sinks is required to be left open, without enclosing
woodwork.
A water-closet is required for every apartment in a new tenement
building, except that where apartments consist of but one or two rooms,
one closet for three rooms is sufficient. In existing tenement houses
one closet for two apartments is required, and for existing buildings
converted to tenement use after the passage of the law, one closet for
six rooms, but not less than one to a floor. Water-closets located
in the yard are permitted where the Bureau of Health considers this
arrangement necessary.
[Illustration: MRS. FRANKLIN P. IAMS.
Mrs. Iams, Miss Kate C. McKnight, E. Z. Smith, and other leaders of the
Civic Club of Allegheny County, have been among the pioneer workers in
housing reform in Pittsburgh.]
Cleanliness and good repair of all parts of the house are required.
The keeping of horses, cows, pigs, sheep, goats or poultry in tenement
houses is prohibited, also the use of any part of a tenement house for
a stable or for the storage of anything dangerous to life or health.
The keeping of inflammable or combustible material under any stairway
in a tenement house is prohibited. The act prescribes fines for
violation and makes it mandatory upon the Bureau of Health to employ
one or more special tenement house inspectors to inspect tenements and
see that the requirements of the law are enforced.
The main points of the law are excellent, but it contains an
undesirable feature in placing a premium upon the conversion of
existing buildings to tenement uses. There seems scarcely room for
question that if the working population of the city must be crowded
into multiple dwellings, it is better for it to be into houses
constructed and properly fitted for the purpose. But the law encourages
the squeezing of three or more families into old, ill-adapted houses,
erected for other purposes. A new house may not be built for tenement
uses unless it has a separate sink for every suite of rooms, and a
water-closet for every suite, or where suites consist of but one or two
rooms each, a water-closet for every three rooms; but an old building,
not constructed for the purpose, may at any time be made to serve as
a tenement house if it has a sink and a water-closet on every floor,
regardless of how many families may be occupying the floor, providing
only that there is at least one water-closet for six rooms. A landlord
may lawfully turn an old dilapidated mill into a tenement as in the
case previously cited and provide only two sinks (one in a restaurant)
and a yard hydrant for twenty-five families, but if he wishes to build
a new tenement for this number of families the law requires him to put
in twenty-five sinks.
To aid in the enforcement of the above law there was enacted in 1908 an
ordinance requiring all tenement houses in the city to be registered
in the offices of the Bureau of Health, and providing penalties for
failure to comply.
An act of 1895 established a Bureau of Building Inspection in the city
Department of Public Safety. Officials of this bureau are required
to examine buildings in the course of construction or alteration,
and houses reported in an insecure or dangerous condition. The
superintendent and inspectors, as in other cities, are required
to be men of practical experience in work connected with building
construction, but must not be engaged in such work while holding
office. Plans and specifications for all new construction or extensive
alteration work must be filed with the bureau, and work of this
character may not be carried on without a permit from the bureau, to
be granted within ten days, when the plans and specifications conform
to law. Where a permit is refused, the party aggrieved may appeal to
a commission, to be appointed by the director of the Department of
Public Safety, and to consist of three persons, either master builders,
civil engineers, or architects; but authority is in no case granted to
this commission to set aside or alter any provisions of the act, or
to require the issuance of a permit for a building to be constructed
otherwise than as required by the act.
Such a fixed law without discretionary powers granted to the building
inspecting officials, or to the Bureau of Appeals, is an important
safeguard to the community. The experience of New York affords
conclusive evidence of the danger of an opposite policy. For example,
previous to 1901, the laws applying to New York fixed a limit to the
percentage of the lot which might be covered over by a new tenement
building, requiring the remainder to be left vacant, in order to
provide proper yard and court space for light and ventilation. But
the superintendent of buildings was granted power to modify this
requirement, and the result was that it was practically nullified. The
New York Tenement House Commission of 1900 examined several hundred new
buildings erected under the law, in the Borough of Manhattan, and found
that only one per cent had the prescribed reasonable air-space. In
theory, discretionary powers have advantages in giving a law sufficient
flexibility to meet varying conditions, but in practice, where granted
to modify reasonable legislation, they place worthy officials in the
difficult position of being obliged to refuse,--in opposition to any
influence that may be brought to bear,--to exercise discretion plainly
permitted to them, and they open to unworthy officials of all grades
innumerable opportunities for corruption and unjust discrimination.
In Pittsburgh the specific provisions in relation to details of
building construction are incorporated in the main in state laws,
but there are also certain city ordinances regulating building
construction. Building requirements affecting sanitation and safety
in dwellings for one or two families, apart from those enforced by
the Bureau of Health and previously referred to, are few in number,
although in Pittsburgh the great majority of the population is housed
in buildings of this character, making the situation a vastly different
one from that in New York, where seventy-one per cent of the families
live in multiple dwellings and the proper control of these is the
important matter.
[Illustration: ROBERT GARLAND.