HEALTH
NEW HAVEN DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH
| Vol. LVI, No. 9 | September, 1939 |
This article excerpted from p. 4 of the issue.
It is less than a year since the active office of the New Haven Housing Authority was opened and work begun to meet the requirements of the Federal Government - actually to secure the $6,000,000.00 earmarked for New Haven.
In these ten months much "spade" work has had to be done - surveys to determine today's conditions of the need for housing - actual size, composition and incomes of families needing public housing - rents now paid - costs of all utilities, fuel, light, etcetera - and the various things which make up an estimate of the problem of substandard housing conditions in any community.
These data provide the basis of the approach, and equally important, serve as definite guides in the designing of buildings to meet the living requirements of the people who are to tenant the projects. Housing, in its soundest interpretation, means knowing scientifically each particular community, and designing buildings in accordance with the facts.
While there is in all cities of each class a general similarity of problem - a common denominator - each has its peculiar elements which preclude the possibility of following any general standard or specification. Public housing, as required by the federal statute, has rigid limitations. It can serve only those now living in substandard housing, and whose maximum incomes the law specifies. May I insert with emphasis, at this point, that "living in substandard housing" does not mean a sub-standard family. Because a family's income is not sufficient to permit it to live in "standard" housing, there can be no reflection cast upon that family. On the contrary, those who know the situation in New Haven, as elsewhere, have seen the uniformly fine family and neighborhood relations preserved in spite of the handicaps of overcrowding, lack of essential privacy, and absence of fresh air and sunshine.
In addition to the surveys, which were so ably done by the staffs of the Health Department and Farnam House, there were studies of possible sites, as they are at present and as they may be when the city changes with the years ahead, following a well considered plan for the future. This problem of site selection is a difficult one in New Haven because of conditions peculiar to the city itself, but space does not permit of discussion of that phase. With site consideration is the ever-present factor of cost. There the Housing Authority is limited by the federal requirements, which insist on alternate sites being available in case land cannot be had at reasonably fair prices.
Estimates of building costs following definite architectural design studies for possible locations, together with the etceteras including technical, legal, municipal requirements, have been made, but that is all behind us. Our loan agreements with United States Housing Authority have been signed, and $36,000.00, as the first advance loan, has been secured and deposited in two New Haven Banks.
The Cooperation Agreement with the City specifies that the Project shall, so far as possible, be distributed in the various sections of the City. Consequently (and naturally), the first ones will be so planned, though specific and final sites cannot be told as land has to be bought at prices reasonable for public housing and fair to the owners. Until that is assured no site is final.
We may look for these few remaining "unknowns" to be cleared, so that definite announcement can soon be made, and construction bids asked for before January 1, 1940.
So much for the history to date, in tabloid.
But there are many intricate, fascinating and challenging problems ahead. One of these is, What Can Housing Contribute to the Health of the Community?
No housing development is a "pianola" - (or is that expression too mid-Victorian for this radio age?). So important an undertaking as housing approximately 1,200 families, which our program in New Haven involves, is entitled to considerate, continued attention.
There has been much said "pro" and con" - based largely on personal opinion - partial information and misinformation. It is timely for us to begin at least that approach which will guide us to a sound expectancy. No sane advocate of public housing (and there are such) will claim for housing any monopoly of the improvements which may be seen in a community where a housing program is at work. There are too many other agencies seriously active to permit any one to claim credit, or share the responsibility exclusively.
However, housing must make a measureable contribution to the community's health if future congresses, state legislatures, and municipal bodies are to provide the necessary funds for its expansion. It is too early by years to attempt to designate factually the benefits from housing, but it is not too early to begin to anticipate the question in its essential aspects. On this point I take the liberty of quoting from a recent publication, issued by the British Ministry of Health. In Great Britain housing is under the Ministry of Health, which, during the twenty years after the war (a phrase now unfortunately obsolete), was responsible for the building of 4,000,000 houses. Only one quarter of these were under government subsidy. Three quarters of them were done by private enterprise.
"The evil effects of bad housing tell not only on the individual but also on the general welfare of the community, and are to be found in many fields of public health. In districts where housing standards have always been low and where overcrowding is rife, the incidence of tuberculosis and of infant and maternal mortality is almost invariably higher than the average, sometimes very much higher.
"It was considerations of public health which first directed public attention to housing nearly a hundred years ago. It is equally true to say today that the provision of healthy and adequate houses for the whole community lies, like a pure water supply and a proper system of drains, at the root of our public health, and by forestalling the incidence of the diseases and morbidity which come from bad environment, will lighten the burden of other health services. If it costs money to provide the necessary houses, can we as a nation afford not to provide these houses?"
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"Disharmonies of the mind and spirit may begin very subtly, and if not promptly arrested, may lead to real organic maladies or conditions which breed misery and trouble not only to the person afflicted, but to all who come in contact with them.
"They are often the result of unhealthy environment and a growing tension of life itself, which tends to increase in the complicated civilization of today."
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"Our first scientific duty is to eliminate sources of irritation and misery in our surroundings, and see to it that the whole environment is conducive to comfort, health, hope, and happiness. Unconscious education may be as important as conscious.
"A gracious inspiring personality is rooted in a balance of healthy forces. The atmosphere in which it is brought up and lives should be such that from the very beginning of life, the harmonious working of its powers should be cultivated. The atmosphere should breathe hope and encouragement in every direction.
"An infant's environment is largely that of its mother, its father, its brothers and sisters, its home, the surroundings of its home, its food, fresh air and sunlight, free play, and contact with natural life. These elementary essentials should all be of the best obtainable."
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"We have seen that an improved social life can work wonders on the individual, and only note here that while the individual may have a great effect upon society, the opposite is also true, and the society in which he lives has a great effect upon the unit who is one element making up that society. Today there is much talk of the 'mass mind' and 'mass emotion,' and of the supreme importance of the State. An equally important case can be made out for the supreme importance of the individual, and it is a fact that those who are brought into closest touch with the mighty forces of Nature on land or on the sea often are the great personalities, the most level headed, the most tolerant, the most patient, and the healthiest minded sections of our population.
"When we come to physical and social environment, we come to the part that can most easily be changed in the direction of health. The environment which mankind requires is the most natural one possible for the circumstances under which he lives. The crying danger is the one which will take men away from the world of Nature and let them live under purely artificial conditions. This may be taken as a statement, the neglect of which will quite certainly end in disaster. We are a part of natural life and cannot do without it. The present tendency to warehouse the people in tenement dwellings in our large cities is a striking illustration of this. It is a policy of frustration, physical and mental. It is a denial of the fullness of life, of family life, and of natural life. The natural impulse of the man who is compelled to live in a huge tenement is to put up barricades, in self-defence, to isolate himself from his neighbors, though that is really impossible. The birthright of every child is surely to play freely, joyously, to establish contact with nature, animals, and the land, and this is denied to him. Instead of this, repression and fear are the first conditions of living. Constant irritations begin, and unnatural conditions prevail. There is no security of family life under such conditions. The mass mind, mass emotion, the neglect of individual initiative, the unimportance of family life, are fostered under such conditions."
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"The problem can only be solved by a proper disposal of population and industry so that the people shall live a healthy life. A healthy and contented population is really the first concern of statesmanship in peace and in war, and it is a curious fact that while many people will give lip service to this knowledge, few people give it their undivided attention. It must be obvious that a natural environment not imposing nervous and physical strain is of the utmost importance. The inevitable strain of life can be eased by good housing conditions, good working conditions, good opportunity for the enjoyment of leisure, freedom for proper rest, with the proper opportunity for fresh food."
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If we shall be guided in the building and the development of our housing in this country by such experiences as these, founded on years of having done the job, we can look for a realization of many of those things which at present seem only dreams.