Tenement Housing

Tenement Housing is…

1. A building for human habitation, especially one that is rented to tenants.
2. A rundown, low-rental apartment building whose facilities and maintenance barely meet minimum standards.
3. An apartment or room leased to a tenant.
4. Law Property, such as land, rents, or franchises, held by one person leasing it from another.
5.One meeting minimum standards of sanitation, safety, and comfort and usually located in a city.

North American Tenements

In the 19th century, lots people began crowding into American cities, including thousands of newly arrived immigrants from all around the world seeking a better life than the one they had left behind. In New York City–where the population doubled every decade from 1800 to 1880– Buildings that had once been single-family

dwellings were separated into multiple living spaces to accommodate this growing population. Known as tenements, these narrow, low-rise apartment buildings were all too often cramped, poorly lit and lacked indoor plumbing and proper ventilation. In 1900, two-thirds of New York City’s population were living in tenement housing.

Chinese Tenements

                                                                                                                                      Some 30 adults and children survived in a space of just under five hundred square feet.
Cheap rooms such as caged homes arose from the sudden influx of mainland China refugees in the 1950s and 60s.
New immigrant families, ethnic minorities, street-sleepers, singletons and newly emerged underprivileged groups now lived in these partitioned rooms.
 
Plan of a typical Chinese tenement house in the congested district, built around 1903.  Note thewindowless

cubicles, deep room, poor daylight,

ventilation in the living portion as well as a tin kitchen.

 

The life of people living in tenement housing must have been incredibly difficult and unpleasant. The small amount of space, limited amounts of light, lack of toilets, minimal rooms and small amounts of safety features would have made for rough living and large amounts of worry among all.

The small amount of space would make it incredibly difficult for all people in the house to be able to have their own space, place to put their own belongings and an area to simply get away when they needed to.

The limited amount of light would cause sickness and also sadness. It would be very hard to keep a house illuminated with candles due to the safety issues and also many families would not have had the money to spend on even small candles.

The lack of toilets would have caused horrible smells and huge amounts of death and sickness. It would be hard to imagine having to share a bathroom with more than just family members for more than a couple days.

The minimal amount of rooms would require the families to do everything in the same space. Sleeping, eating and using the bathroom was usually all done in the same room, this led to a significant amount of sickness and uncleanliness.

The small amounts and often lack of safety features would have made these houses very dangerous. Many tenements did not have fire escapes and were very prone to catching on fire. Hundreds of people would have died during this time period solely based on the ignorance of the rich who owned these tenements.

As humans we always want what is better, but we never think about what is worse.

All information found on this page can be found at:

http://www.history.com/topics/tenements

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