BETTERMENT AGENCIES 



The question has been asked by persons otherwise intelligently 

 Informed, "Are there any poor in San Diego ?" Visit the homes 

 of the poor in the more crowded sections of the city or read the 

 stories of distress resulting from sickness and unemployment 

 which are on file at the Associated Charities. The answer must 

 be decidedly in the affirmative. Various agencies and institu- 

 tions are at work in San Diego to help in relieving such distress. 

 A list of agencies has been prepared and will be found at the end 

 of this report. No attempt has been made in the following state- 

 ment to give an account of the work of even the more prominent 

 charitable agencies in the city. Those mentioned serve rather as 

 guiding points in outlining the city's charitable growth and 

 needs. 



A brief review of the charity situation in San Diego brings to 

 light the following facts. The city's poor, now receiving indoor 

 relief from the county, are provided for at the County Hospital. 

 This situation should be remedied at once by housing the poor in 

 separate quarters. The county supervisors "^f or the citv, three in 

 number, are the main agency dispensing material relief to the 

 poor in their homes. This relief is usually in the form of gro- 

 ceries. In supplies, alone, $13,000 was given during the last fiscal 

 year of the Board, the larger share of this amount going to resi- 

 dents of the city rather than of the county. This public money 

 the Board spent in the press of other duties, without adequate 

 means for investigating the circumstances of families or individ- 

 uals receiving aid. Nor were they able to do constructive work 

 in upbuilding the individuals or families assisted, by established 

 methods of organized charity. The Supervisors, however, have 

 taken a step in the right direction by instituting a card catalog 

 record of persons receiving relief in their homes. One Supervi- 

 sor at present refers cases for relief to the Associated Charities 

 for investigation. This is but a step in the right direction. The 

 Supervisors should appoint a trained investigator to investigate 

 the circumstances of families assisted and aid as far as possible 

 in a constructive effort to place the family upon a self-supporting 

 basis. This is the method followed by San Francisco's Countv 

 Supervisors. The services of such an investigator could be se- 

 cured probably without actual increase in the total amount now 

 spent in relief. Moreover, the county board's investigator could 

 assist physicians at the County Hospital by weeding out cases 

 which do not call for hospital treatment or for which other and 

 better arrangements could be provided in the home. This service 

 the Associated Charities now gives, to a considerable extent, and 

 whenever called upon. In San Francisco, where the county em- 

 ploys an investigator for all such work, the communitv has bene- 



