country. Under the state law, any place is a tenement which 

 houses four famihes, or three families making use of the same 

 halls and toilets. These tenements vary from the new and mod- 

 ern apartment houses to old buildings and at one time better 

 class residences now built over into housekeeping rooms. It is 

 in the latter that much of the overcrowding is found. The 

 importance of having the new and rnodern apartment house con- 

 form to the law is thus shown. Even in good apartment house 

 districts, families were found living in basements. This of course 

 is comparatively rare, but is a condition which must be carefully 

 guarded against, considering the difficulties other cities are try- 

 ing to overcome where this evil is great. i ■ 



There are distinctly slum conditions in San Diego in sha^^s 

 along the water front and among the Mexicans, negroes smd 

 whites, in the tenement houses and cottages of the district softi'th 

 of F street, and west of Sixteenth street to the water front. One 

 instance was given of a tenement which housed twenty-three per- 

 sons in four rooms. This represents possibly an extreme of over- 

 crowding in the tenements but illustrates the need for a tenement 

 house inspector even in San Diego. Some of the worst conditions 

 were found in shacks along the water front. A few of these 

 have already been condemned by the Health Department and the 

 people moved out. They were living in such places, not from 

 choice, but from the fact that these places offered cheap rents. 

 When the question of moving them out was under consideration, 

 it was asked where they could go and get cheap rents. Attention 

 was called to the fact that they would only crowd into some other 

 unsanitary place where the rent was cheap. "They will have to 

 keep moving," was the answer of one official. It is difficult for 

 poor Mexicans to secure cheap rents in San Diego, consequently 

 they crowd themselves, several families into some old house or 

 unsanitary shack. Some of these latter are presented to the view 

 of the tourist on arriving. One or two instances were found of 

 two room shacks in very bad condition renting for $5.00 a month. 

 One or two other instances were found of shacks or two rooms in 

 a tenement house rented out to a family for $8.00 a month. 

 However, it was difficult to find anything for a family even where 

 conditions were bad and there was over-crowding, for less than 

 $10.00 or $12.00 a month. No three room houses with proper 

 sewer connections and bath room were found for less than $14.00. 

 In one instance, a group of small four-room houses with two fam- 

 ilies in each house was found. In one of these a family of ten 

 occupied two rooms. The rent was $10.00 a month. Many old 

 places where conditions were not good were renting for $15.00 

 or even more. 



The cheap lodging houses for men and furnished rooms for 

 single persons and families, according to experts who have stud- 

 ied the housing problems of California cities, are one of the most 

 serious problems and one of the greatest causes of the spread of 

 tuberculosis and venereal diseases. San Diego has had its full 

 supply of such places. 



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