﻿HOUSINO CONDITIONS IN INDIANAPOLIS 



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nearly a mere subsistence wage, as in addition to the board and 

 lodg-ing expense of about $2.75 per week, tliey must buy cloth- 

 ing, tobacco, beer, etc. In the summer time when there is plenty 

 of work for ten hours each day, these foreigners save a large 

 per cent of their wages. The cost of living increases but little 

 over what it is in the idle months and as wages are double or 

 treble they can save a considerable part of their income. Other 

 investigations have proved that much of the money thus saved 

 is sent to relatives or friends in Europe.^ 



Housing. There are three types of buildings used as homes 

 of foreigners in this section. These are cottages — either single 

 or double — tenement blocks built for this purpose, and business 

 blocks in which upstairs or back rooms are rented out as dwell- 

 ing places. 



All rental rates in the district are abnormally high.^ This 

 fact is due to more than one cause. Among them are : 



(1) The greed of the landlords and desire for large profits on their in- 



vestments. 



(2) The demand for houses for the foreigners and the limited supply. 



(3) Ignorance of foreigners as to what rental they should pay, and 



their inability to make bargains because they cannot speak 

 English. 



(4) The fact that nearly all the houses, especially the apartment 



houses, and the rooms in the business blocks are sub-rented 

 once or twice before the inhabitant gets them. Each renter 

 makes a profit, which is of coarse added to the rent. 



(5) The fact that during the summer months a great number of these 



foreigners are out of the city engaged in railroad work. This 

 leaves many of the houses empty. In way of compensation a 

 higher rent is charged during the months they are occupied. 



The houses in this district are nearly all dilapidated build- 

 ings. An inspection of any one of them would lead one to be- 

 lieve that not one cent had been expended upon it in the way of 

 repairs for many years. 



^ In many of the cottages the paper and plastering is off the 

 'walls. The floors are nearly all bad — many of them are damp 



^ An attempt was made to find out how many of these foreigners were, married 

 and had families in their mother country. We were unsuccessful in this, as they 

 all showed great reluctance in giving the inform9,tion about themselves, and abso- 

 lutely refused to tell us about other members of the group who did not happen to 

 be at home when we called. 



^ Our investigation revealed that the average rent per room in this foreign dis- 

 trict is $3.27 per month ; while in the district a few squares south, which is in- 

 habited by a native white population, we found an average of $1.78 per room 

 for much better houses. 



