Aside from the small space, in general the slums were a terrible place to live in. This was a place where crime flourished and gangs terrorized the residents into extortion through robberies and beatings. The first early efforts to help improve housing for the poor was during the late 19th century, when photojournalist Jacob Riis exposed the impoverished conditions that people in New York City were living in. His haunting photographs of the slums and his powerful book, How The Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York, really assisted in bringing attention to the subject of housing. The first sign of reform came with the New York Tenement act of 1895.This act basically gave the health department, fire department, and the newly created building department the right to regulate and enforce certain laws regarding the management of plumbing, drainage, light and ventilation in newly built tenement houses. An example of a law that was introduced due to this act would be the provision of fire escapes in all newly built tenement houses which the fire department was to
Aside from the small space, in general the slums were a terrible place to live in. This was a place where crime flourished and gangs terrorized the residents into extortion through robberies and beatings. The first early efforts to help improve housing for the poor was during the late 19th century, when photojournalist Jacob Riis exposed the impoverished conditions that people in New York City were living in. His haunting photographs of the slums and his powerful book, How The Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York, really assisted in bringing attention to the subject of housing. The first sign of reform came with the New York Tenement act of 1895.This act basically gave the health department, fire department, and the newly created building department the right to regulate and enforce certain laws regarding the management of plumbing, drainage, light and ventilation in newly built tenement houses. An example of a law that was introduced due to this act would be the provision of fire escapes in all newly built tenement houses which the fire department was to