The Poor and Good HousingBy Elizabeth Cook(From Speech on “Housing and Morals in Richmond.” Quoted from “Woman’s Work in Municipalities.”)
By Elizabeth Cook
(From Speech on “Housing and Morals in Richmond.” Quoted from “Woman’s Work in Municipalities.”)
Can children raised in Jail Bottom, whose only outlook is a mountain-like dump of rotting and rusty tin cans on the one side, and on the other a stream which is an open sewer, smelling to heaven from the filth which it carries along, or leaves here and there in slime upon its banks, have any but debasing ideas? Can parents inculcate high moral standards when across the street or down the block are houses of the “red light” district? Is the world so small that there is no room left for the amenities of life? Are ground space and floor space of more value than cleanliness and health and morality?... It is certainly a fallacy that the poor do not want good housing.