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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - IV. Economics - 16. Income, Consumption and Housing - 6. Housing Conditions
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378 An American Dilemma
The racial differential in housing accommodations for all income groups
combined is enormous. Let us take just a few examples, picked at random,
from recent Real Property Inventories. In Detroit 34 per cent of the
Negro-occupied dwelling units were considered to be either unfit for use
or in need of major repairs j
the same proportion for white-occupied
dwelling units was 6 per cent. The corresponding figures for Harrisburg,
Pennsylvania, were 73 and 14 per cent, respectively. For Norfolk, Virginia,
they were 25 and 5 per cent; for Savannah, Georgia, 55 and ii per cent.
We do not have to add to this list; the differential is quite considerable in
almost every place where there is any appreciable Negro population.^® It
even goes so far that the general slum problem in many cities is largely
a Negro problem. Wherever there are Negroes in the cities, it will be
impossible to eliminate poor housing unless Negro areas are given a signif-
icant share of the attention.*
Data from the National Health Survey (Table 6) indicate that there is
a great race differential also in regard to crowding in urban areas. The
situation is particularly serious in the South where the dwelling units are
smaller, on the average, than elsewhere, at the same time as families tend
TABLE 6
Percentage of Urban Families Showing Various Degrees or Crowding,
BY Region* and Race: 1935-1936
East Central South
Degree of Crowding Nonwhite White Nonwhite White Nonwhite White
Percentage of Families in dwelling
units with more than
i .5 person per room 8,0 3.7 12.9 5.0 21.2 8.3
2.0 or more persons per room 4.7 1.7 9.0 3.3 16.0 5.8
Source: U.S. Public Health Service, The National Health Survey, Bulletin No. 5, Sickness and
Medical Care Series (1939). P«
The Eastern sample includes cities in Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey; the
Central sample includes Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota, and Missouri; the Southern sample includes
Virginia, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, and Texas.
to be large. Sixteen per cent of the Negro and 6 per cent of the white house-
holds in the urban South were living in dwelling units where there were
two or more persons per room. These results are confirmed by the Real
Property Inventories, many of which have been made in more recent years.
They show, furthermore, to what extent crowding is correlated with family
size: in many cities the majority of the large Negro families is over-
crowded. The fact that large families and children are the main sufferers
* This fact has been considered in the federal slum clearance and low cost housing program
under the auspices of the United States Housing Authority. See Chapter 1 5, Section 6.
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