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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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Chapter 1 6. Income, Consumption and Housing 379
means that the proportion of the total population that lives under cramped
conditions is even higher than is the percentage of crowded dwelling units
a circumstance which is often overlooked.**®
We have found that Negro families in Southern cities and villages use
a somewhat smaller part of their total expenditure for housing than do
white families in the same income class. This appears also when rent-paying
families are studied separately. The situation seems to be different in New
York, however, where Negro families in most income groups pay higher
rentals than do whites.^"^ When all income groups are combined, urban
Negroes are usually found to use a greater proportion of their total ex-
penditures for housing than is usual in the white population. The reason, of
course, is the fact that poor families generally have to use a larger part of
their income for housing than do the more well-to-do families. The housing
item in the budget seems to be particularly cumbersome in New York,
where, according to the Consumer Purchases Study, nonrelief Negro
families used as much as 27 per cent of their total expenditure for this pur-
pose, whereas the corresponding figure for white families was 22 per cent.*®
There is a general complaint among Negroes that they have to pay higher
rents than do whites for equal housing accommodations. It is difficult to get
any unequivocal statistical evidence on this problem, and it seems that this
is one of the main aspects of Negro housing on which additional research
work is needed.*® Nevertheless, we feel inclined to believe that rents are
higher, on the average, in Negro- than in white-occupied dwelling units
even when size and quality are equal. Most housing experts and real estate
people who have had experience with Negro housing have made statements
to this effect. Not only does there seem to be consensus on the matter among
those who have studied the Negro housing problem, but there is also a good
logical reason for it; housing segregation.® Particularly when the Negro
population is increasing in a city, it is hard to see how this factor can fail to
make Negro rents increase to an even greater extent than would have been
the case if the Negroes had been free to seek accommodations wherever in
the city they could afford to pay the rent. The fact that they are not
wanted where they have not already been accepted must put them in an
extremely disadvantaged position in any question of renting or of buying
a house.
* Some white real estate dealers attribute the higher rent for Negroes to their carelessness
and destructiveness. From our point of view, the important thing is that they observe tlie
fact of higher rents.
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