Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - V. Social Movements - 1. Labour Questions and Social politics - Housing Problem. By G. H. von Koch
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the housing problem.
677
certain classes of labourers whose work was located outside the boundaries of
the town. But it was not until the nineties that demands for houses for the
workmen employed by the City became urgent. Thus in 1899 it was resolved
that six dwelling houses of stone should be erected for the city workmen. They
were completed in 1901 and contained 273 hearths. The costs amounted to
570 748 kronor. In the same year further grants were made for this purpose,
and in 1905 4 additional houses containing 175 hearths had been erected at a
cost of 359 763 kronor. In 1908 21/2 million kronor more were voted for
workmen’s dwellings within the area of the city, and out of this grant 1’7
million kronor had been consumed at the close of 1910, 730 additional hearths
having been erected with the aid of this money.
Dwellings have moreover been erected for the workmen employed in the
gas works and in the slaughter-house. In short, during the period from 1874 to
1911 an aggregate sum of close on 41/* million kronor has been granted for
workmen’s dwellings within the boundaries of the city, and for this money
have been procured 1 728 hearths in 761 dwellings, out of which 53 with one
room, 557 with one room and a kitchen, 109 with two rooms and a kitchen,
and 18 with three rooms and a kitchen. The average rents per year are for
one room 150 kronor, for one room and a kitchen 307 kronor, and for two
rooms and a kitchen 434 kronor. At the end of 1910 there were 3 092
persons living in these dwellings.
Houses for workmen’s dwellings have been erected by the commune only in
a few other towns, and only to a very small extent.
Dwellings Societies. The erection of dwellings on the basis of self-aid
occurs largely in Sweden. At the close of 1911 there had been registered
590 dwellings societies, a number of which, however, appear to have been
dissolved without previous notice. As early as the seventies of the last
century, thus long before the law intervened to regulate the management
of societies, there existed dwellings societies in a number of the larger
towns. The object of these societies was in many cases to procure for
the members dwellings in houses of the tenement-type, built by the
society itself. Out of some of these societies there sprang smaller societies
whose mission was to acquire completely finished houses, intended as
dwellings for its members. The number of members was thus in these
latter enterprises limited by the number of dwellings obtainable. Some
of these enterprises were dissolved, others were transformed into
joint-stock companies, while again others were registered under the Economic
Societies Act of 1897.
In Stockholm this earlier movement attained its culmination in the eighties
under the pressure of very grave housing conditions. As a rule it was
middle-class people, who took part in the movement. Each of the members owned his
own dwelling and about 30 % of the capital had been invested by the members
themselves. At the end of 1910 there existed in Stockholm 61 dwellings’
societies with 77 real estates with an aggregate estimated value of over 16
million kronor, and containing 2 041 dwellings in which close on 8 000 persons
were living. That this movement once so flourishing gradually died away, was
due to unsuitable legislation, too high fees and rates of interest, etc. However
in its day this movement conduced greatly to increase the supply of dwellings.
At Gothenburg there also existed a housing enterprise of earlier date, namely
the Workmen’s Building Association (Arbetarnas Byggnadsförening), which was
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