CUMULATIVE RECEIPTS AND EXPENSES OF GOVERNMENT HOTELS FOR FIRST HALF OF FISCAL YEAR 1919-20 IN COMPARISON WITH CUMULATIVE APPROPRIATIONS REQUESTED BY U. S. HOUSING CORPORATION AND GRANTED BY CONGRESS FOR

FISCAL

YEAR 1919-20.

OCCUPANCY OF AVAILABLE ROOMS AND RECORD OF DAILY DEPARTURES OF REGULAR GUESTS-CALENDAR YEAR 1919.

DEC.

THE PROBLEM.

In the latter part of August, 1918, the problem of housing war workers in Washington was most acute. It was impossible to find suitable accommodations for them and there was a steady increase of about 1,000 a week. The only unused accommodations were vacant houses which either were held for rent to private families or were not for rent because the owners were out of town or were holding them for sale. It was therefore decided to commandeer the use of such houses, and a committee was chosen to determine. which houses should be commandeered. The committee was composed of Dr. James Ford, chairman, and manager of the Homes Registration and Information Division, Mr. William E. Shannon, manager of the Real Estate and Commandeering Division, and Mr. Allan Robinson, manager of the Operating Division.

THE WASHINGTON COMMITTEE ON EQUIPMENT OF HOUSES.

The first plan was to turn over the renting of the houses to the Washington committee on the equipment of houses, which at that time consisted of Dr. James Ford, chairman; Capt. J. I. Peyser, chief of the Housing and Health Division of the War Department; Mr. Edwin S. Hege, at that time secretary of the District Council of Defense; and Mr. Edwin B. Mayer, secretary. The duties of the Washington committee on the equipment of houses had been to loan money for the purchase of furniture to persons wishing to open boarding houses for war workers. This committee was therefore in touch with persons willing to operate or to lease lodging houses.

SELECTION OF HOUSES TO BE COMMANDEERED.

The secretary of the said committee, with field agents of the Homes Registration and Information Division, was sent out to find and inspect so far as possible the vacant houses which might be commandeered. They reported these to the committee on

requisitioned houses, and this committee and the committee on the equipment of houses then inspected those favorably reported. They decided in August to commandeer the use of 23 houses. These houses varied in size from about 10 to 23 rooms and were valued by their owners at from about $10,000 to $68,000 each. The use of these houses was commandeered August 28 and 29, 1918. From that time until the signing of the armistice other houses were commandeered, the total taken being 141. The later inspections were mostly made by or under the direction of Mr. Henry R. Brigham, assistant manager of the Homes Registration and Information Division. Several hundred houses were reported by citizens as being suitable for commandeering, but most of the houses so reported were found, upon inspection, to be occupied or to be in such poor condition as not to be worth taking. After the first proceedings, vacant properties were not so fully advertised, and it was often difficult to determine the question of occupancy. As the work progressed the chairman made the recommendations for requisitions and they were approved by the manager of the Real Estate and Commandeering Division and by the vice president of the corporation before the properties were taken.

REQUISITION PROCEEDINGS.

The actual commandeering proceedings were conducted by the Real Estate and Commandeering Division. The District Title Insurance Co. was engaged to furnish the legal descriptions of the properties and the names of the owners of record. It was not considered necessary to examine the titles to the properties. If the report of the insurance company did not show the property to be owned by some agency whose property was exempt by law from requisition, the Secretary of Labor was asked to order the requisition of its use. A notice of the requisition was then posted on the house by a duly appointed requisition officer in the presence of two witnesses, and at the same time a notice of the requisition was mailed to

the record owner. The requisition officer always inspected the house before posting the notice to see if it was vacant and made a return of his acts to the manager of the Real Estate and Commandeering Division.

The notice of requisition recited that the Secretary of Labor did by the presents "requisition and take possession of all right and interest in and to the use, occupancy, and enjoyment until otherwise ordered by the Secretary of Labor" of the premises. The requisition proceedings were passed upon by the counsel for the Real Estate and Commandeering Division.

APPRAISAL OF REQUISITIONED PROPERTIES.

As soon as the use of any property was commandeered notice was sent by the Real Estate and Commandeering Division to the appraisal committee, which was a volunteer committee appointed for the purpose of placing a rental value upon houses which would be just in view of the kind of use to which the houses would be put. This committee consisted of Messrs. Randall H. Hagner, John L. Weaver, Thomas Bones, William A. Walker, and Thomas Bradley, who are leading realtors and builders of Washington. The committee made prompt inspections of all the houses which were requisitioned and rendered written reports to the manager of the Real Estate and Commandeering Division, not only giving their opinion as to the "rental value" and "just compensation, requested, but giving a good description of the arrangement and condition of each house. In several cases they advised the release of houses, giving their reasons for their recommendations. The work of this committee has been of the greatest value to the bureau, and the owners of the properties commandeered have agreed to accept rent or compensation in accordance with the appraisals, except in four cases, which have not yet been settled, since the committee on requisitioned houses refused to recommend payment of more than the amounts recommended by the appraisal committee.

EFFECT OF COMMANDEERING.

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The requisitioning of the first houses was accompanied by some publicity, which resulted in hastening the opening of many more houses in the city by their owners or the renting or selling of them at presumably more reasonable rates. The manager of the Real Estate and Commandeering Division also personally induced many owners of large private houses to open them for the accommodation of war workers. They were appealed to on patriotic grounds and they responded so generously that only rarely was the threat or exercise of requisition proceedings necessary. One man who owns two houses in the District agreed to fill one with persons engaged on war work as his guests and to give the other for use as a hospital for soldiers suffering from gas poison. Another citizen

gave his house for the housing of foreign war commissioners.

Most of the owners of the first houses requisitioned were very much disturbed by the requisition proceedings and called promptly on the manager of the Real Estate and Commandeering Division demanding explanations. When he had pointed out to them the need for houses they were usually satisfied and willing to cooperate, either by agreeing to use their houses, if released, as the committee on requisitioned houses might request or to allow that committee to use them as it might see fit, at the rentals fixed by the appraisal committee.

OPERATION VERSUS RELEASE OF HOUSES.

On September 3, before any of the houses had been turned over to the Washington committee on the equipment of houses for operation, it was decided that the houses should be controlled directly by this bureau and that they should therefore be turned over to the Operating Division. The latter secured matrons for the houses from applications which had already been filed and classified with Mrs. Helmick, who was working for the Washington committee on the equipment of houses and who had charge of

matrons.

At a conference on September 7 it was further decided that "houses should be passed on by the chairman and the manager of the Real Estate and Commandeering Division to determine whether or not it would be possible to have the owners operate them without the Government having any financial responsibility therewith." Such houses would be released but would be inspected at regular periods by the Operating Division of the bureau, a proper letter or document, to be filed by the owner with the bureau before such release was granted, specifying the number of war workers to be housed on the premises. All other commandeered houses to be operated by the bureau would be handled by the Operating Division, the committee on requisitioned houses determining the rentals, the method of collection of same, and the furnishing of the house, subject in general to the approval of the directors. Each Government department was invited to appoint an official to communicate the housing requirements of his particular department to the committee.

The owners or lessees of houses which had been requisitioned were encouraged to apply for releases of their properties for housing war workers. At first the committee only required the lessee or owner to sign a letter agreeing to house a specified number of war workers, stating the maximum rent that would be charged. Later a more formal release agreement was drafted, which provided that the owner or lessee released the United States Housing Corporation, acting for the Secretary of Labor, from all damages on account of the requisition proceedings, and that

he agreed to use the property for housing war workers as specified in consideration of the house being released. A generally successful effort was made to get all persons who had signed the abovementioned informal releases to execute the new form of agreement. Sixty-four houses had been released in the above manner before the signing of the armistice. The same form of release agreement was also made in a few cases where the committee was obliged to release houses because found to be occupied, and in other cases where the houses were released for special purposes.

Two of the first houses taken were new houses which had been built to sell, and the appraisers advised that the damages for the use of such houses as lodging houses, in addition to the rental value, would be too great to warrant their use. Therefore, it was decided that we were not justified in using such houses and they were released, and thereafter care was exercised to avoid taking any new or newly renovated house. One house was released because it was found to contain many valuable paintings, the removal of which would cause a legal contest on account of a clause in a will regarding their disposition. Another house was released because the rent was appraised at $20,000 per year, and only about one-half of the house was suitable for lodging purposes and would not house enough persons to justify the large expense on account of rent. In all these cases, however, effort was made to have the houses sold or rented by their owners to executives who could afford to take them.

The release agreements were made subject to the approval of the president of the corporation, and when so approved the Secretary of Labor was asked to terminate the use of the property and fix the just compensation in accordance with the agreement. When the owners have refused or neglected to sign the release agreements, a public release has been posted on the premises and the owners have been given an opportunity to be heard regarding their claims for compensation. The committee on requisitioned houses then reported to the Secretary of Labor recommending the amount of compensation which it deemed just, and he officially determined the amount.

FURNISHED HOUSES.

A question was raised as to our right to take furnished houses. It was decided that the fact that there was furniture in the house did not prevent us from requisitioning the house, but that we could not use the furniture without the consent of the owners. Owners were, therefore, given opportunity to remove furniture when they desired, and if they did not, negotiations were entered into with them for its use. In no case was it necessary to remove the furniture because of failure to reach an agreement

regarding it, but in one case the furniture was removed and stored with the consent of the owner.

REPAIRS.

It was first decided that the Operating Division should determine what was to be done with the houses in the way of renovation and repairs. Practically every house that was taken and kept needed more or less repair or alteration. Houses intended' and suitable for private families were not suitable for use as lodging houses and needed additional heating, cooking, and bathing facilities. Other houses were vacant because they were in need of more or less extensive repairs. Logically these repairs should have been made before the houses were assigned, but the committee did not appreciate the time that they would take, due to shortage of labor, and the demand for houses was so urgent that the assignments for their use were often made as soon as they were requisitioned. This caused considerable confusion and annoyance. The persons to whom assignments were made became very impatient because of the delays in repairing and furnishing the houses.

The Construction Division attended to all the primary essential repairs, the orders at first being approved by the committee on requisitioned houses. but later Mr. Snow was given authority, upon the approval of Mr. Brigham, to make repairs estimated to cost not over $500 on any single house. It was first planned to charge repairs to our tenants, in addition to the amount of the appraised rental, extending the cost over a period of twelve months. This was done in two cases, and in a few cases the tenants, in view of the repairs, were charged slightly more rent than we were paying; but in most cases it was felt that the bureau would have to bear the cost of the repairs.

PRESSURE OF DEMAND FOR HOUSES.

The tremendous demand for houses was sufficient evidence to justify the commandeering proceedings, but the flow of applicants to the office at 613 G Street seriously handicapped the committee in getting the houses ready. It was quickly apparent that the committee should not receive the individual applications, and individuals were asked to apply to their Government departments, which in turn were asked to appoint representatives to receive such applications and present their relative needs to the committee on requisitioned houses. This plan, however, only slightly relieved the pressure on the committee, since so many cases were considered urgent that the departments referred the applicants back to the committee.

It became evident early that we could not expect. in all cases to receive as much rent for a house as we might be compelled to pay, and the following memorandum on the subject was approved by Mr. Leland and Mr. Eidlitz: