Leased at $400 678.85 Rented to United States Apr. 21 2,400.00 from Oct.3 to Nov. 23, at 1,239. 32 Upper floors leased to R.C. July 1 4, 176. 84 Operated as a rooming May 31 1,890.89 17 1,720.00 Operated as a rooming May 5 1,116. 09 house for woman war workers from Nov. 16 to Apr. 28 with Mrs. W.W. Routh as matron. Leased to Miss Margaret Apr. 1 455,00 Leased at $100 2,386.57 Operated as a rooming Mar. 1 Rented at $583.33 5,322. 94 house for women war 1,823.92 Operated as a rooming 220.32 2 With garage. Owner has accepted Mrs. Burkhardt as tenant. There is a question of damages pending. Owner accepted our tenant. Retained.1 279.85 11 185.00 Leased at $175 Leased to Mrs. Blossom R. June 1 Cook, wife of Col. R. L. Cook, U. S. Army, from Oct. 15, at $350 per month, for housing women war workers. Operated as a rooming July 1 workers with Mrs. Min- 185.22 Operated as a rooming May 1 house for women war 667.47 Operated as a rooming • Furnished. Owner has leased house to Miss Clara Morrow, who has continued to house the women in the house. Retained.1 235 Arthur Place.. Per mo. 27 B St.. None. 29-31 B St. None. 33 B St.. 40 C St. and 238 New Jersey Ave. None. 44 C St. 46 C St. 48 C St. 50 C St. 210 New Jersey Ave.. 212 New Jersey Ave.. 214 New Jersey Ave.... Leased to Howard E. Wackerman, Statistical Bureau, Department of Labor, at $25 per month Occupied by Miss Ida Marshall, who had lived there 30 years and who paid $5 per month for rent. Occupied by Mrs. Barber, who paid $5 per month for rent. The Saulsbury resolution prevented 50.00 Leased by the United States Housing Corporation to Mrs. M. H. King, at $35 per month, from Leased by the United States Housing Corporation to Mrs. B. M. Morrison, at $40 per month, from 60.00 Occupied by Mrs. S. E. Pinkerton, who paid $5 per month for rent, but who agreed to pay in- 2,052. 10 APPENDIX XVII. WASHINGTON DIVISION, HOMES REGISTRATION SERVICE. History-Placements-Other service to war workers-The housing shortage-Loans to boarding-house keepers-Management of commandeered houses-Management of houses transferred from Interior Department and the Superintendent of Public Buildings and Grounds. HISTORY. In the fall of 1917 the Washington Chamber of Commerce, perceiving the rapidity with which the war workers were coming to this city, endeavored to compile a list of vacant bedrooms for the purpose of furnishing them with the addresses of suitable living quarters. Publicity was given to this activity by letters to various chambers of commerce throughout the United States. The applications for rooms grew in volume daily and the Federal Government then became interested in the matter. A room registration office, functioning under the District council of defense, was therefore established at 1321 New York Avenue in the latter part of January, 1918. This office became a part of the government of the District of Columbia on August 21, 1918. September 17, 1918, the room registration office was taken over by the Bureau of Industrial Housing and its activities were coordinated with those of the Washington committee on equipment of houses and the committee on requisitioned houses. Incoming war workers might be compared to an assortment of pegs of various shapes and sizes, and it has been the desire and aim of the room registration office to fit those pegs in properly as regards living accommodations. This has not always been an easy problem. The young girl from a small town, who has never before been away from home restraint, nor living in a large city, has been the cause of our greatest difficulty and anxiety. It has been the constant aim of this office to hold down room and board prices to reasonable levels. Some persons have offered rooms at exorbitant prices, and it was politely suggested to them that their prices were too high. Many of the persons receiving such suggestions modified their prices, but in a number of instances they replied that "if we did not want the room we need not take it," and generally it was not taken. THE HOUSING SHORTAGE. Fortunately the supply of rooms at the registration office has never been totally exhausted. Sometimes the supply would get quite low, but prompt steps would then be taken to increase it through a canvass or appeals through the churches, and much has been done. in the way of publicity by distributing thousands of posters and handbills and by news items in the local press, the columns of the latter having been cheerfully tendered. Numerous restrictions were made by householders as to the types of roomers they would receive into their homes. This tended to limit the number of vacant accommodations suitable for any given applicant. Some did not want young women who would raid the family refrigerator, use the family bathtub for laundry purposes, put worn-out garments in toilets, set hot irons on varnished surfaces, monopolize the parlor to the exclusion of the family, return late at night with soldiers and sailors and turkey trot around the parlor to graphophone music, etc., and others would not receive young men who smoked cigarettes, or pipes, or cigars, or who chewed tobacco. Some restricted use of their rooms to Hebrew girls, or men from New York or Catholic girls from Louisiana. The supply of rooms for men was always larger than that for women. Few light housekeeping rooms or apartments were available at any time despite active solicitation for them. |