Bunks in a seven-cent lodging house, Pell Street

BUNKS IN A SEVEN-CENT LODGING-HOUSE, PELL STREET.

This is an image of a lodging house in Pell Street. Lodging houses were rooms where a large number of people rented a bunk. The owner of this 7-cent house had three such buildings. He is said to have made $8000 a year worth of profit through the investments, which is about $202,000 in today’s money. This shows the difference in earnings between the two classes at this time, with the landlords earning ridiculous amounts of money whilst the tenants are earning pennies, if they are even earning at all.

Legal lodging houses varied in price, ranging from 25 cents for rooms with lockers, down to 7 cents for a large communal room with somewhere to sleep. There were however also many unlicensed houses with far worse conditions than shown in this image. The unlicensed landlords charged 5 cents for a spot to sleep on the floor and 3 cents for a space to squat in in the hallway.

Because homelessness was such a huge problem in New York City at this time the poor immigrants were exploited massively by the landlords. This disregard for the poor led to terrible conditions for the homeless, with no toilets or any way to clean themselves properly. Riis writes about how bad the smell 7 cent house he visited was and comments that the beds were stained yellow, showing just how filthy the living conditions were.

This Image portrays the wealthy landlords total disregard to the basic human needs of the immigrants. They lived in squalor and because they couldn't earn enough money, were basically trapped in poverty.

Sources:

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/45502/45502-h/45502-h.htm

http://www.in2013dollars.com/1890-dollars-in-2016?amount=8000