The families of the working class live in slums. They suffer from poor health, high rates of illness that prevent children from attending school and that have a negative impact on their job prospects.
Despite the efforts of many reformers, housing conditions for the poor continued to worsen. The tenements were overcrowded and unsanitary, lacking in space, light, and sanitation.
The rapid industrialization brought harsh living conditions
As factories grew and industrialization took hold, the demand for labor increased. Many people moved from rural areas into cities in search of work. They often lived in crowded slums where they worked hard for the meager wages that they received. The urban poor often did not have access to the necessities of life such as clean water, healthy food, proper sanitation, education, and medicine.
The crowded living conditions in slums were made worse by the fact that many workers had children. Some children worked alongside their parents as garment workers and newsies (newspaper boys). The wages paid to these laborers were very low; for example, unskilled laborers could expect to earn only ten cents per hour. This was a substantial amount for the time, but it did not even bring them above the poverty line.
These factors were exacerbated by the fact that local government did not always have the resources to deal with urban poverty. Most cities established laws modeled after Great Britain’s “poor laws,” which provided financial assistance for those who could not support themselves.
In addition, factory owners used the logic that children were cheaper than adult laborers to justify paying them extremely low wages. Small enough to fit easily among the machines and less likely to organize or strike, children were ideal workers for factory owners.
As a result of these issues, many working class families fell into a cycle of poverty in which they never lifted themselves out of it. Many worked sixty hours a week but still were not able to make ends meet. Eventually, their health and well-being suffered, and they could not continue to work in such harsh conditions.
Thankfully, the Urban Reform Movement began in the 19th century, and it focused on improving the living and working conditions of urban poor. It was a direct response to the growth of the urban poor, which emerged as a result of the need for cheap labor. As the number of urban poor grew, city leaders worked to provide resources to combat overcrowded and unsanitary living and working conditions. The work of social reformers and photographers like Jacob Riis, Veiller, and Elliot spurred meaningful change for the urban poor.
The rise of slums
The rapid industrialization and economic growth of the 19th century resulted in an increase in urban poverty as people were pushed into cities without adequate housing or services. As a result, slums (also called shanty towns or informal settlements) emerged. People lived in crowded, poorly built homes with poor access to clean water and sanitation facilities. These conditions were ideal breeding grounds for water-borne diseases such as diarrhea and cholera. Families were also at high risk of respiratory illnesses because there was often not enough ventilation in their homes. Moreover, slums were usually located in undesirable areas near rivers, sewage dumps, trash heaps, railroad tracks, or in mountainous terrain where houses were prone to floods or landslides.
Many slum dwellers were illiterate and unemployed, so they relied on oral histories and informal family networks for information. In addition, they were frequently the victims of violent attacks by criminal gangs and corrupt policemen. They also lacked access to medical care and were frequently infected with parasites and other infectious agents. In fact, infant mortality rates in slums sometimes exceeded that of the city centers of wealthy countries.
A large number of slum dwellers lived on land that was either state owned, leased by a philanthropic trust, or possessed by a religious entity. As a result, they did not have clear property rights. Consequently, they were at constant risk of being evicted. Consequently, they tended to move from one place to another when their situation worsened.
Fortunately, the world’s focus on slums has shifted away from the grand infrastructure projects of the past toward improving slums incrementally. Today, efforts to improve slums are focusing on giving slum residents security of tenure and ensuring that they do not live in danger zones such as flood lines or slopes and are set back from railroad tracks and river banks.
In addition, efforts are underway to empower slum dwellers with the ability to make their own decisions about the development of their communities. They are being encouraged to organize tenant unions, engage in community-wide commercial boycotts against landlords who discriminated against Black and Latino families, and take on local governments that fail to enforce building codes and health & safety laws.
The labor reform movement
The economic transformation brought by industrialization left working class families struggling to maintain their living standards. Many lost their previous jobs and were trapped in low-wage, erratic employment. Others struggled to meet the rising cost of food, housing, and education. The poorest lived in overcrowded slums with inadequate water and sanitation systems, unpaved streets, and ill-equipped city services. They were also vulnerable to epidemic diseases and were unable to afford the medical care available only in the city.
To address these problems, the reform movement focused on protecting workers' common interests. They called for limits on the length of the work day, a reasonable minimum wage, the elimination of child labor, and worker pensions and survivor benefits. They advocated the right to unionize and fought for sanitary working conditions in factories.
This movement grew out of the Catholic Social Teaching tradition, beginning with Pope Leo XIII's 1891 encyclical Rerum novarum, or "On the Condition of the Working Classes." It emphasized that the worker must not only work hard and earn a decent living but must have the right to organize and defend his or her rights against employers who seek to violate them.
While these reforms might seem at odds with trade unionism, contemporaries saw no contradiction between the two movements. Trade unions tended to the workers' immediate needs, while the reform movement addressed their higher hopes.
In the 1920s, when private enterprise failed to address the needs of poor families in urban America, reformers turned to government programs to construct subsidized housing for them. Chicago reformers were among the leaders in this effort, producing four developments containing over four thousand units of rowhouses and low-rise apartment buildings: the Jane Addams Homes, Julia C. Lathrop Homes, Trumbull Park Homes, and Ida B. Wells Homes.
But even during this prosperous era, the slum problem remained widespread. Throughout the nation, millions of workers inhabited slums that lacked municipal services and provided little opportunity for moving out of poverty. Working class families lacked education, and their wages were too low to provide enough income for adequate housing and food. They were also vulnerable to epidemic diseases and often worked long hours under unsafe and unhealthy conditions.
The end of the slums
In modern times, the focus of slum improvement has moved from grand infrastructure projects to improving the conditions of residents incrementally. One important step in that process has been providing land and security of tenure to slum dwellers. This can help them invest in improvements whose loss they don't fear and that they might someday capture through sales. It can also provide them with water piped directly into their homes and sewer services, a significant improvement in living standards.
Another step has been bringing together the various institutions that govern urbanisation and slums. This includes the local government, which has a role in planning for the growth of cities and identifying land where people will settle, even if there isn't yet money available for urban services. It also has a role in supporting community-based slum upgrading programmes that can be implemented by local communities and residents themselves.
Getting involved in politics can be another way to improve the lives of citizens. This can include lobbying for changes to laws that discriminate against people, such as laws that penalise poor people by withholding public services, or laws that allow slum landlords to impose a "color tax" on rents paid by blacks and other minorities. This can also mean campaigning for a government that will address corruption, which has long plagued many societies and contributed to the spread of poverty.
In addition to these political initiatives, individuals can join a variety of movements that promote economic justice. For example, they can join the labor movement and support workers who are fighting to have their contributions to society recognised in ways other than through factory jobs with extremely low wages. They can also become involved with social justice groups that campaign for voting rights and other measures to help people achieve more control over their own lives.
The main reason that slums develop is that population growth is outpacing the ability of cities to respond. But it's not just the speed of population growth that causes slums, it's also how governments deal with it. Some governments take a hostile approach to urbanisation, believing that if they provide city services to poor families, it will lead to the creation of new slums. This kind of slum-prevention strategy is rarely successful.
No comments:
Post a Comment