Horrific Living Causes Illnesses
March 1867, written by Jenna Sasse
Living Conditions are shockingly horrid, because of no issued health codes. Deadly Illnesses have been spread due to the conditions in which people are living in. Thousands of children are dying!
Because of the 300,000 plus people who need a place to live, conditions are getting worse. Houses are overpopulated, dirty, unsanitary. Homes without proper waste disposal methods cause diseases like Cholera,Typhoid, Small Pox, and even Tuberculosis, to spread rapidly. Waste often ended up in the streets, the streets where many small children would play in. Fruit and vegetables were even thrown on the street. Decayed fruit. Decayed Vegetables. Laying in the middle of the street. The very same street that children play on.
How would you like your child to be diagnosed with a deadly disease because of how they are living?!
The Tenement House Act of 1867
The Tenement House Act of 1867 required tenement houses to have one toilet, for every 20 people living in a house. This was one of the first laws passed to try to improve living conditions. Although it did require some sort of sewage disposal, it was a very weak law. There was very little effort put in to enforce the law, therefore it didn't have a big effect on the conditions.