This month in RE history: Builders testify on $10-a-room rentals

Tenements
Tenements in New York City

From the October issue: Three years after the passage of the Emergency Rent Laws of 1920, and amid price gouging by landlords and rampant overcrowding, builders told the State Housing Commission that livable tenements could be built for around $10 a room per month, 92 years ago this month. The laws protected tenants from capricious rent increases and unfair eviction as of Sept. 27, 1920, but did not offer relief to tenants in newly constructed buildings. [more]

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter