A Study On New York State Tenement House Act Of 1901

The mid-late 19 th century, along with the development of the industrialization and urbanization, the New York City absorbed a lots of foreign immigrant, that led to serious housing crisis. Because of low incomes, the poor immigrant had to live to the tenement houses. The tenement house was so crowded, deterioration of living environment, and lack of effective manage. That led to diseases and crimes always appear in tenement houses. The end of the 19 th century and the early 20 th century, along with The Progressive Movement came out, some progressives focused on solve tenement house problem of New York City, they always tried legislate method, led to enacted a series of “Tenement Acts”, one of the most typical was The Tenement House Act of 1901. The act solves tenement house problem of New York in a certain extent, but the act had some shortcomings. Although the better instead of the act, it was a influential housing act in American history.The thesis is composed of three parts, including preface, main body and conclusion.The preface explains reason of theme, the present studies in addition to an outline of thesis, and researchful meanings of thesis.The main body consists of three chapters. The first chapter describes major details of The Tenement House Act of 1901, major standpoints of the act, and importance of New York Tenement House Department. The second chapter explores the tenement houses built, because New York City’s population growth was excessive, but tenement houses fill with all kinds of diseases and crimes, poor people couldn’t protect their health life, though they face threat of death. In order to solve the problem, New York City enacted a series of acts about tenement houses, The Dumbbell Tenements were built, but the acts’ effect wasn’t remarkable, so progressives led to The Act of 1901 enacted. The third chapter explores main features of The Act of 1901, emphasis its advantages and disadvantages, and compare with the London legislations. The Forth chapter describes impression of The Act of 1901 with other American states and cities, and promoted American public housing acts and policies arise.The conclusion summarizes the objective evaluation of The Act, take example by Chinese tenement house problem.