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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2012 with funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/homelessmanonskiOOchic 
 
The Homeless Man 
 on Skid Row 
 
 This report is based on research conducted by the National Opinion Research 
 Center in cooperation with the Chicago Community Inventory, both of the 
 University of Chicago. A grant of funds from the Wieboldt Foundation, 
 Chicago, made it possible to meet the requirement of the Housing and 
 Home Finance Agency that one-third of the costs of any demonstration 
 project be paid by the local community which sponsors it. 
 
The project and the publication of this report 
 were made possible through a Demonstration 
 Grant, administered by the Urban Renewal 
 Administration, Housing and Home Finance 
 Agency, under provisions of Section 314 of 
 the Housing Act of 1954, in cooperation with 
 the City of Chicago. 
 

 omeless Man on Skid Row 
 
 Prepared by the 
 
 TENANTS RELOCATION BUREAU 
 
 City of Chicago 
 
 320 N. Clark St., Chicago 10, Illinois 
 
 September, 1961 
 
01 
 
 30 1. t 73 
 
 
 Preface 
 
 
 A trend toward Central Area Redevelopment has 
 brought increasing attention to the problems of -kid 
 row. Most frequently, skid row is located near the 
 Central Business District. The term denotes a neigh- 
 borhood where there is a concentration of cheap hotels 
 and rooming houses, numerous taverns, employment 
 agencies, missions and cheap restaurants. Above all, 
 skid row is a community of homeless men, most of 
 whom are exceedingly poor and many of whom have 
 acute personal problems. 
 
 The size of the skid row population is relatively 
 small. However, because of its location near the Loop, 
 its concentration in one small area, and its particular 
 social and economic problems, it is highly visible. It 
 cannot be ignored. Furthermore, the problem is wide- 
 spread as well as obvious. The available data indicate 
 that almost all of the 100 largest cities contain an 
 identifiable skid row of at least 500 men. 
 
 Few subjects are as challenging to those charged 
 with the renewal and redevelopment of our urban cen- 
 ters as the establishment of programs related to skid 
 row. The conditions to be remedied are more acute, 
 more complex, and beset with more problem situations 
 than in most other neighborhoods. Because a high 
 proportion of the residents are problem citizens they 
 may be expected to react differently to urban renewal 
 processes from "normal" citizens living in private 
 households. Many of the positive factors necessary to 
 accomplish organized community living are lacking. 
 Under these conditions, traditional redevelopment pro- 
 cedures will be completely ineffective here and may 
 accomplish little more than moving the residents of 
 skid row to another area in the city, or scattering them 
 among several neighborhoods that are loath to receive 
 them. 
 
 A number of the larger cities, notably New York, 
 Philadelphia, Detroit, Minneapolis, Kansas City, Los 
 Angeles, and Sacramento, have within the past decade 
 instituted redevelopment programs which have im- 
 pinged upon skid row areas. Special programs, in 
 varying degrees, took into consideration the unique 
 problems which result from such redevelopment 
 programs. 
 
 The limited experience gained from cities attempting 
 to implement skid row programs frequently revealed 
 that proposed solutions — put into practice — posed 
 even greater problems. This experience also pointed 
 out the need for current and more precise data on the 
 nature of the area. Much of this study draws upon 
 the experience of these cities as it relates to the un- 
 answered questions. 
 
 Despite the numerous problems and the previous 
 unsuccessful experiences, the most significant finding 
 of this study is that the elimination of skid rou is 
 feasible as well as desirable. Not only can skid row, 
 as a housing area, be abolished but the problems of 
 the individuals can be treated so that a majority of 
 them will not need skid row economically or socially. 
 If the rehabilitation and housing recommendations of 
 this report, formed from the findings on the nature of 
 the homeless men in the area, are carried out effectively 
 no new skid row will develop. Furthermore, if these 
 programs reach the potential skid row resident, there 
 will be no need for skid rows in the future. 
 
 The material gathered from Chicago's skid rows has 
 wide applicability. A comparison of population and 
 housing statistics of 45 cities based on the 1950 census, 
 reveals that although Chicago's skid row is larger than 
 the average skid row, it is essentially a typical skid 
 row. 
 
 The study was guided by two major factors. 
 
 First: Chicago's skid rows have been the object of 
 long, intensive and scholarly research. Classic and 
 definitive work has been done by the University of 
 Chicago and its ancillary bodies, and various people 
 in the fields of health and welfare. 
 
 Second: The City of Chicago does not have a for- 
 mal program for the redevelopment of its skid rows. 
 It does have, in the form of its twenty-year Central 
 Area Plan, a projected action program which includes 
 these areas. This plan is detailed in: Department of 
 City Planning, Development Plan for the Central Area 
 of Chicago, August. 1958. 
 
 The latter factor is of great importance. Chicago 
 can engage in a comprehensive and long-range strate- 
 gic approach to skid row rather than a more limited, 
 tactical approach in the face of overriding practical 
 pressures. 
 
 Possessed of facilities for research and a skid row 
 complex which had been intensively studied, the City 
 of Chicago embarked on its large-scale investigation in 
 the Autumn of 1956. 
 
 In September 1956, a contract was entered between 
 the City of Chicago and the Demonstration Branch of 
 the Urban Renewal Administration. Housing and Home 
 Finance Agency. This study was undertaken as a proj- 
 ect under Section 314 of the Housing Act of 1954, 
 supervised by the office of the Housing and Redevelop- 
 ment Coordinator on behalf of the City of Chicago. 
 I nder the terms of the contract, two-thirds of the cost 
 of the project was paid by the Federal Government, 
 and the remaining third by the local community. 
 
\ grant of funds from the Wieboldt Foundation, in 
 Chicago, made il possible to meet the contractual re- 
 quirement b) the local community, and the generosit) 
 of the Foundation i- hereb) gratefully acknowledged. 
 
 The project itself was formulated by a General Ad- 
 visor) Committee made up of representatives from 
 the public and private agencies concerned with skid 
 
 The cooperation and participation of the members 
 of the Advisory Committee formed a continuing basis 
 for resources and review which gave the study both 
 form and substance. The project is greatly indebted 
 to this group. 
 
 The research phase of the study was carried out by 
 the National Opinion Research Center in cooperation 
 with the Chicago Community Inventory, both of the 
 University of Chicago, under contract with the City of 
 Chicago. 
 
 Professor Donald J. Bogue. the senior study direc- 
 tor, was particularly qualified to direct this project. 
 With a Ph.D. in Sociology, University of Michigan, he 
 is now on the staff of both the Department of Sociology. 
 University of Chicago and National Opinion Research 
 Center. He has been a consultant to the Bureau of the 
 Census and has published numerous articles on demog- 
 raphy, urbanism, and ecology. Under his direction, 
 the research design and methodology were formulated 
 and the operations undertaken. Through the work of 
 Professor Bogue and his staff I Jane Schusky, Assistant 
 Study Director, and Selma Monsky. Director. Field 
 Department — all of the National Opinion Research 
 Center), the largest single body of information on skid 
 row was assembled. To these people, the project rec- 
 ognizc- a drlit difficult to measure. 
 
 The project directors. Professor Philip M. Hauser. 
 Director <>f the Chicago Community Inventory, and 
 Clyde \\ . Hail. Director of the National Opinion Re- 
 search Center at that time, contributed greatly to the 
 success of the study. The project expresses its appre- 
 ciation for their contributions. 
 
 This report is a synthesis ol the work of man) 
 people, some for whom no acknowledgment is possible. 
 The project staff, Fee Pravatiner, Jack Meltzer, Char- 
 lotte Frank, Robert Vdams and Gerald Newman, as- 
 umed responsibilitj for the synthesis and the final 
 anah sis. 
 
 I In final product describes the nature of the home- 
 less man. the characteristics of his community, the 
 problems which confront him. and above nil. points 
 out some basic and effective approaches for remedial 
 action. 
 
 During the preparation of this report, more than 400 
 inquiries were received and serviced by the various 
 participants in the stud\. 
 
 The early phases of the study were compiled into a 
 document entitled. "'The Homeless Man on Skid Row." 
 This report was circulated to the study participants in 
 almost 50 cities throughout the I nited States and 
 Canada, and to many others who requested this 
 document. 
 
 The findings of this report were incorporated, with 
 acknowledgment, into the redevelopment programs of 
 such cities as Philadelphia. Detroit, and Minneapolis, 
 and were utilized by other agencies serving the areas 
 of homeless men. 
 
 The University of Chicago and National Opinion 
 Research Center continue their interest in skid row. 
 The latter group is completing a second volume on 
 the area. "The Homeless Man on Skid Row: Volume 
 II. Continuation Studies," dealing with the psychologi- 
 cal and social forces which play a part in bringing a 
 man to skid row. 
 
 Several national groups such as the Joint Committee 
 of the National Association of Housing and Redevelop- 
 ment Officials and the National Welfare Assembly, and 
 the National Council for Alcoholism have expressed 
 increasing interest in the problems of skid row since 
 the inception of this study. 
 
 The achievements in the field and the increased 
 activity of public and private groups do not eradicate 
 the continuing need to stud) and evaluate skid row. 
 These are just beginnings as is this report. 
 
 \- the report describes the nature 1 of the homeless 
 man and his environment more precisely than an) 
 previous study, it is hoped that it will be a basis for .1 
 widespread action program to abolish one of the most 
 obvious and pressing problems of the- cit\ today. The 
 report shows that such a program i- not onl) desirable 
 
 but that it can be successful. 
 
 I). E. Mackrlninnn 
 
Acknowledgments 
 
 The project acknowledges its deep debt to the members of the Advisory Committee who formulated, par- 
 ticipated in, and reviewed the project and report. 
 
 I. GENERAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE 
 
 D. E. Mackelmann Commissioner, Community Conservation Board of Chicago. Chairman 
 
 Robert MacRae Executive Director, Welfare Council of Metropolitan Chicago, Co-Chairman 
 
 Public Agency Representatives 
 
 Chicago Board of Health Dr. Herman N. Bundesen I deceased ) 
 
 Chicago Department of Buildings George L. Ramsey 
 
 Chicago Fire Department Edward A. Maloney 
 
 Chicago Housing Authority Alvin E. Rose 
 
 Chicago Land Clearance Commission Phil A. Doyle 
 
 Chicago Police Department Timothy J. O'Connor 
 
 Committee on Rehabilitation G. Murray Campbell 
 
 Cook County Department of Public Aid Raymond Hilliard 
 
 Cook County Hospital, Social Service Department Josephine Taylor 
 
 Cook County Sheriff's Office Joseph Lohman 
 
 Department of City Planning Ira J. Bach 
 
 Illinois State Employment Service Walter E. Parker 
 
 Special Assistant to the Mayor Fred Hoehler 
 
 Municipal Alcoholic Treatment Center , Arthur J. Ward 
 
 Municipal Court of Chicago Raymond Drymalski 
 
 Oak Forest Infirmary Carl K. Schmidt, Jr. 
 
 Psychiatric Institute of the Municipal Court of Chicago Dr. Edward J. Kelleher 
 
 Private Agency Representatives 
 
 Alcoholics Anonymous 
 
 American Society of Planning Officials Dennis O'Harrow 
 
 Cathedral Shelters Rev. Joseph F. Higgins 
 
 Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago The Rt. Rev. Msgr. Vincent W. Cooke 
 
 Chicago Association of Commerce and Industry Thomas H. Coulter 
 
 Chicago Christian Industrial League Rev. William Seath 
 
 Civic Federation Harland C. Stock well 
 
 Metropolitan Housing and Planning Council Dorothy Hubel 
 
 Pacific Garden Mission Harry Saulnier 
 
 Salvation Army Brig. Charles Overstake 
 
 Travelers Aid Society Ralph W. Collins 
 
 West Central Association Paul Jenkins ( deceased I 
 
 Wieboldt Foundation Herbert Sieck 
 
 iii 
 
II. TECHNICAL SUBCOMMITTEE ON HOUSING 
 
 Chairman: I). E. Mackelmann, Community Conservation Board of Chicago and Tenants Relocation Bureau 
 
 Dr. S. L. Andelman Commissioner of Health, Board of Health 
 
 Ira J. Bach Commissioner, Department of City Planning 
 
 Dr. Herman l\. Bundesen President, Board of Health 
 
 George Dovenmuehle Chicago Association of Commerce and Industry 
 
 Phil A. Doyle Executive Director, Chicago Land Clearance Commission 
 
 H. Hayward Hirsch Chicago Association of Commerce and Industry- 
 Paul Jenkins Executive Director, West Central Association 
 
 Edward A. Maloney Deputy Commissioner, Chicago Fire Department 
 
 Dennis O'Harrow Executive Director, American Society of Planning Officials 
 
 George L. Ramsey Commissioner, Department of Buildings 
 
 AKin E. Rose Chicago Housing Authority 
 
 Dorothy Ruhcl Metropolitan Housing and Planning Council 
 
 Lea D. Taylor Metropolitan Housing and Planning Council 
 
 Louis Wexler Assistant Corporation Counsel 
 
 D. C. Whitwood Chicago Hotel Association 
 
 III. TECHNICAL SUBCOMMITTEE ON WELFARE 
 
 Chairman: Robert MacRae Welfare Council of Metropolitan Chicago 
 
 Dr. S. L. Andelman Commissioner of Health. Board of Health 
 
 Alcoholics Anonymous 
 
 Major C. C. Briggs Salvation Army, Men's Social Service Center 
 
 G. Murray Campbell Chairman, Mayor's Committee on the Rehabilitation of Man 
 
 Ted Cobb Chicago Urban League 
 
 Ralph W. Collins Executive Director, Travelers Aid Society 
 
 George Cooper Monroe Street Reading Room 
 
 Judge Hyman Feldman Municipal Court of Chicago 
 
 William Gellman Executive Director. Jewish Vocation Service and Employ- 
 ment Center 
 
 Rev. Joseph F. Higgins Cathedral Shelter 
 
 Raymond Hilliard Cook County Department of Public Aid 
 
 Fred K. Hoehler Special Assistant to the Mayor 
 
 Jesse A. Jacobs Chicago Association of Commerce and Industry 
 
 Dr. Edward J. Kelleher Psychiatric Institute of the Municipal Court of Chicago 
 
 Arnold J. Kuhn Portal House 
 
 Joseph I). Lohman Sheriff, Cook'County 
 
 Rev. Ignatius McDermott Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago 
 
 Cap't Thomas McGuire Monroe Street Police Station 
 
 Timothy O'Connor Commissioner. Chicago Police Department 
 
 Brig. Charles Overstake Salvation Army 
 
 Walter E. Parker Director. Illinois State Employment Service 
 
 Major Roland Quinn Salvation Army, Harbor Light 
 
 Harry Saulnier Superintendent. Pacific Garden Mission 
 
 Carl K. Schmidt. Jr Oak Forest Infirmary 
 
 Rev. William Seath Chicago Christian Industrial League 
 
 Herbert Sieck Wieboldt Foundation 
 
 Harland C. Stockwell Civic Federation 
 
 Josephine Taylor (look County Hospital. Social Service Department 
 
 Barbara Wallace Welfare Council of Metropolitan Chicago 
 
 Arthur J. Ward Municipal Alcoholic Treatment Center 
 
 D. C. Whitwood Chicago Hotel Association 
 
 iv 
 
List of Maps 
 
 Appendix I 
 
 Map Page 
 
 1. Chicago's Skid Rows Related to Central Business District 73 
 
 2. Chicago's Skid Rows, Location Within the City 74 
 
 3. Dispersal of Improved and Unimproved Land with Low Use 
 Intensity: West Madison Street Complex 75 
 
 4. Dispersal of Improved and Unimproved Land with Low Use 
 Intensity: South State Street Complex 76 
 
 5. Dispersal of Improved and Unimproved Land with Low Use 
 Intensity: North Clark Street Complex 77 
 
 6. Commercial Concentration: West Madison Street Complex 78 
 
 7. Commercial Concentration: South State Street Complex 79 
 
 8. Commercial Concentration: North Clark Street Complex 80 
 
 9. Industrial Land Coverage: West Madison Street Complex <". 1 
 
 10. Industrial Land Coverage: South State Street Complex 82 
 
 11. Industrial Land Coverage: North Clark Street Complex 83 
 
 12. Land Coverage Devoted to Streets and Alleys: West Madison 
 
 Street Complex 84 
 
 13. Land Coverage Devoted to Streets and Alleys: South State Street 
 Complex 85 
 
 14. Land Coverage Devoted to Streets and Alleys: North Clark Street 
 Complex <>(> 
 
 15. Profile of Hotel Capacity by Block and Type: West Madison 
 
 Street Complex 87 
 
 16. Profile of Hotel Capacity b) Block and Type: South State Street 
 Complex I!!! 
 
 17. Profile of Hotel Capacity b) Block and Type: North Clark Street 
 Complex 89 
 
 18. Special Related Uses: West Madison Street Complex 90 
 
 19. Special Related Uses: South State Streel Complex 'M 
 
 20. Special Related Uses: North Clark Street Complex ( J2 
 
List of Tables 
 
 Appendix II 
 
 Table Page 
 
 I. Existing Land Use by Area, 1958 94 
 
 II. Present Use of Structure by Area, 1958 94 
 
 III. Hotels — Age of Structure, 1958 95 
 
 IV. Selected Characteristics of Living Accommodations by Area, 
 1958 95 
 
 a. Distribution of Men by Type of Residence 
 
 b. Type of Available Sleeping Space 
 
 c. Vacancy rate 
 
 V. Number of Deficiencies (Building and Fire) in Skid Row 
 
 Hotels, 1955-57 96 
 
 VI. Types of Building Deficiencies in Skid Row Hotels, 1956-57. . 96 
 
 VII. Number of Building Deficiencies in Skid Row Hotels, 1956-57 97 
 
 VIII. Type of Fire Protection Deficiencies in Skid Row Hotels, 1955 97 
 IX. Number of Fire Prevention Deficiencies in Skid Row Hotels, 
 
 1955 98 
 
 X. Characteristics of the Residents by Area, 1958 
 
 a. Total population 99 
 
 b. Age distribution 99 
 
 c. Employment status 99 
 
 d. Reason not working 99 
 
 e. Receipt of pension or public aid 99 
 
 f. Income 99 
 
 g. Hours worked last week 100 
 
 h. Wage per week 100 
 
 i. Occupation 100 
 
 j. Length of residence on skid row since last coming to 
 
 Chicago 100 
 
 k. Number of weeks spent in Chicago during the preceding 
 
 year 101 
 
 1. Marital status 101 
 
 m. Drinking 101 
 
 n. Education 101 
 
 XL Employment Status of Men by Drinking-Disability-Age 
 
 Classification 102 
 
 XII. Drinking-disability-age classification 103 
 
 XIII. Attitudes Toward Skid Row by Area and Residence 103 
 
 a. Attitude toward living on skid row 
 
 b. Attitude toward hotel 
 
 c. Attitude toward each other 
 
 VI 
 
Contents 
 
 Page 
 
 Preface i 
 
 Acknowledgments iii 
 
 List of Maps ( Appendix I ) v 
 
 List of Tables ( Appendix II ) vi 
 
 Chapter 
 
 1. The Approach 1 
 
 2. Historical Background 3 
 
 General 
 Chicago 
 
 3. Functions of Skid Row and The Type of Men Who Live There. . 7 
 
 4. Geography of Skid Row 10 
 
 Land Use and Structure Analysis 
 
 Skid Row Related Uses 
 
 Living Accommodations and Conditions 
 
 5. Characteristics of The Residents of Chicago's Skid Rows 15 
 
 Age 
 
 Receipt of Pension or Public Aid 
 
 Racial Composition 
 
 Income Status 
 
 Educational Attainment 
 
 Occupational Status 
 
 Marital Status 
 
 Length of Residence 
 
 Extent of Drinking 
 
 A Social Differentiation of the Skid Row Areas 
 
 6. Problem Drinking and Alcoholic Dereliction 18 
 
 7. The Handicapped and 111 21 
 
 8. The Workingman on Skid Row 28 
 
 9. The Old Man and Pensioner 33 
 
 10. Migration and Mobility 38 
 
 11. Death on Skid Row 40 
 
 12. Selected Attitudes of Skid Row Residents Toward Employment, 
 
 Housing and Each Other 42 
 
 13. Chicago's Present Activity 48 
 
 14. Summary of Problem 53 
 
 Health and Welfare 
 Housing 
 
 15. The Program 58 
 
 a) Housing 
 
 b) Health and Welfare 
 
 Appendix 
 
 I. Selected Maps: Skid Row 71 
 
 II. Selected Tables: Skid Row 93 
 
 III. A Selected Bibliography 104 
 
Chapter 
 
 1 
 
 The Approach 
 
 The impetus for this study was a basic concern with 
 the feasibility of skid row clearance and the redevelop- 
 ment opportunity provided by the choice skid row 
 locations. The areas now contain some of the most 
 deteriorated dwellings in the city and house the lowest 
 social and economic stratum of the population. Living 
 conditions are among the worst to be found in the 
 nation. Infectious diseases, crime and delinquency, 
 mental disorders, alcoholism, and other evidences of 
 personal and social disorganization are more prevalent 
 here than elsewhere. A high proportion of the popula- 
 tion consists of elderly men in dire need of housing 
 assistance. 
 
 The application for the Demonstration Grant under 
 Section 314 of the Housing Act of 1954, defines the 
 problem and poses the goal for the area — the ultimate 
 elimination of skid row. 
 
 Because this type of area does present so many 
 difficulties, because so little is known about the 
 population involved, and because the problems 
 involve health, welfare, police, and other matters, 
 as well as housing, it is evident that the urban 
 renewal programs for these areas (a) must be 
 preceded by comprehensive research, (b) must 
 enlist the active cooperation of several interested 
 municipal agencies, and (c) must be a part of a 
 program that is well-organized and carefully de- 
 signed to take both remedial and preventive action 
 against the adverse conditions that exist. . . . By 
 mapping out a course of action that enlists the 
 collective effort of health, welfare, philanthropic, 
 police, judicial, and employment facilities, the 
 urban renewal program offers an unparalleled 
 opportunity to make positive progress toward the 
 elimination of this worst section of our society . . . 
 The first element, the systematic, comprehensive, and 
 well-designed research, conducted through the Univer- 
 sity of Chicago's National Opinion Research Center 
 and the Chicago Community Inventory, forms the body 
 of this report. Investigations documented the physical 
 condition of the area. Through a carefully chosen ran- 
 dom sample, representative of the whole skid row com- 
 munity, 614 interviews were conducted by trained 
 
 interviewers with residents of the area. Inquiries were 
 made into the economic situation of the men, their 
 health conditions, pension status, work life, drinking 
 habits and general attitudes. The present welfare activ- 
 ities on skid row were reviewed and evaluated as well. 
 
 The cooperation of other agencies was enlisted 
 through the formation of the General Advisory Com- 
 mittee, established to supervise the study. The com- 
 position of the Committee reflected the need to integrate 
 a health and welfare approach with housing. The 
 Committee was structured to deal with the subject from 
 the vantage point of planning and welfare. Two sub- 
 committees were created: 
 
 a I Redevelopment, to provide adequate living ac- 
 commodations for both families and non-family per- 
 sons now in the skid row areas. 
 
 b ) Prevention, to devise if at all possible, a program 
 which would prevent the recurrence of skid row areas 
 in other parts of the city. 
 
 It is with the formulation of a program of remedial 
 and preventive action that the study concludes. The 
 final chapter relates the social, health, welfare, and 
 economic problems of the area to their solutions within 
 a framework which includes the simultaneous upgrad- 
 ing of living conditions for these homeless men. It is 
 in the combined housing-welfare approach that the 
 final answer of rehabilitation and prevention lies. 
 Decent, safe, and sanitary housing alone will not solve 
 some of the more basic and primarily welfare oriented 
 problems of the area. Nor can a skid row program 
 ignore the problems of relocation and rehousing im- 
 posed by clearance and redevelopment. 
 
 This report reflects, in its presentation, the three 
 necessary approaches needed to solve the critically 
 human problem of skid row. The intensive analysis 
 of the phenomenon provides basic and invaluable data 
 on the nature of the area and its residents. The report 
 then develops techniques for enlisting and coordinating 
 the activities of the various agencies concerned with 
 skid row. Finally, it formulates a tentative program 
 which deals with the unique problems of skid row 
 redevelopment and which, if carefully followed, can 
 cure one of our most terrible conditions. 
 
 page 1 
 
MM 
 
 Signs on North Clark Street (above) advertise inexpensive lodgings, meals and drinks, which are the primary services 
 available on skid row. 
 
 Cleared land on West Madison Street (below) is the eventual result of high vacancy rates and the uneconomic use 
 of obsolescent buildings. 
 
 page 2 
 
Chapter 
 
 2 
 
 Historical Background 
 
 General 
 
 Skid row is populated almost exclusively by homeless 
 men. The problem of the homeless can be traced back 
 many centuries before the beginning of the industrial 
 revolution. Social concern has been manifested about 
 this problem since, at least, the sixteenth century. 
 
 The constant reference to the homeless man as against 
 the "homeless woman", reflects the negligible number 
 of homeless women residents in skid row. 
 
 The homeless man is generally defined as a man 
 who is separated completely from his family, relatives 
 and friends, and who has little or no resources for 
 supporting himself. While historically the homeless 
 man was thought to be a wanderer or vagrant, today 
 he is considered a by-product of the industrial 
 revolution. 
 
 An extensive literature exists, dating back to the six- 
 teenth century, on the vagabond, beggar and the com- 
 munity problems relating to the poor. From the years 
 1524 to 1676 no less than 49 works on the poor and 
 the homeless were published in England alone. 
 
 A forerunner of this study was published in London 
 in 1806 by P. Colquhoun, under the comprehensive 
 title of: 
 
 A Treatise of Indigence: exhibiting a General 
 View of the National Resources for Productive 
 Labour; with Propositions for Ameliorating the 
 Conditions of the Poor, and Improving the Moral 
 Habits and Increasing the Comforts of the Labor- 
 ing People, Particularly the Rising Generation: 
 By regulations of Political Economy, calculated to 
 Prevent Poverty from descending into Indigence, 
 to Produce Sobriety and Industry, to Reduce the 
 Parochial Rates of the Kingdom, and Generally to 
 Promote the Happiness and Security of the Com- 
 munity at large, by the Diminution of Moral and 
 Penal Offenses and the future Prevention of 
 Crimes. 
 
 (The following section draws heavily upon H. Warren 
 Dunham, Homeless Men and Their Habitats, Wayne 
 University. ) 
 
 Although Colquhoun's reasons for the existence of 
 indigence, "vicious and immoral habits," are unaccept- 
 able to the contemporary social scientist, he was con- 
 cerned with questions which are still being raised 
 today. 
 
 Colquhoun estimated that in 1806 there were 80,000 
 paupers, mendicants, vagrants, idle and immoral per- 
 sons in England and Wales. A number of other reports 
 followed his work, including a paper published in 
 1862 by P. Mayhew entitled, London Labour and the 
 London Poor. This work was perhaps the most famous 
 scientific statement on this subject in the nineteenth 
 century, and included statistical material and case 
 studies. 
 
 Mayhew's encyclopedic account develops a classifi- 
 cation of workers and non-workers which might be 
 applied usefully to homeless men of our time. His 
 categories are: "those that will work," "those who 
 cannot work," and "those who will not work." 
 
 As Professor Dunham succinctly notes, the various 
 attempts to examine the problem of homelessness, from 
 the very earliest times until the end of the nineteenth 
 century, were couched in terms of specific character 
 traits with specific moral connotations. (Today, we 
 have returned to dealing with the subject in specific 
 trait forms, although without the moral connotations.) 
 Dunham explains, that to Mayhew, the logic was in- 
 escapable: "those who cannot work" have physical and 
 intellectual defects; "those who will not work" have 
 moral defects. 
 
 The stereotyping of the homeless man as a vagrant, 
 a ne'er-do-well, or as a person possessing a "moral 
 defect" persists even today. This view led to the attempt 
 to control the problem of the homeless man by 
 suppression. 
 
 Arrests and jail sentences (in very early days even 
 the death sentence) were instituted in an effort to sup- 
 press homelessness and vagrancy. The "travel ticket" 
 by which a vagrant or beggar was pushed out of one 
 parish into the next was the next technique used to 
 deal with the problem. 
 
 page 
 
Suppression was popular until the middle of the 
 nineteenth century (and to this day some smaller 
 American communities still employ the policy of "run- 
 ning the beggar out of town"), until it was recognized 
 that arrest and punishment were no solution to the 
 problem of vagrants. 
 
 By mid-nineteenth century the ebb and flow of the 
 homeless was related to the business cycle. It became 
 clear that the labor needs of the productive machine, 
 even though greatly expanding, were not constant. 
 Periods of high productivity saw an increase in the 
 number of homeless men at industrial and manufac- 
 turing centers. Periods of economic decline saw the 
 proliferation of problems and indigency among this 
 group and its migration from centers of higher job 
 opportunities. 
 
 Homelessness now was considered the result of cer- 
 tain character deficiencies, and programs for individual 
 treatment and reform were instituted. First developed 
 by the religious agencies, these programs were later 
 supplemented by the more secular approach of the 
 social welfare agencies. Even in early nineteenth cen- 
 tury England, shelters and night refuge places offered 
 sustenance ( generally coupled with religious sermons ) 
 to the homeless. 
 
 The shelter program idea reached the United States 
 and the first Municipal Lodging House was opened in 
 New York in the beginning of the twentieth century. 
 The program of shelters was criticized for aiding and 
 abetting dependency, and consequently enabling the 
 weaker and more unfit members of society to survive. 
 However, by the 1920s the shelter program was widely 
 established in the United States, usually under the 
 auspices of religious agencies. 
 
 The end of World War I saw an increase in the 
 number of homeless men and the growth of homeless 
 mens areas. It also saw the pattern of care by religious 
 agencies extended to include the techniques of the so- 
 cial welfare agency and the caseworker. 
 
 Implicit in this program of individual treatment was 
 the assumption that the homeless men suffered from 
 some mental, emotional or physical defect, and that 
 once the type of defect was made clear, it would 
 respond to appropriate treatment. 
 
 The depression of the 1930's caused an increase in 
 the number of homeless men and stimulated a third 
 policy. This was the policy of giving mass relief to 
 the growing number of homeless and destitute men. 
 
 The number of men was so large during the depres- 
 sion years, and the difficulty in classifying them so 
 great, that only provisions for a low level of shelter 
 and sustenance could be provided. 
 
 Programs of mass care were supplemented by work 
 relief programs and by governmentally created jobs 
 which provided some employment for those who would 
 and could work. 
 
 During the 1940's rising economic prosperity grad- 
 ually reduced the number of homeless men and the 
 Federal government withdrew its assistance from these 
 mass programs. The care of the homeless reverted to 
 the local communities. 
 
 Chicago 
 
 Chicago's skid row is composed of three major areas 
 which, like spokes of a wheel, radiate outwards from 
 the Central Business District. I See Map ll Chicago's 
 system of streets is laid out in a grid pattern numbered 
 north and south from Madison Street and east and west 
 from State Street. These two baseline streets intersect 
 the Loop, the heart of the Central Business District. 
 
 The Central Business District is bounded generally 
 on the east by the parks and recreation areas on the 
 lakefront of Lake Michigan, and to the north and the 
 west by the Chicago Biver and its South Branch. 
 
 West Madison Street is the oldest and largest of 
 these complexes. The basic skid row area extends 
 westward from Canal Street 1 600 west I on the west 
 bank of the South Branch of the Chicago Biver, to 
 Ashland Avenue (1600 west I . It is roughly one block 
 deep to the north, at Washington Street, and one block 
 deep to the south, at Monroe Street. 
 
 North Clark Street extends from the north bank of 
 the Chicago river to Chicago Avenue (800 north I and 
 is one block wide to the east, to Dearborn Street, and 
 one block wide to the west, to LaSalle Street. 
 
 South State Street begins at Van Buren Street (400 
 south I and extends to Boosevelt Boad, or Twelfth 
 Street 11200 south). It flanks State Street to a depth 
 of one block on each side, to Wabash on the east, 
 and Plymouth Court on the west. 
 
 Contiguous to the South State Street complex is a 
 related area, an out-pouching roughly one block deep, 
 running along Van Buren Street until Clark Street. On 
 Clark, the skid row extends along both sides of the 
 street, two blocks south until Harrison Street. 
 
 These three areas form the major locales of Chi- 
 cago's homeless men. It is in these areas that the dis- 
 tinguishing characteristics of skid row are found: the 
 profusion of "birdcage" hotels, taverns, cafeterias, 
 barber colleges, second-hand clothing and furniture 
 stores, missions and employment offices. 
 
 The areas in which Chicago's skid rows are situated 
 are among the oldest in the city. Located on the banks 
 of the river I where the first port and harbor facilities 
 were situated ) and where the railroad yards developed 
 as the city became the nation's largest railroad center, 
 these areas were the natural rendezvous for the seamen 
 and railroad workers. 
 
 Situated in the heartland of the United States and 
 on one of the Great Lakes. Chicago became a central 
 transfer point early in its history. Here, seamen made 
 their haven, especially in the winter when this fresh- 
 
 page 4 
 
water port was closed by ice. The railroads, growing 
 westward from the city, demanded considerable labor to 
 lay and maintain the railroad tracks. These railroads 
 led northward to the lumbering territory, where there 
 were seasonally large demands for labor. In the off- 
 season, this temporary excess of manpower could re- 
 turn to find other employment. 
 
 From the great plains and prairie states came drovers, 
 driving their cattle to the market, and migrant farm 
 laborers following the harvest. Chicago was a stopping- 
 off place during the winter. 
 
 The early years, before mechanical refrigeration, de- 
 manded manpower for ice-harvesting in the many lakes 
 in this area. 
 
 As a transportation center. Chicago formed the hub 
 through which passed thousands of migrant laborers 
 I harvesters, lumberjacks, ice-harvesters, fruit-pickers) 
 as they beat their way across the country with the 
 seasons. Also, Chicago needed casual labor to load and 
 unload freight cars, barges, and later trucks. 
 
 The growth of the city as an industrial and manu- 
 facturing center accentuated the need for brawn, often 
 on short notice and for limited periods of time. In 
 the early stages of Chicago's development many of 
 these factories also were located near the river and 
 the railroads. 
 
 From a community composed primarily of working 
 men engaged in casual or seasonal labor, the areas 
 around the river and the railroads expanded as new 
 elements were added. Based more and more on a low- 
 scale economy, the skid row areas evolved into enclaves 
 primarily serving men of limited means. The cheap 
 lodging houses and eating places were almost the only 
 places available to the hobo, the tramp, the down-and- 
 outer. 
 
 Larger numbers of immigrant men. lacking skills 
 and command of the English language, or unable to 
 accommodate themselves to the new and strange culture, 
 gravitated to these areas. Here, little was demanded. 
 Opportunities existed for low-grade labor and living 
 was relatively inexpensive. 
 
 The early days of these areas reflected the needs of 
 unattached men — men who sojourned between jobs, 
 and passed through the city. Saloons flourished, as 
 did bawdy houses and gambling halls. Cheap lodging 
 houses proliferated in order to meet the rising demand 
 for sleeping spaces. These were downgraded as the 
 number of men with little ability to pay for these 
 accommodations increased. 
 
 Lofts and warehouses were converted into sleeping 
 accommodations which ranged from tiny cubicles (the 
 birdcages), to dormitories, to only a space on the 
 bare floor for a nickel-a-night. 
 
 Missions, operated by religious organizations, arose 
 to help the homeless men by providing religious 
 
 messages and modest sleeping accommodations or 
 meals. Toward the end of the nineteenth century and 
 the first decade of the twentieth century, a municipally 
 operated shelter and shelters operated by secular 
 agencies were established. 
 
 Skid row, especially West Madison Street, became 
 known as the "slave market." Numerous labor offices 
 arose to fill the heavy demand for casual labor. 
 
 Early estimates of the population of Chicago's skid 
 rows indicated that the number of homeless men 
 ranged from 30.000 in good times, to as many as 
 75,000 in hard times. About one-third were permanent 
 residents of the city — the home guard. 
 
 One of the first comprehensive analyses of Chicago's 
 skid row. Alice W. Solenberger's One Thousand Home- 
 less Men, published in 1911, estimated that 40,000 to 
 60,000 men lived in Chicago's skid rows. According 
 to this study, this number increased at election time 
 and when the "word went out" that free food and 
 lodgings were available to the unemployed. 
 
 Mrs. Solenberger stated that during 1907-1908, the 
 number of men served by the Municipal Lodging 
 House and its annexes was almost 80.000. 
 
 Following the wake of World War I, the skid row 
 population was about 25.000 to 30,000 according to 
 Nels Anderson's classic study, The Hobo, published 
 in 1923. Anderson also estimated that a like number 
 lived on the docks, in parks, in engine houses, or in 
 "flop houses" elsewhere in the city. 
 
 Chicago was then the greatest labor exchange for 
 migratory workers in the world. Probably no other 
 city furnished more men for railroad work and it was 
 common to see large gangs of men shipped from 400 
 to 1,000 miles away to work as "gandy dancers," or 
 track-laborers. 
 
 More than 200 private employment agencies oper- 
 ated in Chicago in August 1922. 39 of which operated 
 in the skid rows. 
 
 During this same period, there were twenty-five 
 missions in the homeless men's areas which can be 
 classified as follows: the permanently established local 
 mission; the migratory national mission; and the local 
 missions which sprang up during crises and periods of 
 unemployment. There also were established religious 
 centers of the Salvation Army and the Volunteers of 
 America. 
 
 The Chicago Municipal Lodging House opened dur- 
 ing the winter of 1901 and provided free food and 
 shelter for destitute homeless men. In 1907. it pro- 
 vided 23,672 lodgings, 103.564 in 1908. 78.392 in 1913. 
 and 452,361 in 1914. 
 
 The tremendous shift in the needs of skid row is 
 emphasized by the fact that only four years later, in 
 1918-1919, the Municipal Lodging House closed its 
 doors. The lack of applicants was caused by wartime 
 prosperity. 
 
 page .3 
 
South State Street is the locus of the second-largest skid row complex in Chicago. Within this one-half block 
 amazing diversity of hotels, taverns, cafeterias, pawn shops, missions and places of entertainment. 
 
 is an 
 
 The third decade of the century saw a steady increase 
 in the population of Chicago's skid row and the 1930's 
 brought with them a veritable flood of the homeless 
 and destitute. 
 
 In 1936, Edwin H. Sutherland and Harvey J. Locke, 
 of the Sociology Department of Indiana University, 
 published their study, Twenty-Thousand Homeless Men, 
 an analysis of the shelter program on Chicago's skid 
 rows. During those years, twenty municipal shelters 
 operated in skid row. From 1931 to 1935, more than 
 100,000 men passed through these shelters, most of 
 them unemployed casual and low skilled laborers. 
 However, the study estimated that about 40 percent 
 of the men in the shelters were "stiffs," men who had 
 lived on the skid rows for a relatively long period of 
 time. 
 
 In classifying the men for admittance to the shelters, 
 examinations of the background of these shelter men 
 revealed that most of them had come from low stand- 
 ard rural homes, had inadequate schooling, were 
 unskilled laborers, and were isolated from normal 
 personal and group contacts. 
 
 The booming economy of the pre-World War II, 
 wartime and post-war years brought the greatest reduc- 
 tion in the number of skid row inhabitants. 
 
 The current estimate of homeless men on Chicago's 
 skid row is 12,500 to 13,000. (The survey focused 
 primarily upon hotel dwellers and made a systematic 
 
 effort to encompass every rooming house only in the 
 West Madison and South State Street Area. The survey 
 placed the skid row population at 11,926. This count 
 is an underestimate, however, as there are probably 
 as many as 600 to 1,000 homeless men living in room- 
 ing houses elsewhere in the city under skid row 
 conditions.) 
 
 A summary of the available historical data seems to 
 indicate that: 
 
 1 . Skid row areas in this country are historically 
 related to locales which make great demands for an 
 unskilled and casual labor pool. 
 
 2. Technological advancements have reduced the de- 
 mand for unskilled labor, and the number of homeless 
 men is shrinking visibly. While the population of 
 Chicago almost doubled from 1910 to 1958, the skid 
 row population was only 25 percent of its 1910 size. 
 
 3. Although the skid rows contain an appreciable 
 number of homeless men in search of a low skill labor 
 market, a growing number of the residents are there 
 primarily for the low scale economy of the area. 
 
 4. A rising incidence of "skid rowers" demonstrates 
 personal and health needs and problems which cause 
 them either to be rejected by society or unable to 
 compete in its economy. 
 
 5. Any effective program designed to cope with skid 
 row, must take into consideration both the factors 
 dealing with welfare and with housing. 
 
 page 6 
 
Chapter 
 
 3 
 
 Functions of Skid Row and 
 The Type of Men Who Live There 
 
 Skid row does not serve a "type" of person as is com- 
 monly supposed. Rather it consists of several different 
 types and each type has a different combination of 
 reasons for living there. 
 
 The first stage of the field study consisted of inter- 
 viewing a selected list of 161 resource persons (87 in 
 Chicago and 74 in other cities) who have had exten- 
 sive first-hand experience with homeless men and the 
 problems of skid row. Each expert was asked about 
 the main types of men found in homeless men areas 
 and the reasons these men live there. 
 
 As a result of the interviews, the residents of skid 
 row were divided into six major classes. The men 
 classified in the first five groups may drink but are not 
 chronic alcoholics as defined in class 6 below. 
 
 1. Elderly or physically disabled men — unable 
 to work or retired; living on pensions, public 
 assistance or private aid. 
 
 2. Semi settled or settled working men — em- 
 ployed or not employed but seeking work. Such 
 men usually work at unskilled or low-paying jobs 
 and are permanent residents of the area although 
 they may frequently move from one hotel or 
 rooming house to another. 
 
 3. Migratory workers — seasonal or temporary 
 
 workers on railroad gangs, farm harvest laborers, 
 or other migratory workers who come to the city 
 between jobs, to spend the winter, or to get a 
 temporary job before moving on to another 
 place. 
 
 4a. Transient "bums" — men who just wander 
 from one place to another and make their living 
 by begging and seeking help from charitable 
 organizations in preference to work. They stay 
 in town for only a short time before moving on. 
 
 4b. Resident "bums'" — semi-settled or settled pan- 
 handlers or other shiftless men who are physi- 
 cally able but choose not to work. 
 
 5. Criminals and men engaged in illegal enter- 
 prises — professional thieves, gamblers and con- 
 fidence men. 
 
 6. Chronic Alcoholics — men who have passed 
 beyond the excessive drinking stage and who 
 cannot control their drinking enough to hold a 
 job or care for themselves. These men are ar- 
 rested repeatedly for drunkenness or disorderly 
 conduct. This group may be further divided into 
 three sub-groups. 
 
 a. Physically rehabilitable alcoholics with no 
 mental illness nor major physical handicaps 
 that would prevent working. 
 
 b. Physically rehabilitable alcoholics, mentally 
 ill — without major physical handicaps or 
 poor health that would prevent working, but 
 with symptoms of mental illness. 
 
 c. Chronic alcoholics — unable to work — elderly 
 or physically disabled men including derelicts 
 with irreparable alcoholic and mental dete- 
 rioration. 
 
 What forces bring each of the six major types of 
 men listed above to live in skid row areas? Skid row 
 has four major functions. It provides: 
 
 1. the city's lowest cost of living area. 
 
 2. the labor market for unskilled and semi-skilled 
 workers. 
 
 3. a locus of welfare activities. 
 
 4. anonymity, tolerance and companionship. 
 Each of these functions serves to varying degrees 
 
 the men residing on skid row. Each function and the 
 groups of men it serves are described below. 
 
 The needs which perpetuate skid row today can be 
 alleviated. It is precisely the program of rehabilitation 
 with which this study concludes that will treat problems 
 of poverty, employment and social maladjustment. 
 With such assistance as will be offered, no man need 
 enter skid row because of necessity and few men will 
 enter through choice. 
 
 Low Cost of Living 
 
 Each of the major classes of homeless men described 
 above choose to live in skid row because, among other 
 reasons, it provides them with the necessities of living 
 at a minimum expense. 
 
 page 7 
 
The homeless person with a small, inadequate in- 
 come finds it difficult to make ends meet in any neigh- 
 borhood oilier than skid row. This applies especially 
 to elderly pensioners with minimum pension benefits 
 from Social Security or private industry. 
 
 Skid row provides economies other than food and 
 lodging. The low-income homeless man on skid row 
 can spend less of his allotment for clothing, laundry, 
 and di\ cleaning without feeling embarrassed whereas 
 he would appear conspicuous in an average neighbor- 
 hood dressed in his everyday skid row attire. 
 
 Man) men living on skid rows are heavy drinkers 
 and can maximize their drinking by living where food 
 and lodging costs are at a minimum, where cheap 
 liquor is readily available and where they can live 
 from week to week, day-to-day or even meal-to-meal. 
 They seldom hold a job for more than a few days 
 because of failure to report, or drinking on the job. 
 For many, skid row is the only place where they can 
 support themselves and still continue to drink. 
 
 Welfare and social agencies are forced to send older 
 and disabled men to skid rows. The agencies work on 
 very limited budgets, and requests for their services 
 often exceed the amounts available for aid. When de- 
 serving men apply for emergency aid there is no alter- 
 native but to house and feed them in the cheapest 
 possible place — on skid row. By giving each applicant 
 enough money to spend the night in a cubicle hotel 
 and to eat in a skid row restaurant, a charitable organi- 
 zation can provide assistance for approximately twice 
 as main men than if it were to seek other accommoda- 
 tions. Faced with the choice of serving only half their 
 clients well or of serving almost all at a minimum level. 
 the) take the latter course. The public agencies are 
 limited also by maximum ceilings, imposed by law, on 
 individual welfare grants. 
 
 Labor Market of Unskilled and Semi-Skilled 
 Workers 
 
 Skid row is the pool of unskilled labor. West Madison 
 Street and vicinity are centers for hiring men for jobs 
 as laborers and spot job workers. The railroad employ- 
 ment offices here hire the "gandy dancers" who will 
 be shipped out to work on railroad maintenance crews. 
 On South State Street men are hired for freight han- 
 dling, restaurants, and other laborer jobs. Spot jobs 
 arc available and the man who is in need of money 
 can work lor one da) and get paid at the end of that 
 day. 
 
 Skid row i> also the employment center for migra- 
 tor) workers. Fmployment offices in the area will hire 
 men for jobs all over the country. Since railroad, con- 
 struction, agricultural and other work is seasonal, the 
 number of migrator) workers arriving on skid row 
 fluctuates. In the late winter and earl) spring, the) 
 arrive in great numbers. 
 
 Skid row is also important to the migratory workers 
 for word of mouth job information. By conversing 
 with other migrants they can j-'et information regarding 
 employment opportunities, rates of pay, and working 
 conditions. If a man does not have a job and is not 
 hired by one of the local agencies, this information 
 directs his next move. 
 
 Although skid row men are utilized as low paid 
 casual laborers, skid row's economic function in terms 
 of the general economy is relatively minor and un- 
 mistakably non-essential. The entire skid row labor 
 force, if it disappeared, would not create any appre- 
 ciable hardships to the economy. 
 
 Locus of Welfare Activities 
 
 In the vicinity of skid row are many welfare services 
 with staffs which serve the homeless man, such as the 
 Public Welfare Department, the Salvation Army, Cook 
 County Hospital and other medical clinics. Alcoholics 
 Anonymous and several missions. 
 
 Many of the older men reside on skid row because 
 of the proximity of services. They often frequent the 
 skid row missions for a free meal and bed. The mis- 
 sions are aware that the men attend services solely 
 to get a meal or a bed. and that some will pretend 
 conversion to obtain preferential treatment. Neverthe- 
 less, they tolerate this because they are helping those 
 in need. Mission activity performs a useful public 
 service by controlling the alcoholic professional beggar. 
 Also, residents concentrated are in one area so that 
 police surveillance is made easier. 
 
 Many of the homeless men become semi-permanent 
 beneficiaries of charity by staying in the State long 
 enough to qualify as residents according to law. to 
 obtain relief. 
 
 Some of the alcoholics came to skid row to control 
 their drinking through the programs offered by the 
 missions and the Salvation Army. Some Alcoholics 
 Anonymous chapters meet around skid row. Such per- 
 sons usually do not live the life of skid row. but are 
 more or less secluded in one of the missions. 
 
 The itinerant worker, arriving in Chicago, is often 
 in urgent need of the skid row services, thus reinforcing 
 the area as a port of entry. The migrant worker is 
 viewed with suspicion in an) other community, but 
 on skid row his needs are understood and help is 
 offered. 
 
 Anonymity, Tolerance and Companionship 
 
 Residents of the skid row areas do not ask questions 
 of fellow residents and do not talk much to suspected 
 intruders. Skid row provides a ver) good place for the 
 pett) criminal to hide from the police. I nless there is 
 an all out effort to apprehend him. he can usually lose 
 himself in the anonytnitv of skid row. Skid row has no 
 ■"moral sense" nor organization of citizens who resist 
 the infiltration of crime. It provides a suitable location 
 for criminal operations with the operators living in 
 
 pagt 
 
 8 
 
other areas. The control of crime is entirely a matter 
 of police enforcement. In view of this situation, it is 
 surprising that the estimated criminal population of the 
 area is not larger. 
 
 Some residents settled here to escape from social 
 situations which they found intolerable. This is true of 
 a proportion of the workingmen and alcoholics who 
 seek the anonymity of skid row. 
 
 Some are social outcasts, and anti-social rebels who 
 challenge the organization and authority of the accepted 
 social institutions. They feel at home in no other place. 
 Here, with others like themselves, they condemn the 
 society that ceased to tolerate them. Skid row tolerates 
 and accepts individuals regardless of their backgrounds. 
 
 For the various types of homeless men, Chicago's 
 skid row has a national reputation for being the place 
 to stay when in Chicago. The migrant worker will be 
 received with friendliness and tolerance and can find 
 companionship. An older man finds others with similar 
 problems. A very large proportion of the older men on 
 skid row are unskilled workers or semi-skilled opera- 
 tives. Living in a normal community, they are often 
 ignored and isolated by the younger generation around 
 them. 
 
 Skid row alcoholics "look out" for each other, and 
 form friendships and mutual assistance undertakings 
 in which they pool their resources. When one has 
 money, food, or liquor, he shares it with his "buddies" 
 and he. in turn, is cared for when he is in need. Part- 
 ners in these groups will share a bottle with other mem- 
 bers who have none and will protect those who are 
 drunk from arrest or from the jackroller. From his 
 "buddies. ' the alcoholic receives the sympathy and 
 understanding that no other group offers him. 
 
 Skid row men form the same type of mutual assist- 
 ance groups. Although bums occupy one of the lowest 
 positions in the skid row hierarchy, they are at least 
 accepted, while no other community will tolerate their 
 presence. 
 
 Despite the advantages of anonymity and companion- 
 ship, the study revealed (see Chapter 12) that most 
 men do not like living on skid row and do not like the 
 other men on skid row. 
 
 The existence of skid row is not a necessity. Its 
 eradication is desirable. The function of skid row as 
 a labor market is not as important as in previous years, 
 most men are not happy on skid row. If the proposed 
 rehabilitation program is instituted effectively, poverty, 
 the factors which produce this poverty, and the per- 
 sonality disorders of the men can be treated. Skid row 
 will not be needed as a locus of welfare activities, the 
 (iiilcr of low scale economy, nor as a haven for escape. 
 
 Men on skid row during summertime have much leisure 
 but little money to spend for commercial entertainment. 
 They pass the time sitting along the sidewalks and alleys, 
 sometimes talking to their neighbors but more often 
 waiting in solitude. 
 
 page 9 
 
Chapter 
 
 4 
 
 Geography of Skid Row 
 
 Land Use and Structure Analysis 
 
 Chicago's three skid row complexes are immediately 
 adjacent to the Central Business District and radiate 
 outward along major arterial streets for from six to 
 ten blocks. Any point in these skid rows is, therefore, 
 no more than ten minutes from the Loop by public 
 transportation. 
 
 The defined areas have a composite land coverage 
 of 315.5 acres, 59 per cent of which is located in the 
 West Madison Street complex. 
 
 The gross land coverage in the skid rows is dis- 
 tributed as follows: 
 
 West Madison Street 185.9 acres 
 
 South State Street 70.0 acres 
 
 North Clark Street 59.6 acres 
 
 Since the three skid row complexes are located on 
 the periphery of the downtown business district, and 
 since practically every thoroughfare in these areas is 
 a major traffic artery feeding into the Loop, a large 
 proportion of the land is dedicated to streets and alleys. 
 Almost 44 per cent of the total acreage consists of 
 streets, alleys, and service corridors which provide 
 access to the heavy concentration of commercial and 
 industrial activity in these areas. (See Maps 12, 13, 14) 
 
 In all three complexes the predominant land uses are 
 non-residential accounting for 67.3 per cent of the com- 
 posite net acreage. The highest percentage of non- 
 residential uses is found in the South State Street com- 
 plex (82.7 per cent) and the lowest (55.1 per cent I on 
 North Clark Street. West Madison Street ranges in 
 between with 65.6 per cent non-residential land use. 
 The largest proportion of the non-residential acreage 
 is devoted to commercial use: 31 per cent of the net 
 land areas, as compared with 22 per cent for industrial 
 use. 
 
 The respective percentages of non-residential land 
 use for the three complexes are as follows: 
 
 Industrial Commercial 
 
 West Madison Street 21 30 
 
 North Clark Street 17 24 
 
 South State Street 28 39 
 
 Approximately 31 acres, or 17.5 per cent of the net 
 acreage of the three complexes consists of unimproved 
 vacant land, vacant and abandoned structures, and sur- 
 face parking areas. Two-thirds of this (21 acres or 12 
 per cent of the net land area ) is currently being utilized 
 for non-residential off-street parking. These figures are 
 approximately the same for the three skid rows. 
 
 Of the net composite acreage of the three complexes, 
 approximately one-third is devoted to residential and 
 related uses. Seven per cent is devoted exclusively to 
 dwelling units, 17 per cent to mixed residential use, 
 5 per cent to public and institutional uses, and 3 per 
 cent to vacant residential ( including the previous com- 
 posite figures for vacant land. ) The figures for the re- 
 spective areas are: 
 
 Residential Land Lfses — 
 Per Cent of Net Area 
 
 
 D 
 
 wellings 
 
 Mixed 
 
 Public 
 
 
 
 Only 
 
 Uses 
 
 and Inst. 
 
 West Madison Street. 
 
 
 7 
 
 20 
 
 4.4 
 
 North Clark Street . . 
 
 
 . 14 
 
 18 
 
 10.0 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 10 
 
 3.5 
 
 Total — all areas . 
 
 
 7 
 
 17 
 
 5.0 
 
 ( For more complete figures on land use, see Table I 
 in the Appendix.) 
 
 Skid Row Related Uses 
 
 Only about 40 per cent of the net acreage of the 
 three skid row complexes is devoted to uses related to 
 the needs and habits of skid row residents. These 
 consist primarily of hotels, restaurants and taverns. 
 Conversely, 60 per cent of the net acreage is devoted 
 to uses not related to skid row inhabitants. 
 
 Of the related uses, there are 157 taverns and night 
 clubs within the 82 blocks of the three complexes. 
 Although this is an average of two taverns for every 
 block, the actual distribution shows concentrations of 
 5, 6 or 7 taverns on a large number of blocks. (See 
 Maps 18. 19, 20) 
 
 page 10 
 
There are a total of 112 restaurants and cafeterias 
 in the three complexes, with as many as six on any 
 given block. (See Maps 18, 19, 20) While the vast 
 majority of these establishments are definitely of the 
 "skid row" type, there are 10 or 12 better restaurants 
 which cater to employees of nearby offices and indus- 
 tries as well as local residents. 
 
 The bulk of the area's residents are housed in 117 
 hotels, missions and rooming houses which have an 
 aggregate capacity of 14,438 and an average occupancy 
 of about 12,000 persons. Approximately 68 per cent 
 of this capacity is to be found in 38 cubicle-type, or 
 "cage" hotels. 
 
 Whereas the bulk of the sleeping-room hotels were 
 constructed prior to 1900, almost half of the cubicle 
 hotel capacity was built after 1900, with fully one- 
 fourth 1 2,538 beds ) recorded as having been estab- 
 lished in the ten-year periods from 1920 to 1929. ( See 
 Table III in the Appendix.) 
 
 About two-thirds of the total bed capacity is located 
 in the 41 blocks comprising the West Madison Street 
 complex. Even in this complex the distribution is 
 clustered. Fifty-five per cent of the Madison Street 
 capacity is located in six blocks, 88 per cent in 12 
 blocks, and 98 per cent in 16 blocks. ( See Map 15 ) 
 
 Living Accommodations and Conditions 
 
 Living conditions in almost all skid rows are sub- 
 standard by the definitions used by housing analysts. 
 For example, in terms of the number of square feet of 
 living space, the cubicle offers less than any other type 
 of housing in the city. 
 
 There are three major types of living quarters avail- 
 able to homeless men on skid row: cubicles, dormi- 
 tories and single rooms ( either in hotels or lodging 
 houses). Because the cubicle is a unique phenomenon 
 of skid row neighborhoods, it requires further descrip- 
 tion. The partitions between cubicles are made of 
 thin fire resistant materials — plasterboard { x /± inch or 
 % inch I or corrugated metal. The bed consists of an 
 army cot with a thin cotton mattress, two sheets and 
 a blanket. The only other furniture is a chair or a 
 stool and sometimes a metal locker into which clothes 
 may be placed (the locker is sometimes replaced by 
 hooks on the door). A bare 15-watt bulb, suspended 
 at the height of the chicken wire netting, provides 
 illumination. Each cubicle has a wooden door with a 
 lock. With so much open space at top and bottom 
 and with the thin plasterboard partitions, the cubicles 
 are usually both noisy and odoriferous. Some hotels 
 make a conscientious effort to minimize the incon- 
 veniences of cubicle life by refusing to rent rooms to 
 men known to be heavy drinkers or trouble makers. 
 Hotels with a more lax policy are known as "wino 
 joints." Two or three of the very quietest cubicle-hotels 
 probably are no more disorderly on Saturday night 
 than the average hotel in Chicago's Loop. 
 
 Exclusive of beds available in missions and rooming 
 houses, there are almost 12,000 cubicles and rooms 
 intended for use by residents of skid row. The hotels 
 house about 92 per cent of the men who purchase 
 lodging from commercial lodging places. Eight of the 
 large cubicle hotels are located on West Madison Street, 
 four on South State, and one in the South Clark — 
 Van Buren area. The facilities of North Clark consist 
 almost entirely of hotels with rooms and rooming 
 houses, while South Clark — Van Buren offers only 
 cubicles. In the winter of 1957-58 an average of one 
 cubicle in five was vacant, and one hotel room in twelve 
 was empty. The vacancy rates on South State Street 
 were extraordinarily high for all types of housing. On 
 West Madison Street, the highest vacancy rates oc- 
 curred in the medium-sized and small cubicle hotels, 
 while on South State Street the larger places had the 
 highest vacancy rates. ( See Table IV in the Appendix. ) 
 From these figures on vacancy, the following inferences 
 can be made: 
 
 a. I The supply of skid row housing is quantitatively 
 adequate to meet present needs. In fact not less than 
 six to perhaps ten or twelve of the oldest, least fire- 
 resistant, and most poorly maintained flophouses 
 could be purchased and razed without creating a 
 housing shortage. 
 
 b ) Owners and operators of hotels must compete 
 with each other for business, therefore creating a 
 buyer's market. The men patronize those places that 
 "give them the most for their money." In such a 
 climate, hotel owners might be more willing to make 
 improvements and provide more facilities. The va- 
 cancy rate, providing the pressure to compete, could 
 be kept constant if demolition and relocation proceed 
 at the same speed. 
 
 c ) The position of South State Street as a skid row 
 economic center seems to be declining since there 
 is an extremely high vacancy rate in this area. 
 
 In all areas, hotels with rooms have lower vacancy 
 rates than cubicle type hotels. However, on West 
 Madison Street, a few of the largest cubicle hotels 
 have extremely low vacancy rates. 
 
 Physical Condition of Hotels and 
 Rooming Houses 
 
 Information concerning the physical condition of 
 hotels and rooming houses on Chicago's skid row was 
 obtained from the records of official inspections made 
 by the Fire Prevention Bureau of the Chicago Fire 
 Department in the winter of 1955 and Chicago's De- 
 partment of Buildings in the spring of 1956 and fall 
 of 1957. More than two-thirds (69 per cent) of the 
 hotels did not have sufficient plumbing facilities to 
 meet the requirements of the Building Code. The 
 Building Code of the City requires one toilet and one 
 shower or both in cubicle-type hotels for each 20 resi- 
 dents, and more than 90 per cent of the larger cubicle 
 
 page 11 
 
The most obvious features of skid 
 row are the homeless men and the 
 many taverns, hotels, cafeterias and 
 missions which serve them. Despite 
 the high visibility of establishments 
 catering to homeless men, only a 
 minor portion of the land and build- 
 ings on skid row are devoted to the 
 use of the inhabitants. 
 
 ITIIW1.MHI 
 
 page 12 
 
Long-term residents often can get cubicles having a 
 window. Then they may have some relief from the 
 summer heat and odors. 
 
 hotels were unable to meet this requirement. With 
 respect to cleanliness and operating condition, it was 
 found that in more than 25 per cent of the large and 
 medium size cubicle hotels the plumbing fixtures were 
 not in good operating condition. In general, the situa- 
 tion with respect to plumbing was considerably poorer 
 in the cubicle hotels than in the hotels with rooms. 
 (Tables V-IXl 
 
 Evidence of rats was found in two hotels and evi- 
 dence of vermin in ten hotels. Almost all of this was 
 to be found in the small hotels with rooms. Only one 
 cubicle-type hotel was cited for vermin, since most of 
 these hotels have routine procedures for controlling 
 such pests. 
 
 Thirty-two hotels 1 20 per cent) in skid row areas 
 were found to have no inadequate building conditions 
 as defined by the Department of Buildings, while an 
 additional thirty-five I 22 per cent) were found to have 
 only one inadequate condition. Forty per cent of the 
 hotels had three or more deficiencies, and 13 per cent 
 had five deficiencies or more. 
 
 In summary, hotels with rooms tend to be concen- 
 trated at the two extremes of being either very good 
 ( large numbers having no building deficiencies or only 
 one deficiency I or of being extraordinarily poor (hav- 
 ing large numbers of deficiencies). The cubicle hotels 
 tend to occupy an intermediate position with a large 
 proportion having one or two deficiencies, with a 
 disproportionately large number of the smaller cubicle 
 hotels having three or four deficiencies. A rough 
 ranking of the various types of housing according to 
 conformity with the building code can be made as 
 follows: 
 
 Hotels with rooms I good management I 
 
 Large and medium size cubicle hotels 
 
 Small cubicle hotels 
 
 Hotels with rooms (poor management) 
 
 Fire Protection Deficiencies 
 
 Skid row hotels had many more fire prevention de- 
 ficiencies than building condition deficiencies. A large 
 proportion of structures had five to over 15 fire pre- 
 vention deficiencies. 
 
 The structures having the greatest number were the 
 small cubicle hotels and the hotels with rooms. The 
 most serious fire prevention deficiencies cited were, as 
 derived from Table VIII in descending order of 
 prevalence: 
 
 Per Cent of Hotels 
 Lack of a sprinkler or standpipe system. . 86.7 
 Hotel stairways not enclosed with fire re- 
 sistant material 60.7 
 
 Hotel personnel not organized to fight fire 55.1 
 
 Hotel has no fire alarm system 36.7 
 
 Hotel has no fire prevention program. . . . 29.1 
 Floors not systematically patrolled at 
 
 night 20.9 
 
 Flammable liquid improperly stored in the 
 
 premises 14.6 
 
 No emergency lighting system 14.6 
 
 Hotel has no fire warnings or instructions 
 
 for guests 13.3 
 
 Exit doors do not swing outward 12.0 
 
 Good housekeeping conditions do not pre- 
 vail 9.5 
 
 Fire extinguishers not recharged last 12 
 
 months 8.2 
 
 Hotel personnel ignorant of how to report 
 
 fire via alarm box 7.0 
 
 Obstructions blocking entrance to fire 
 
 escapes 7.0 
 
 Fire escapes not in good condition 5.1 
 
 Fire extinguishers not properly tagged. . . 5.1 
 Doors to stairways not properly equipped 
 
 with self-closing devices 5.1 
 
 Electric wiring does not conform to city's 
 
 standards 5.1 
 
 No crash or glass panels in doors leading 
 
 to fire escape 4.4 
 
 Insufficient ash trays 2.5 
 
 Doors to exit do not have illuminated signs 1.3 
 
 When examining this data, it must be remembered 
 that the building inspections were dated 1956-57 and 
 the fire prevention program was tabulated in 1955. 
 Some of these deficiencies have been corrected (see 
 Chapters XIV and XV). 
 
 Total Inadequacies 
 
 The results of the inspection for building deficiencies 
 were combined with those for fire prevention deficien- 
 cies. Only four structures housing sixty-six homeless 
 men had no deficiencies of any kind. At the other 
 extreme, seventeen structures had fifteen different de- 
 ficiencies or more. All of these establishments were 
 hotels with rooms. Together they housed 3.5 per cent 
 
 jyage 13 
 
of all homeless men. An additional thirty-two struc- 
 tures, housing 17 per cent of the homeless men, have 
 between ten and fourteen building and fire prevention 
 deficiencies combined. Three of this second group were 
 cubicle hotels, two of them were large and one was 
 medium sized. 
 
 The greatest concentration of multiple deficiencies 
 were found in the small cubicle hotels (those containing 
 less than 200 sleeping units I and the hotels with rooms 
 but no class of hotel was exempt from having numerous 
 deficiencies. 
 
 (Left) A corridor in a skid row hotel is long, narrow 
 and dimly lighted. The exposed pipes, exposed 
 electrical conduit and the unshaded light bulbs 
 characterize old buildings which have been con- 
 verted to skid row residences. 
 
 (Below) An elderly occupant of a new low-cost 
 residence having single rooms. This building was 
 built as an experiment by a mission in Minneapolis. 
 Each resident has his own room for a cost of $1 
 a day. 
 
 page 14 
 
Chapter 
 
 5 
 
 Characteristics of The Residents of 
 
 Chicago's Skid Rows 
 
 A knowledge of the nature of the skid row resident 
 is a prerequisite to dealing with his problems. He 
 obviously is not a typical citizen as evidenced by the 
 numerous observations which have been made through- 
 out the years. Exploding several popular beliefs, the 
 following material describes Chicago's homeless men 
 and compares them to the general poulation. It is 
 based on a sample survey made between December 22, 
 1957 and April 1, 1958. A total of 614 men were inter- 
 viewed by carefully selected and trained interviewers. 
 Men to be interviewed were selected by random sam- 
 pling to give results that would represent an unbiased 
 cross-section of Chicago's skid row. 
 
 Chicago's skid rows contain the following number 
 of men: 
 
 Number 
 of Men 
 
 Total 11,926 
 
 West Madison Street 7,525 
 
 North Clark Street 691 
 
 South State Street 1,687 
 
 South Clark and Van Buren. . 1,223 
 Other areas, jails, hospitals, 
 
 and sleeping out 800 
 
 Per Cent 
 of Total 
 
 100.0 
 
 63.1 
 
 5.8 
 
 14.1 
 
 10.3 
 
 6.7 
 
 Key characteristics of skid row residents as com- 
 pared to the general population of Chicago are: (Based 
 on 1950 census data. ) 
 
 Per Cent 
 
 of Total 
 
 Skid Row City 
 
 Male 96.3 49.1 
 
 White 88.9 86.2 
 
 Native Born 72.7 70.9 
 
 Single, Separated, Divorced or 
 
 Widowed 85.4 35.9 
 
 Modal Age 45-64 yrs. 20-44 yrs. 
 
 Modal Years of School Com- 
 pleted 8 yrs. or 8 yrs. or 
 
 less less 
 
 Unemployed or not in Labor 
 
 Force 52.7 21.7 
 
 Unemployment Bate 35.2 4.2 
 
 Under $3,000 income 91.8 51.6 
 
 (For more complete statistics on all characteristics, see 
 
 Appendix Table X.) 
 
 Age 
 
 The residents of skid row are, on the average, con- 
 siderably older than adults in the general population. 
 The heaviest concentration is in the 45 to 59 age group. 
 About 66 per cent of the men are 45 years of age and 
 over and almost 37 per cent, 55 years and over. 
 
 Receipt of Pension or Public Aid 
 
 Forty-seven per cent of the men interviewed draw 
 some form of pension or public assistance payments, 
 with the largest source being Public Assistance (relief) 
 received by 22 per cent. Many low-income people with- 
 out families are forced to skid row by inflation. Many 
 of the older men who are reaching retirement age have 
 acquired only the minimum amount of Social Security 
 coverage. This is insufficient to cover the minimum 
 expenses of living. Those men who meet the residence 
 requirements must seek public assistance. 
 
 About 10 per cent of the residents are drawing Social 
 Security benefits, while approximately 11 per cent 
 draw unemployment compensation. The data suggest 
 that the local, state, and national programs for unem- 
 ployment, indigence, and retirement assistance to non- 
 family workers are one of the economic mainstays of 
 skid row. 
 
 Racial Composition 
 
 Eighty-nine per cent of Chicago's skid row popula- 
 tion is white. The only mixed Negro-White sleeping 
 accommodations are in the missions but even here the 
 management restricts the proportion of Negroes. 
 
 An estimated 2 per cent of skid row residents are 
 American Indians. Large numbers of American Indian 
 families are to be found in the area of North Clark 
 Street. There are fewer restrictions against admitting 
 American Indians to cubicle-type hotels than against 
 other minority groups. 
 
 A rather large and long-established group of Mexi- 
 cans is situated adjacent to the West Madison Street 
 skid row complex, while Puerto Bicans are settling 
 near the other skid row complexes. The Spanish 
 speaking people tend to live in family groups and only 
 occasionally live in cubicle hotels. 
 
 The central and western sections of the West Madi- 
 son Street skid row are surrounded by Negro-occupied 
 slum dwellings. This encirclement by Mexicans, Puerto 
 Bicans and Negroes is bringing a steadily greater fre- 
 
 page 15 
 
quency of social and economic contact and competition 
 for housing and jobs between the races in all skid row 
 areas. 
 
 Income Status 
 
 Residents of skid row hold some of the lowest paying 
 jobs in the economy. In 1957, the median income of 
 the average U. S. male 14 years of age or older was 
 $3,684, while the estimated median total income of the 
 man on skid row was $1,083. Whereas 37 per cent of 
 U. S. men earn $4,500 or more, only about 3 per cent 
 of skid row residents earn as much. A disproportion- 
 ately large percentage of the men are concentrated in 
 the $500 to $1,500 bracket. Most recipients of Old Age 
 Assistance and General Public Assistance receive $65 
 a month or more. However, more than i/3 OI ine men 
 who work earn less than the average relief recipient 
 receives. 
 
 Despite the Minimum Wage Law, 38 per cent of the 
 workers on skid row earn less than $1.00 per hour. 
 Five per cent of the workers earn 35 cents or less per 
 hour. Some of these low-paid men are workers in 
 missions but others are employed by firms operating 
 at a profit. Where restaurant employees are given 
 meals as a part of their pay. the cash value of meals 
 is added to their wages. 
 
 The median weekly earning was found to be $29.00. 
 One half of the working men have approximately $4.00 
 per day to spend for all living expenses. 
 
 The skid row of North Clark Street and of South 
 Clark and Van Buren Streets contain extraordinarily 
 high proportions of persons unable to work because of 
 disabilities. On the other hand, unemployment was 
 twice as intense along West Madison and South State 
 Streets as on the other two skid rows. 
 
 Educational Attainment 
 
 Residents of skid row, employed primarily as opera- 
 tives, service workers, and unskilled laborers, inevita- 
 bly would have a lower average educational attainment 
 than the national average. To make a comparison 
 with the national average more meaningful a composite 
 educational attainment for low-income working men 
 was made by averaging the national statistics of educa- 
 tion attainment for male operatives, service workers, 
 and non-farm laborers. The difference between the 
 educational attainment of skid row residents and this 
 composite for men with similar occupations was very 
 small. 
 
 Skid row has an extremely small number of highly 
 educated men who deteriorated because of excessive 
 and heavy drinking. On the other hand, 20 per cent 
 of the men living on skid row said they had graduated 
 from high school, which is adequate educational prepa- 
 ration for better jobs than they now hold. Skid row 
 is neither a collecting place for the semi-illiterate and 
 uneducated men of the nation, nor is it a community 
 of alcoholics who, at one time, were successful business 
 
 and professional men. ( For more detail, see Appendix, 
 Table X. I 
 
 Occupational Status 
 
 For most of the men living on skid row work oppor- 
 tunities are concentrated in the lowest-paying, most 
 irregular, and most disagreeable tasks. The major 
 sources of employment are: 
 Restaurants 
 
 Large Department stores 
 Factories 
 Warehouses 
 
 Railroad (track maintenance men I 
 Trucking firms and freight handlers 
 Advertising firms ( bill peddlers) 
 Garage and filling stations (car washers) 
 Skid row hotels (janitors and porters) 
 Bowling Alleys (pin setters) 
 Hospitals (kitchen and clean up help I 
 Religious organizations 
 There are disproportionately few craftsmen, skilled 
 workmen, semi-skilled factory operatives and sales 
 workers. Almost 12 per cent of the men are classed as 
 clerical workers. However, the men falling in this 
 category are primarily bill peddlers or stock messengers. 
 Restaurant work provides 20 per cent of all employ- 
 ment. Many of the men work as dish washers, porters 
 and clean up help. 
 
 A man who lacks job skills and employment opportuni- 
 ties may establish his own business on skid row. With 
 a bag or a baby carriage or a push-cart, he can become 
 a scavenger. Paper, rags, bottles and scrap metal can 
 be collected from alleys and wastebaskets. 
 
 page 16 
 
All skid rows are characterized by a unique kind 
 of employment — the "spot job," or temporary day 
 work. Men are hired for one day of work and paid 
 each night when the job is over. This type of employ- 
 ment meets the employers needs for temporary emer- 
 gencies or for handling peak work loads. Almost one- 
 half (45 per cent I of all jobs held by men on skid row 
 during the week preceding their interview were "spot 
 jobs." Only 55 per cent of the men who worked had a 
 steady job. 
 
 "Spot job" work appears to be one of the important 
 economic functions of skid row. It permits the indus- 
 trialist and business man to meet emergencies with 
 adequate man power without retaining men on the 
 payroll when their services are not needed. 
 
 Marital Status 
 
 The homeless men of skid row have a marital status 
 composition radically different from the general popu- 
 lation. In comparison with the male population 20 
 years of age and over, there is a considerable excess 
 of men on skid row who never married, and who are 
 widowed, separated and divorced. When the factor of 
 age difference is controlled by standardizing the mari- 
 tal status distribution for skid row men to the age dis- 
 tribution of all males over 20 years of age in the nation, 
 the proportion of single men among the skid row 
 population is about 4 times as great and divorce is 9 
 times as prevalent. 
 
 Length of Residence 
 
 Contrary to popular belief, skid row is composed 
 primarily of non-transient persons. Less than than 10 
 per cent of the men had been on skid row for less 
 than a month, and 55 per cent had resided there for 
 longer than a year. Ten per cent had been on skid 
 row for as long as 10 years or more. More specific 
 data is presented in Chapter IX and in the Appendix, 
 Table X. 
 
 Extent of Drinking 
 
 The discovery that about 40 per cent of the skid 
 row residents either do not drink at all or are only 
 light drinkers is consistent with the findings that a 
 substantial number of persons live in skid row areas 
 for financial or other reasons aside from drinking. 
 The following chapter is an elaboration of this finding. 
 
 A Social Differentiation of the Skid Row Areas 
 
 West Madison tends to have a greater proportion 
 of transients and heavy drinkers than the other areas. 
 It has the highest rate of men holding spot jobs, the 
 highest rate of unemployment, and the lowest educa- 
 tional level. On the other hand, it has the highest 
 yearly income level. 
 
 North Clark has an older population with a low 
 rate of transiency. Additional characteristics in com- 
 parison to the other Skid Row areas are: higher pay- 
 ing jobs, and the highest percentage of those employed 
 holding steady vs. spot jobs; the highest percentage 
 of population not in the labor force and one of the 
 lowest rates of yearly income per capita; the lowest 
 proportion of heavy drinkers and the highest educa- 
 tional level. 
 
 South State has the youngest population and the 
 largest proportion of non-whites. It has the highest 
 percentage of unemployed workers who claimed they 
 had applied for work and the lowest rate of yearly 
 income per capita. 
 
 South Clark and Van Buren has a heavy concen- 
 tration of men between the ages of 35-64. A high 
 proportion of the population is unable to work but the 
 pay scale is high in relation to the other areas. The 
 educational level is lower as is the proportion of those 
 never married. 
 
 Able-bodied men may get jobs as manual laborers in 
 this store-front labor office. If they report at 6 A.M. 
 they may get a job assignment for the day, and will 
 receive their pay at the end of the day. 
 
 page 
 
 17 
 
Chapter 
 
 6 
 
 Problem Drinking and 
 Alcoholic Dereliction 
 
 One of the principal objectives of this study was to 
 obtain a clear picture of the drinking behavior of 
 homeless men and to analyze the relationship of drink- 
 ing to other characteristics. On the basis of several 
 interview questions each respondent was placed into 
 one of five classes which best describes the extent of 
 his drinking.' This chapter analyzes the different char- 
 acteristics of each class. Controlled drinkers comprise 
 at least one-half of the skid row population, destroying 
 the prevalent conception of the area as a haven for 
 alcoholics and heavy drinkers. However, drinking is 
 still a problem and one which is of major concern 
 throughout the entire report. 
 
 Drinking Classifications 1 
 
 Teetotaler — One who never drinks and for whom 
 there is no evidence to controvert his claim, includ- 
 ing the observation of the interviewer. 
 
 Light drinker — One who spends less than 15 per 
 cent of his income for drinking, and drank less than 
 3 pints of whiskey (or equivalent) during the week 
 preceding the interview. 
 
 Moderate drinker — One who spends between 15 
 and 25 per cent of his income on drinking, and 
 drank 3 to 5 pints of whiskey (or equivalent) during 
 the week preceding the interview. 
 
 Heavy drinker — One who spends 25 per cent or 
 more of his income on drinking and who drank 6 
 or more pints of whiskey (or equivalent) during 
 the week preceding the interview. 
 
 l These classifications were formulated by the researchers, 
 based on replies to the following interview questions: "About 
 how much of the money you get do you spend on drinking?" 
 "Do you have spells when you drink very heavy?" "How often 
 do you have these spells?" "Why do you suppose you drink 
 more at those times than at others?" "What do you usually 
 drink?" "Do you usually buy at a bar or do you usually 
 bin a bottle?" "About how many days last week did you have 
 some wine or whiskey or beer to drink?" "About how much did 
 you drink in one day?" "Do you ever feel like you have to take 
 a drink in the morning just before or after breakfast?" "About 
 how many times would you say you have been arrested for being 
 drunk?" "And how many of these times were you sentenced to 
 jail?" "Have you ever been hospitalized for drunkenness or as 
 a result of being drunk?" "How many times, if any, have you 
 had the D.T.'s?" 
 
 Aleohlie derelict — One who qualifies as a heavy 
 drinker and in addition has been arrested at least 
 10 times for drunkenness I at least once in the last 
 six months ) , and to whom at least one of the fol- 
 lowing criteria is applicable: 
 
 a) a health condition attributable to prolonged 
 drinking, 
 
 b) has had delirium tremens one or more times, 
 
 c ) spends 65 per cent or more of his income on 
 drinking, 
 
 d ) has been in the hospital one or more times as 
 a result of drunkenness. 
 
 If there was no record of arrests, a heavy drinker 
 was classified as an alcoholic derelict if 2 or more 
 of the conditions listed above were applicable. 
 The estimated proportion in each category is: 
 
 Percentage of 
 Drinking men in the 
 
 Classification sample 
 
 Total 100.0 
 
 Teetotalers 14.8 
 
 Light drinkers 23.3 
 
 Moderate drinkers 24.4 
 
 Heavy drinkers 19.9 
 
 Alcoholic derelicts 12.6 
 
 Number of 
 
 homeless men 
 
 on skid row 
 
 11.926 
 1,765 
 3.375 
 2,910 
 2,373 
 1,503 
 
 Characteristics of Drinkers 
 
 Age. — If a very young man lives on skid row. there 
 is a high probability that he is a heavy drinker, but 
 if he is elderly, there is a much better chance that he 
 is a teetotaler or light drinker. For example, among 
 men 20-44 years of age, more than 45 per cent are 
 either alcoholic derelicts or heavy drinkers, but among 
 men 55 or over, between 55 and 60 per cent are teeto- 
 talers or only light drinkers. At least three explana- 
 tions may account for this: (a I young men tend not to 
 come to skid row unless they have a drinking problem : 
 lb) those who drink most hea\ ily tend to die prema- 
 I in civ. and hence there are not man) elderly alcoholics; 
 (cl men who do not drink heavily and dislike skid 
 row are not forced to live here until they become 
 older and cannot earn enough to live elsewhere. The 
 
 page 18 
 
younger age composition of the group of men who 
 drink most heavily is evident from the following 
 
 summary : 
 
 
 20 to 
 
 45 to 
 
 
 
 Drinking 
 
 44 
 
 64 
 
 65 years 
 
 
 Classification 
 
 years 
 
 years 
 
 or over 
 
 Total 
 
 Alcoholic derelicts 
 
 ..42 
 
 55 
 
 3 
 
 100 
 
 Heavv drinkers. . . 
 
 ..47 
 
 49 
 
 4 
 
 100 
 
 Moderate drinkers 
 
 ..36 
 
 46 
 
 18 
 
 100 
 
 Light drinkers . . . 
 
 ..25 
 
 52 
 
 23 
 
 100 
 
 Teetotalers 
 
 ..21 
 
 42 
 
 37 
 
 100 
 
 Some teetotalers (21 per cent) are also young but 
 only a very small percentage of the alcoholic derelicts 
 or heavy drinkers are 65 years of age or over. This 
 probably is due to the lethal effects of heavy drinking. 
 
 Education. — On skid row, the men with the most 
 education tend to be the heaviest drinkers, while the 
 men with the least education tend to be teetotalers or 
 only light drinkers. Although much of this relation- 
 ship is due to the age relationship described above 
 ( younger people tend to have more years of formal 
 schooling than older ) , when the effect of age is con- 
 trolled, there is still a tendency for a higher percentage 
 of educated homeless men on skid row to be heavy 
 drinkers. Uneducated men have two reasons for being 
 on skid row — personal disorganization and poverty — 
 whereas most of the more educated men have only one 
 reason for being there — personal disorganization. 
 
 Marital Status. — Widowed men on skid row tend 
 to be teetotalers or light drinkers, whereas divorced 
 or separated men tend to be heavy drinkers. A sub- 
 stantial proportion of single men fall in each of the 
 drinking classifications. 
 
 Employment Status. — The teetotaler on skid row 
 tends to be a man who cannot work. The light drinker 
 or moderate drinker tends to be a man with a steady 
 job; the heavy drinker tends to be a spot job worker 
 or an unemployed workman ; while the alcoholic dere- 
 lict tends to report himself either as "not caring to 
 work" or as unemployed. These relationships are evi- 
 dent in the following summary of the employment 
 status of the upper and lower extremes of the drinking 
 scale: 
 
 Alcoholic 
 Employment derelicts and 
 
 Status heavy drinkers 
 
 Total 100 
 
 Employed — steady job ... 18 
 Employed — spot jobs .... 23 
 
 Unemployed 30 
 
 Unable to work 10 
 
 Did not care to work 14 
 
 Temporarily ill 5 
 
 Teetotalers 
 
 and 
 
 light drinkers 
 
 100 
 21 
 15 
 18 
 32 
 
 8 
 
 6 
 
 This is one of the largest taverns on West Madison Street 
 skid row. Patrons may imbibe sociably at the long bar 
 or may buy package liquor to drink in private. 
 
 Among teetotalers and light drinkers, the percentage 
 of persons with steady jobs outnumbers the percentage 
 with spot jobs by the ratio of about 4 to 3. But among 
 heavy drinkers and alcoholic derelicts, spot job holders 
 outnumber those with steady jobs in the ratio of about 
 6 to 5. However, some spot job workers are teetotalers 
 or light drinkers and a substantial proportion of the 
 men who drink heavily also hold steady jobs. There 
 is no one-to-one relationship between heavy drinking 
 and irregularity in employment. 
 
 Pension Status. — A higher percentage of the pen- 
 sioners are rated as teetotalers or light drinkers, where- 
 as the greatest percentage of alcoholic derelicts are 
 found among those drawing temporary unemployment 
 compensation and among the general non-pension 
 population. However, it is incorrect that none of the 
 old-age and other pensioners have a drinking prob- 
 lem. Almost one-fourth of the homeless men on Gen- 
 eral Public Assistance were classified as heavy drinkers 
 or alcoholic derelicts, and almost one-fifth of those on 
 Social Security or other pensions were classified as 
 heavy drinkers or alcoholic derelicts. The agencies 
 whose responsibility it is to care for familyless pen- 
 sioners have a very difficult task to keep some of them 
 from swapping disbursing orders for food and lodging 
 for wine and whiskey. 
 
 Occupation. — The heaviest drinkers, when em- 
 ployed, tend to be concentrated in the service trades. 
 The largest single source of employment for this group 
 is restaurants — food handling, dish washing, and 
 clean-up work. A high percentage of heavy drinkers 
 are laborers, although comparatively few alcoholic 
 derelicts fall in this group — presumably because of 
 their poor physical condition. The percentage of heavy 
 drinkers and alcoholic derelicts classed as clerical or 
 sales workers is considerably smaller than for the other 
 occupations. 
 
 page 19 
 
^ 
 
 Jill 
 
 ji.fi 
 
 )T DOf 
 
 •CORBY-GIN 
 
 VFHER 
 
 Both hunger and thirst can be quenched on skid row. The prices are the lowest in the city. Even the impoverished 
 will buy when the price is only 15c for a bowl of chili — "largest bowl in town" — and 25c for a "full shot & a beer." 
 
 Residence. — There is a sharp residential differentia- 
 tion between heavy and light drinkers. Men who live 
 in cubicle hotels are much heavier drinkers than men 
 who live in single rooms, either in rooming houses or 
 in hotels with single rooms. Men living in rooming 
 houses in the skid row neighborhood especially are 
 inclined to be teetotalers. Men who are staying in mis- 
 sions, jails, hospitals, or sleeping out tend to be un- 
 usually heavy drinkers because their drinking is one 
 factor in their place of residence. 
 
 Nativity and Race. — It is not the foreign born, or 
 even the children of foreign-born people who are most 
 heavily concentrated in the ranks of alcoholic derelicts 
 and heavy drinkers. Instead, it is the native born white 
 persons whose parents are also native born. Of such 
 "third generation Americans" on skid row, 43 per cent 
 were either alcoholic derelicts or heavy drinkers. The 
 foreign born were least inclined toward alcoholism — 
 only 16 per cent were heavy drinkers or derelicts. 
 Negroes living on skid row also are less inclined toward 
 excessive drinking than any white group except the 
 foreign born. The heaviest drinkers of all were the 
 Indians. More than one-half of the Indians living on 
 skid row were heavy drinkers, and more than one- 
 fourth were alcoholic derelicts. 
 
 Nationality. — A higher percentage of the men with 
 Irish, Scotch-Irish, French, and Scandinavian ancestry 
 than men with other nationality backgrounds on skid 
 row are either alcoholic derelicts or heavy drinkers. 
 The group of homeless men who are least inclined to 
 be alcoholic are those of Italian, Polish, other eastern 
 and southern European, and Mexican descent. The 
 Germans and English seem to occupy an intermediate 
 position between these extremes. 
 
 Place of Birth of Native Born. — The men on skid 
 row, born in metropolitan areas are derelicts or heavy 
 drinkers more often than those born in non-metropoli- 
 tan areas. 
 
 Men who were born in the South are inclined to be 
 heavy drinkers or alcoholic derelicts more than men 
 born in other regions. This is true both for southerners 
 born in metropolitan and those born in non-metropoli- 
 tan areas of the South. 
 
 The light drinkers and teetotalers were born pri- 
 marily in the non-metropolitan sections of the north- 
 eastern states and the north central states, and in the 
 metropolitan section of Illinois (which is primarily 
 Chicago) . 
 
 page 20 
 
Chapter 
 
 7 
 
 The Handicapped and III 
 
 The U.S. Public Health Service has developed a bat- 
 tery of questions which it uses in its National Health 
 Survey to determine the extent of illness and the nature 
 of the diseases or other debilitating conditions that 
 are prevalent among the population. These same ques- 
 tions were included in the interviews with the home- 
 less men. By tabulating the responses to these ques- 
 tions according to N. H. S. specifications, it is possible 
 to discuss the health of skid row men in comparison 
 with that of the general population. Undoubtedly many 
 diseases, such as cancer in early stages, high blood 
 pressure and tuberculosis in early stages were unre- 
 corded. Therefore, the materials understate the degree 
 of sickness among the men. 
 
 The elaborate body of health information obtained 
 for each man was used in two ways: (1) The record 
 of the man's illnesses was "coded" into specific diseases 
 and disorders, and tabulated to show how prevalent 
 each kind of disease is on skid row, and how many 
 days of work are lost because of sickness. (2) A phy- 
 sician carefully read the medical inventory for each 
 man and used his expert knowledge to perform four 
 tasks: 
 
 First, he classified each man according to the degree 
 of his present physical disability, into one of the fol- 
 lowing five categories: 
 
 Unable to work: Man has an ailment or injury 
 which prevents him from holding a steady job, 
 even part-time. 
 
 Severely handicapped: Man has an ailment or 
 injury which severely limits the kind of work 
 he can do, or permits him to work only part 
 time. 
 
 Moderately handicapped : Man has an ailment or 
 injuries which restrict considerably the kinds 
 of work he can do, but can hold several types 
 of steady jobs. 
 
 Slightly handicapped: Man has ailments or disa- 
 bilities which place a few restrictions upon his 
 work activities. 
 
 Not handicapped: Man has no ailments or disabil- 
 ities that restrict his work activities. 
 
 These categories assume that the man was qualified 
 to work only as a laborer or semi-skilled operative, 
 where a considerable amount of physical exertion is 
 required. 
 
 Second, using the above five categories with the 
 same definitions and assumptions, he estimated how 
 handicapped the man would be if he received the medi- 
 cal care that his present condition required. In some 
 cases, treatment would do nothing to shift the man 
 from an upper category to one lower in the scale, while 
 in other cases shifts of one or two places would be 
 possible. 
 
 Third, the physician recorded his estimate of how 
 much treatment would be necessary to relieve or re- 
 move the conditions reported by the man, insofar as 
 this is possible. This was expressed in such terms as 
 days in hospitals and number of doctor visits. 
 
 Fourth, using the standard rates of Blue Cross and 
 Blue Shield, and his knowledge of hospital charges for 
 items not covered by published rates, he converted 
 the needed medical treatment into dollars of cost. 
 
 Thus, on the basis of the physician's analysis of the 
 medical inventory for each man it was possible not only 
 to learn how disabled the homeless men are as a group, 
 but also to estimate to what extent they could be re- 
 habilitated by a program of medical care and how 
 much it would cost to carry out such a program. The 
 statistics of this chapter are based upon the above 
 operations. 
 
 Number of conditions 
 
 Only about one-fifth of the men on skid row reported 
 no ailments, while 80 per cent reported one or more. 
 The percentage of men having ailments, by the num- 
 ber of these ailments, are: 
 
 page 21 
 
Per Cent 
 of Men 
 
 No ailments 20.4 
 
 1 ailment 23.6 
 
 2 ailments 19.7 
 
 3 ailments 16.6 
 
 4 ailments 6.9 
 
 5 ailments 4.3 
 
 6 ailments 3.0 
 
 7 ailments 2.7 
 
 8 ailments 1 .7 
 
 9 ailments 0.5 
 
 10 ailments or more 0.6 
 
 Total 100.0 
 
 This averaged out to 2.2 ailments per man. The 
 great majority of the conditions reported were of the 
 variety defined as "chronic" rather than "acute." ( In 
 evaluating the diseases reported, an acute condition 
 was tabulated if it caused the man to cut down on his 
 activities as much as one day or more in the past two 
 weeks. A chronic condition is one that had persisted 
 for three months or more or one listed by NHS. ) Four 
 out of 5 men on skid row had suffered recently from 
 some condition that had caused them to cut down on 
 their usual activities. Men who were older, alcoholic 
 derelicts, or pensioners had the greatest number of 
 different disorders, while young men, light or mod- 
 erate drinkers, or men who were working had the 
 fewest. 
 
 Disabling effects of illness 
 
 Illness caused the average man on skid row to reduce 
 his usual activities for 3.3 of the 14 days in the pre- 
 ceding two weeks. This means that during midwinter 
 (the time the survey was taken), between one-fourth 
 and one-fifth of the men on skid row are sick on any 
 given day. It also means that if continued throughout 
 the year, the average man on skid row would have 
 85 sick days out of 365. This is 3.3 times the rate 
 among the general U. S. population reported by the 
 National Health Survey for this season of the year. 
 
 The men had spent an average of one day of the 
 past two weeks in bed as a result of illness. This was 
 2.4 times the rate of bed-disability per year among the 
 general population at this time of year. It is also 
 roughly 4 times the rate for males of all ages, and is 
 1.7 times the rate for males 65 years of age and 
 over among the general population. Sickness was caus- 
 ing the men on skid row to stay away from work or 
 to avoid looking for work at the rate of 53 days per 
 year, which is 4.1 times the rate among the general 
 working population for this season of the year. It also 
 means that on any given working day in midwinter, 
 slightly more than 20 per cent of the workingmen on 
 skid row are away from work because of illness. Among 
 the general population, even workers who are 65 years 
 of age lose fewer than one-half this many days of work 
 
 due to illness. 
 
 Even when allowance is made for the age composi- 
 tion of the skid row population, illness has roughly 
 2.0 to 2.5 times the disabling effect upon skid row resi- 
 dents that it has upon the male population generally. 
 Living on skid row may not cause people to get sick. 
 This high rate may be due partly to the fact that sick 
 people who have no families to take care of them and 
 who lack funds may move (or be moved) to skid row 
 to live. Heavy drinking by some of the men may drive 
 illness rates up. 
 
 A. Chronic conditions 
 
 These statistics state the number of cases of each 
 chronic condition that had been present at some time 
 within the past year among each 1,000 men. A high 
 percentage of chronic conditions are not easily "cured," 
 but can only be arrested or retarded I especially under 
 the conditions of minimum medical care found on skid 
 row). The following statistics are a fairly true meas- 
 ure of current prevalence of these conditions among 
 the homeless men. 
 
 Approximate 
 Disease Prevalence 
 
 Tuberculosis 1 man in 30 
 
 Mental illness 1 man in 11 
 
 Mental and nervous trouble 1 man in 11 
 
 (in addition 
 to above) 
 
 Chronic disorders of the digestive system . 1 man 
 
 Arthritis and rheumatism 1 man 
 
 Other diseases of muscles, bones, joints. . 1 man 
 
 Impaired hearing 1 man 
 
 Impaired vision 1 man 
 
 Hernia 1 man 
 
 Hypertension 1 man 
 
 Hemorrhoids 1 man 
 
 Heart diseases 1 man 
 
 Ulcers of the stomach 1 man 
 
 Asthma 1 man 
 
 Skin infection 1 man 
 
 Missing foot or arm 1 man 
 
 nlO 
 
 n8 
 
 n 4 
 
 n9 
 
 nl6 
 
 nl2 
 
 nl6 
 
 nl4 
 
 n 16 
 
 n40 
 
 n 11 
 
 n25 
 
 nl6 
 
 Although National Health Survey statistics are not 
 yet available with which to compare these prevalences 
 in the general population, it is almost certain that the 
 illness rates are considerably higher on skid row. 
 
 Chronic ailments are generally afflictions of middle 
 and old age. However, the rates of chronic illness are 
 surprisingly high even among younger men on skid 
 row. Young men tend to be afflicted severely with: 
 
 Tuberculosis 
 
 Mental illness and nervous troubles 
 
 Miscellaneous disorders of the respiratory system 
 
 Ulcers of stomach 
 
 Arthritis and rheumatism 
 
 Conditions of bones and joints 
 
 page 22 
 
Surprisingly, the highest rates for many of the 
 chronic ailments are not found among the older men 
 ( those 65 years of age or older ) but among the middle- 
 aged men, 45-64. This may be the difference between 
 pensioners, who have ready access to medical care, and 
 non-pensioners who have little access to medical care. 
 For example, rates of the following diseases are lower 
 among the older men than among the middle-aged men: 
 
 Tuberculosis 
 
 Asthma and hay fever 
 
 Mental illness 
 
 Nervous conditions, ill defined 
 
 Hemorrhoids 
 
 Arthritis and rheumatism 
 
 Other conditions of muscles, bones, joints 
 
 Sinusitis 
 
 Bronchitis 
 
 Miscellaneous diseases of the digestive system 
 
 Back conditions 
 
 Paralysis of extremities 
 
 Absence of extremities 
 This is a rather long and impressive list, and could 
 not possibly be a chance occurrence. One can only 
 conclude that the older men live more regular lives, 
 take better care of themselves, and receive more medi- 
 cal care than the middle-aged men on skid row or these 
 older men had less illness when they were younger. 
 
 B. Acute conditions 
 
 Acute conditions are defined as illness or injury con- 
 ditions of 3 months or less duration (that are not arbi- 
 trarily defined as chronic ) that had afflicted the respon- 
 dent during the two weeks preceding the interview. 
 The common cold and other acute respiratory condi- 
 tions are the most common acute conditions. About 1 
 person in 14 had suffered one or more days of reduced 
 activity in the past week because of a respiratory 
 condition. 
 
 Injuries are a common form of acute condition on 
 skid row. 
 
 2.4 per cent were suffering from a fracture or dis- 
 location. 
 
 1.2 per cent were suffering from a contusion. 
 
 0.9 per cent were suffering from open wounds and 
 
 lacerations. 
 0.5 per cent were suffering from sprains and 
 
 strains. 
 
 1.5 per cent were suffering from other current 
 injuries. 
 
 If there were no duplications (a few men had more 
 than one injury) at the time of the survey, 1 man in 
 8 suffered one day or more of reduced activity because 
 of an injury. 
 
 Severe digestive upsets are comparatively common 
 on skid row. Two per cent of the men reported one or 
 more days of reduced activity during the past two 
 weeks because of this. 
 
 Except for tuberculosis, infectious and parasitic- 
 diseases (typhoid fever, dysentery, venereal diseases, 
 scarlet fever, and smallpox ) appear to be uncommon 
 on skid row as elsewhere in the population. It is en- 
 tirely possible that some of these diseases were present 
 but either not reported or reported as other conditions. 
 Also, cases of infectious diseases, when detected, are 
 removed from the hotels. 
 
 The statistics for acute conditions probably are 
 gross understatements. Despite this, when adjusted for 
 age and season, they show an incidence and prevalence 
 that is about as high as the general population. It is 
 very probable, therefore, that acute diseases have con- 
 siderably higher rates than among the general popula- 
 tion. The disorders reported are of the same general 
 type as for the general population, with a heavy em- 
 phasis on respiratory diseases. The major exceptions 
 are injuries, fractures, and wounds. These occur on 
 skid row at a rate that is considerably higher than 
 among the general population. 
 Disability status 
 
 In determining disability status, no account was 
 taken of any drinking problem the man may have had. 
 Moreover, the physician's estimates of disability were 
 oriented toward the man's capacity to do physical labor 
 of the type demanded of operatives, service workers, 
 and unskilled laborers. When tabulated, the physician's 
 classification produced the following distribution of 
 disability status of homeless men on skid row: 
 
 Disability Per Cent of 
 
 Status Homeless Men 
 
 Total 100.0 
 
 Too old to work 8.8 
 
 Unable to work 1.5 
 
 Severely handicapped 9.4 
 
 Moderately handicapped 26.8 
 
 Slightly handicapped 25.1 
 
 Not handicapped 28.4 
 
 Solely on the basis of physical health, 90 per cent 
 of the men on skid row are capable of doing at least 
 some gainful work to help support themselves. More- 
 over, if a moderately handicapped man could be placed 
 in "sheltered" employment where he could earn at 
 least his minimum necessities, and if a slightly handi- 
 capped man could be fully self-supporting with only 
 a little assistance in finding a job, not less than 80 per 
 cent of the men on skid row could be helped to become 
 completely self-supporting, from the point of view of 
 physical health if they did not have a drinking or other 
 psychological problem. Yet not less than 36 per cent 
 of the homeless men reported that they were too old 
 to work or too disabled to work. The notion is false 
 that skid row is populated predominantly by helpless 
 cripples and men too sickly to be rehabilitated. 
 
 On the other hand, it must be emphasized that physi- 
 cal handicaps are very prevalent among the residents 
 
 page 23 
 
of skid row — much more so than in the general popu- 
 lation. Only one man in four (28.4 per cent) is com- 
 pletely free from disability which impairs his working 
 capacity at least to some extent, and almost one in ten 
 is so severely handicapped that he is unable to hold 
 a full-time job. More than one in four is moderately 
 handicapped, and is restricted in the amounts and 
 types of work he can do. More than one-half of the 
 skid row population is physically handicapped to the 
 extent that at least some measure of special considera- 
 tion would be necessary on the part of an employer 
 before he would provide employment even if drinking 
 were not involved. 
 
 Disability and drinking 
 
 Disability and drinking are almost, but not quite, 
 unrelated to each other. The men who control their 
 drinking tend to fall at the extremes; either they are 
 severely disabled (too old or unable to work) or not 
 disabled at all. The moderately handicapped and 
 slightly handicapped groups contain the highest per- 
 centage of alcoholic derelicts and heavy drinkers. The 
 drinking classification of the large group of men with 
 no disability has a disproportionately large share of 
 teetotalers and light drinkers, but it also contains a 
 substantial number of heavy drinkers. 
 
 For only about 4 per cent of the homeless men could 
 disability have led to above-average drinking. Actually 
 above-average drinking may have created their disabil- 
 ity. While these differences are statistically significant 
 and worthy of considering, they should not be over 
 emphasized. On the one hand, these findings support 
 the contention that there are many men on skid row 
 because of poverty caused by severe disability or old 
 age. The disproportionately large share of teetotalers 
 and light drinkers among the most severely disabled 
 suggests that this is true. On the other hand, they lend 
 some support to a theory that drinking is one way 
 that disabled men sometimes take to escape the dis- 
 appointments of being unable to "make good." The 
 relationship between drinking and disability is: 
 
 Per Cent 
 
 Men with a serious drinking problem and a 
 
 serious disability problem 24 
 
 Men with a serious drinking problem and no 
 
 serious disability problem 33 
 
 Men with no serious drinking problem but 
 
 with a serious disability problem 22 
 
 Men with no serious drinking problem and no 
 
 serious disability problem 21 
 
 All Men 100 
 
 Note: In making the above classification, "moderate 
 drinkers" were assumed to have (at least po- 
 tentially) a serious drinking problem, while 
 slightly handicapped men were assumed to 
 have no serious disability problem. 
 
 The drinking-disability-age classification 
 
 To rehabilitate the men on skid row, the three most 
 important factors to be considered are: their disability 
 status, their drinking classification, and their age. By 
 grouping all possible combinations of these three fac- 
 tors into the fewest possible categories, a 12-category 
 drinking-disability-age classification was constructed 
 to be used throughout this study. The categories of 
 this classification, and the percentage of homeless men 
 falling in each category, are as follows: 
 
 Drinking-disability-age Estimated Per Cent of 
 classification all Men on Skid Row 
 
 A. Severely and moderately handicapped* . .46.6 
 
 1. Elderly — 65 years of age or older 
 
 Teetotaler and light drinkers 9.7 
 
 Moderate and heavy drinkers** .... 4.3 
 
 2. Young and Middle-aged — 20 to 64 years 
 
 Teetotaler and light drinkers 12.6 
 
 Moderate drinkers 6.8 
 
 Heavy drinkers and derelicts 13.2 
 
 20-33 years of age 4.3 
 
 45-64 years of age 8.9 
 
 B. Slightly and not handicapped 53.4 
 
 1. Elderly — 65 years of age or older 
 
 Teetotaler and light drinkers 2.3 
 
 Moderate and heavy drinkers**... 1.2 
 
 2. Young and Middle-aged — 20 to 64 years 
 
 Teetotaler and light drinkers 18.5 
 
 Moderate drinkers 13.3 
 
 Heavy drinkers and derelicts 18.1 
 
 20-44 years of age 10.4 
 
 45-64 years of age 7.7 
 
 * Includes those unable to work. 
 ** Includes alcoholic derelicts. 
 
 This classification leads to the following findings 
 significant for the rehabilitation of skid row. 
 
 a. Of the elderly men 65 years of age or older ( 17.5 
 per cent of skid row's population ) , only about 
 one-third may be said to have a drinking prob- 
 lem (moderate or heavy drinkers). Of all elderly 
 men, both those with and those without a drink- 
 ing problem, about 80 per cent are seriously 
 handicapped. 
 
 b. About 20 per cent of the men on skid row seem 
 to be in no immediate need of physical rehabili- 
 tation or treatment for alcoholism in that they 
 do not have a drinking problem, are in the work- 
 ing ages, and have no serious handicap. 
 
 c. The group of heavy drinkers that would seem to 
 be the "most promising" prospects for rehabilita- 
 tion are the younger men (20-44 years of age) 
 who are not handicapped. Ten per cent of the 
 men on skid row (roughly 1,200 men) fall into 
 this group. 
 
 d. The group of heavy drinkers that are the "least 
 promising" prospects for rehabilitation would 
 
 page 24 
 
seem to be the older men (45-64 years of age) 
 who also have a serious physical disability. They 
 comprise about 9 per cent of all men on skid row. 
 e. The "intermediate groups" with respect to reha- 
 bilitation are those that are (a) older but not 
 handicapped, or (b) younger and handicapped. 
 About 12 per cent of the men fall into one of 
 these two groups. 
 In order to evaluate the extent of physical rehabili- 
 tation that would be necessary to improve the employ- 
 ment status of skid row residents, the physician who 
 assisted in the study was asked to imagine that each 
 man was to be given all of the normal medical treat- 
 ment and care that his condition indicated was needed, 
 omitting extremely costly items that these men could 
 not possibly afford. Then, presuming that such treat- 
 ment were somehow provided, the physician was asked 
 to rate each man again according to his estimate of 
 how handicapped he would still be after the treatment. 
 The same categories and assumptions made in the 
 original rating were applied in the estimating of the 
 extent of physical disability that would remain after 
 medical treatment. It was assumed that problems of 
 alcoholism would be solved by another program. Fol- 
 lowing is a tabulation of the results: 
 
 Rehabilitation Status Per Implied Num- 
 
 Cent ber of Men 
 No Change after Medical of the on Skid Rows 
 Treatment Men of Chicago 
 
 Too old to work 8.8 1,049 
 
 Unable to work, both before 
 
 and after 1.2 143 
 
 Severely handicapped, both be- 
 fore and after 5.7 680 
 
 Moderately handicapped, both 
 
 before and after 14.3 1,705 
 
 Slightly handicapped, both be- 
 fore and after 8.5 1,014 
 
 Rehabilitation Status Im- 
 proved by Treatment 
 
 Rehabilitated to be only mod- 
 erately handicapped 3.6 429 
 
 Rehabilitated to be only slight- 
 ly handicapped 11.9 1,419 
 
 Rehabilitated to be not handi- 
 capped at all 17.5 2,087 
 
 Originally not Handicapped. 
 
 No Treatment Needed. . . 28.5 3,399 
 
 Thus we find that a program of medical treatment 
 would not only improve the well-being of a number 
 of unhealthy men, it would also substantially improve 
 the potential earning power of 33 per cent of these 
 homeless men. This is roughly 4,000 men. The dra- 
 matic improvement that would be effected is shown by 
 comparing the percentage distribution of the men by 
 their disability status before and after treatment. 
 
 
 Percentage 
 
 
 Before 
 
 After 
 
 
 
 Treat- 
 
 Treat- 
 
 
 Disability Status 
 
 ment 
 
 ment 
 
 Change 
 
 Too old to work, unable 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 10.2 
 
 10.0 
 
 — 0.2 
 
 Severely handicapped . . 
 
 9.4 
 
 5.7 
 
 — 3.7 
 
 Moderately handicapped 
 
 . 26.8 
 
 17.9 
 
 — 8.9 
 
 Slightly handicapped . . . 
 
 . 25.1 
 
 20.4 
 
 — 4.7 
 
 Not handicapped 
 
 . 28.5 
 
 46.0 
 
 17.5 
 
 After such a treatment program, almost one-half of 
 the men would not be physically handicapped, and 
 almost a third of those who had been either severely 
 handicapped or moderately handicapped could be 
 transferred to the "slightly handicapped" category. 
 Thus, a systematic program of medical treatment for 
 the purpose of reliabilitation could transform thou- 
 sands of the skid row men from dependent, unem- 
 ployable, cast-off dregs on the labor market to self- 
 sustaining earners. It could make partially self-sup- 
 porting (or even entirely self-supporting workers un- 
 der sheltered conditions) hundreds of men who are 
 now severely handicapped. Such a program must be 
 accompanied, of course, by a program for treatment 
 for alcoholism where the man is a heavy drinker. 
 Many of the handicapped men, however, are not 
 alcoholic. 
 
 Earning a livelihood is particularly difficult for the handi- 
 capped men. The occupation of news vendor is one of 
 the few jobs that can be filled by handicapped men 
 without special training. 
 
 page 25 
 
The Cost of a Program of Medical 
 Rehabilitation 
 
 The question immediately arises, "How much would 
 it cost to provide this rehabilitation treatment?" The 
 answer is expressed in the cost per man, instead of 
 total costs. This approach also makes it possible to 
 answer questions concerning "How many men could 
 be rehabilitated for how many dollars?" For an aver- 
 age skid row man, with an average amount of disease 
 and disability, the medical care required would be as 
 follows: 
 
 Medical Care Required Average Per Man 
 
 Days in hospital 5.6 
 
 Days as outpatient 2.1 
 
 Follow-up visits lo clinic 4.7 
 
 Total Cost $242 
 
 Hospitalization $105 
 
 Cost of clinic visits 37 
 
 Cost of surgeon 27 
 
 Cost of drugs 74 
 
 Time from work (if working) .... 2.1 weeks 
 
 The cost of rehabilitating a younger man is less than 
 that of rehabilitating a middle-aged or older man be- 
 cause he has fewer ailments. The cost of rehabilitating 
 a teetotaler is about the same as that of rehabilitating 
 a moderate drinker. The cost of "patching up" an 
 alcoholic derelict is considerably greater, because he 
 has more numerous and more serious ailments. A bet- 
 ter idea of the cost may be obtained by classifying 
 the men according to their rehabilitation status: 
 
 Estimated 
 
 Total Cost 
 (Thou- 
 Change in Medical Number sands of 
 
 Status Cost of Men Dollars) 
 
 No change after 
 medical treatment 
 
 Too old to work $170 1,049 $178 
 
 Unable to work, both 
 
 before and after . . . 380 143 54 
 
 Severely handicapped, 
 
 both before and after 892 680 607 
 
 Moderately handi- 
 capped, both before 
 
 and after 315 1,705 537 
 
 Slightly handicapped, 
 
 both before and after 135 1,014 137 
 
 Improved by medical treatment 
 Improved to be 
 
 moderately 
 
 handicapped 1,625 429 697 
 
 Improved to be slightly 
 
 handicapped 303 1,419 430 
 
 Improved to be not 
 
 handicapped at all. . 193 2,087 403 
 
 The total cost of such a program, if carried out for 
 all categories of men, would be 3 million dollars. This 
 is a staggering figure. On the one hand it measures 
 how much it would cost the taxpayer to remedy the 
 health situation of these men: on the other hand it 
 measures just how much in need of help these men are. 
 From some viewpoints this seems reasonable and mod- 
 est in size. This $3 million is about two months pay of 
 the 1.050 men whose rehabilitation status would be im- 
 proved by such a program. One man kept on General 
 Public Assistance for one year costs the City and State 
 about $1,000. This amount could rehabilitate 3 mod- 
 erately handicapped men to a point where they would 
 be only slightly handicapped, and could rehabilitate 5 
 slightly handicapped men to a point where they are 
 not handicapped at all. Rehabilitation now would keep 
 many of these men off General Public Assistance a few 
 years from now. 
 
 It must be emphasized that the materials of this chap- 
 ter make it clear that if a program of medical rehabili- 
 tation is undertaken, it must be much more than just a 
 first-aid station set up along skid row to take care of 
 emergency wounds and administer antibiotics — al- 
 though there is a genuine place for that kind of medical 
 help too. This program would require the kind of 
 medical treatment that repairs hernias, treats ulcers 
 and other chronic digestive ailments, brings down high 
 blood pressure, corrects prostate trouble, and dimin- 
 ishes the disabling effects, insofar as possible, of other 
 chronic ailments. It requires regular hospital facilities, 
 with a staff of specialists and expert diagnosticians. 
 
 And, it must be re-emphasized, this program does 
 not include treatment for alcoholism. Neither does it 
 include provision of badly needed dental care. 
 
 Summary 
 
 Residents of skid row are disabled from illness to a 
 far greater extent than the general male population of 
 the same ages. This excess of illness is not due so much 
 to acute and infectious diseases (although it is sus- 
 pected that the prevalence of acute diseases is greater 
 than reported in the survey I than as to chronic ail- 
 ments. A high percentage of the men suffer from 
 severe and multiple chronic disorders, and as a con- 
 sequence are partially disabled or handicapped for 
 employment. A substantial number of these people are 
 teetotalers or only light drinkers; they seem to live on 
 skid row because they are poor, and seem to be poor 
 because they are chronically ill. Among the heavy 
 drinkers, alcoholism is complicated by chronic sick- 
 ness in a substantial proportion of cases. Rehabilita- 
 tion of such men would require a double-barreled ap- 
 proach of medical care and treatment for alcoholism. 
 However, a substantial share of the problem drinkers 
 are only slightly handicapped physically or are not 
 handicapped at all. 
 
 page 26 
 
A high percentage of the men on skid row are in 
 need of medical care they cannot afford. In a high per- 
 centage of cases, the disorders from which they suffer 
 could be greatly relieved and rendered much less dis- 
 abling by appropriate medical treatment. If, as a part 
 of a rehabilitation and renewal program, there was 
 a program of medical rehabilitation it could greatly 
 
 reduce the amount of physical disability and greatly 
 increase the employability of the men. For certain 
 categories of men who are not chronic alcoholics (for 
 example, non-alcoholic workingmen suffering from 
 hernia), a great deal of rehabilitation could be ac- 
 complished at moderate cost. 
 
 Crutches and canes, plaster casts and band- 
 ages are common sights on skid row. Living 
 alone, unable to afford proper diet or medi- 
 cal care, the skid row resident is particularly 
 susceptible to illness and injury. Many of 
 these men could be rehabilitated by prompt 
 and thorough treatment. 
 
 Some of the men have severe disabilities 
 from job or other accidents. This double- 
 amputee (below) has no artificial replace- 
 ment for his missing limbs but moves about 
 by use of a simple platform on wheels. 
 
 page 27 
 
Chapter 
 
 8 
 
 The Workingman on Skid Row 
 
 Of the residents of skid row that fell in the sample 
 of this study only 4 out of every 10 worked at any 
 job during the week preceding their interview. How- 
 ever, 86 percent had worked sometime during the previ- 
 ous year. Work status was determined on these two 
 hases: la) those who had worked during the week 
 preceding the interview, and (bl those who had worked 
 at some time during the preceding year. This chapter 
 deals with the wage earner and relates the character- 
 istics of his employment with the drinking-disability 
 and age classifications. To obtain a better picture of 
 the workingman. his wages, income, hours worked and 
 type of job are analyzed. 
 
 Work status and drinking classification. — It is 
 
 neither the teetotaler nor the light drinkers who are 
 most likely to be employed. Instead, it is the moderate 
 drinkers who have the highest percentage of men work- 
 ing. (Teetotalers and light drinkers are often old or 
 disabled men who are retired or cannot work, and a 
 high percentage of alcoholic derelicts are incapable 
 of working or else are not inclined to work. ) But none 
 of the drinking classes contain a majority of working 
 men; less than one-half of the men in any drinking 
 classification had worked during the preceding week. 
 Hence, drinking is only one of possibly several factors 
 that make men on skid row unable or indisposed to 
 work. 
 
 Nevertheless, if a man does work there are very 
 definite interrelationships between his drinking classi- 
 fication and the amount of work he gets and the types 
 of jobs he holds. Unemployment rates are much higher 
 among those who drink freely or excessively than 
 among those who do not. And an extraordinarily high 
 percentage 1 30 percent) of alcoholic derelicts frankly 
 stated that they had not cared to work during the 
 preceding week. Working men who are light drinkers 
 or moderate drinkers are much more inclined to hold 
 steady jobs than those who are heavy drinkers or alco- 
 holic derelicts. If the) are employed at all. heavy 
 drinkers and derelicts arc more likely to be employed 
 on a day-to-day basis as spot job workers. 
 
 Disability and drinking and involuntary un- 
 employment in relation to work status. — Among 
 skid row men. age and physical disability are much 
 stronger deterrents to working than is drinking. Only 
 a small percentage of men 65 and over and of men who 
 are severely or moderately handicapped are reported 
 as employed — irrespective of their drinking status. 
 Nevertheless, moderate or heavy drinking has an inde- 
 pendent additional effect which tends to reduce the 
 proportion of men who are employed. Thus, the group 
 of men on skid row who are the most actively engaged 
 in working are the younger ones who are not handi- 
 capped and who are not heavy drinkers 1 64 percent of 
 this group had worked in the week preceding the in- 
 terview I . Among the not-handicapped men of working 
 ages it is the heavy drinkers and alcoholic derelicts 
 who are working least. But. again, the employment- 
 destroying effect of drinking appears to be much 
 smaller than the effects of age and physical disability. 
 
 Involuntary unemployment is perhaps the most im- 
 portant single factor that explains why large numbers 
 of men had not worked during the week preceding 
 their interview. I It is much more difficult to evaluate 
 the validity of the responses concerning unemployment 
 according to drinking status, because a heavy drinker 
 may have falsely reported himself as unemployed when 
 actually he may have been on a drinking spree and not 
 interested in working. This limitation does not apply 
 to light drinkers, however, and rates of unemployment 
 were very high, even among able-bodied young men 
 who were only light drinkers.) 
 
 As mentioned earlier, there is a great seasonal 
 fluctuation in skid row employment. High unemploy- 
 ment rates are very common during the winter months. 
 Even though a resident of skid row is eager to work, 
 does not drink, and is physically qualified, there are not 
 enough jobs to go around. At the depths of the winter 
 slow-down in hiring, he cannot count on a full week's 
 work, or even some work every week. 
 
 page 28 
 
Almost all of the men on skid row, under 65 years 
 of age, even the heavy drinkers, are potential workers; 
 86 percent of them had worked at some job sometime 
 during the year preceding the interview. There was 
 almost no variation in this by drinking classification 
 — even 88 percent of the alcoholic derelicts had worked 
 at some time during the preceding year. At the time 
 of the interview only about one-half of the men were 
 at work. This is explained by four factors: physical 
 disability; chronic unemployment, with its seasonal 
 fluctuations; age; and drinking status. Drinking status 
 ranks below the other three as an explanation for not 
 working. 
 
 High unemployment rates among these men are due 
 in part to the comparatively poor productivity of some 
 of them when they are employed. Because a significant- 
 ly above-average percentage of men from skid row 
 are heavy drinkers, are not in good physical health, 
 and are said to be irregular and not dependable on the 
 job, employers appear to have developed a stereotyped 
 opinion that all men who give skid row addresses are 
 irresponsible drunkards. High unemployment rates 
 among non-drinking and physically fit homeless men, 
 willing to work, may be due in part to this attitude 
 among employers. 
 
 Usual versus present occupation. — Information 
 pertaining to occupation referred to present occupa- 
 tion. Each man was also asked a series of questions 
 concerning his work during the past year. By noting 
 the types of jobs at which he worked most, a "usual 
 occupation" was recorded for each. In most cases this 
 was the job the man held longest during the past year. 
 The differences in distribution between the present oc- 
 cupation and the usual occupation are not great. 
 
 There are a few more jobs as white collar workers 
 ( messengers ) and operatives in factories on a year- 
 round basis than in the wintertime. 
 
 Usual industry of employment. — The usual in- 
 dustry in which the man is employed was determined 
 by a procedure similar to that followed for obtaining 
 usual occupation. A comparison between year-round 
 average (usual industry) and wintertime employment 
 (present industry during week preceding the interview) 
 was made. During the warm-weather months, em- 
 ployed skid row laborers work in agriculture, construc- 
 tion, and manufacturing to a much greater extent than 
 during the winter months. By far the greatest seasonal 
 shifts are between railroad work and other types of 
 work. On a year-round basis on skid row, one man 
 in six. who works, has railroad work as his major 
 source of livelihood. During the winter months, when 
 railroad work is not available, employment is sought 
 in a variety of service industries and in missions. 
 
 A very striking relationship exists between being a 
 railroad worker and being a heavy drinker. More than 
 one-fourth of all heavy drinkers on skid row who 
 worked in the previous year reported railroad work as 
 the usual industry of employment. And 38 percent of 
 the alcoholic derelicts who had worked claimed rail- 
 road work as their usual occupation. In contrast, only 
 12 percent of the men who were teetotalers or light 
 drinkers were railroad workers. 
 
 Two interpretations may be placed upon this very 
 important finding, (a) The railroad is a major bene- 
 factor of chronic alcoholics. It employs them when 
 no one else will and thereby permits many to be self- 
 supporting. It takes them off skid row for prolonged 
 periods of time, dries them out, gives them a balanced 
 diet and exercise which temporarily breaks the cycle 
 of incessant drinking, (b) The railroad maintenance 
 gang is one of the last outposts of the work-drinking 
 culture, where the conditions of work, and the living 
 arrangements create tensions and make normal family 
 life impossible to such an extent that the drinking 
 culture thrives as a substitute. 
 
 By the first view, the railway maintenance gang 
 provides some welfare service. By the second view, 
 the all-male railway maintenance gang perpetuates a 
 social situation that once was widely characteristic of 
 frontier America in mining, logging, cattle herding, 
 and many other occupations. Males worked in groups 
 in prolonged isolation from average community con- 
 tacts, and developed and perpetuated a tradition of 
 heavy drinking. 
 
 Types of jobs held last year. — During the course 
 of a year, the skid row men hold a great variety of 
 jobs. A considerable share have contact with "better 
 jobs" which they do not or cannot keep. Almost 10 
 percent of the men had jobs as craftsmen, 10 percent 
 worked as clerical workers, and 20 percent were oper- 
 atives. These are much larger proportions than were 
 reported for usual occupation. Among men who had 
 arrived at skid row during the past year, some of these 
 better jobs may have been held before the man "slid 
 down" to skid row. 
 
 On the other hand, almost all of the men had con- 
 tact with lower-paying jobs during the year. Nearly 
 one-half of them had worked as laborers and one-half 
 as service workers. Thus, many who might earn high 
 wages as gandies during the summer may be reduced 
 to washing dishes or scavenging for bottles during the 
 winter. An unusually high percentage of heavy drink- 
 ers, especially those aged 20-44 years, were likely to 
 have worked as laborers. 
 
 Skid row is not a winter stopping-over place for 
 large numbers of agricultural workers. Only 4 percent 
 of the men interviewed reported that they had been 
 farm lahorers at any time during the preceding year. 
 
 page 29 
 
Hours worked by drinking-disability-age classi- 
 fication. — Only about one-half of skid row working- 
 men are employed at full-time jobs. Part-time work 
 is especially prevalent among the disabled and the 
 heavy drinkers. For example, 35 percent of the not- 
 handicapped men aged 45-64 who were heavy drinkers 
 worked less than 15 hours during the week preceding 
 the interview. ( Many of these were railroad workers 
 spending the winter living on their "rocking chair" 
 pay.) Only 14 percent of the not-handicapped tee- 
 totalers or light drinkers worked so few hours. 
 
 Surprisingly, however, the men who worked the most 
 hours during the week preceding the interview were 
 also inclined to be heavy drinkers. Among unskilled 
 workers and workers in service occupations (such as 
 restaurant dishwashers) where long hours are required, 
 heavy drinking is a leading pastime. This finding 
 could be stated in another way: many industries that 
 consent to hire chronic alcoholics make them work 
 long hours, often at very low pay. 
 
 Drinking, disability, and age do not explain all of 
 the part-time work, however. Even among not-handi- 
 capped men who were teetotalers or only light drinkers, 
 48 percent worked less than 35 hours during the week 
 preceding the interview. The reason is slack employ- 
 ment during the winter months, when the number of 
 job applicants is far greater than the number of jobs 
 available. 
 
 Wages and drinking-disability-age classifica- 
 tion. — In comparison with other workingmen, a high 
 percentage of physically disabled and heavy drinking 
 workingmen receive low wages. However, low rates 
 of pay are not confined to these two disadvantaged 
 groups. Even among workers who are not handicapped 
 and who are teetotalers or only light drinkers, 12.2 
 percent, or one man in eight, received 65 cents an hour 
 or less, and 27 percent were receiving less than the 
 minimum wages of $1.00 per hour. The disabled work- 
 ingman who does not drink is especially subject to low 
 pay; 45 percent of such men received less than SI. 00 
 per hour for their work. Among the comparatively 
 small group of men who were earning $1.75 per hour 
 or more, a disproportionately large share were tee- 
 totalers or only light drinkers. Yet many handicapped 
 men and heavy drinkers do receive wages of $1.75 per 
 hour or more. In fact, among the 26 percent of alco- 
 holic derelicts who had worked during the week pre- 
 ceding the interview, one-fifth I roughly 5 percent of 
 all derelicts) claimed wages of $1.75 per hour or more. 
 
 Wages earned last week by workingmen by 
 drinking-disability-age classifieation. — If earning 
 $25.00 per week is accepted as the minimum amount a 
 workingman needs to support himself with minimum 
 adequacy, then more than 40 percent of the working- 
 men on skid row earn less than such a minimum. The 
 disabled and the heavy drinker have the smallest earn- 
 
 For the men who are both able and willing to work, the Illinois State Employment Service office on West Madison 
 Street may provide casual day labor at no cost to the worker. 
 
 page 30 
 
ings, and the lowest rate of earning is reported by the 
 man who is both handicapped and alcoholic. More 
 than 60 percent of the heavy drinkers who worked and 
 who were moderately or severely handicapped earned 
 less than $25.00 during the week preceding the inter- 
 view. Also, one-third of the not-handicapped work- 
 ers who were teetotalers or light drinkers earned less 
 than the minimum for adequate self-maintenance. Pov- 
 erty due to inadequate earning power is very wide- 
 spread on skid row, even among workingmen who are 
 not disabled nor heavy drinkers. 
 
 Income earned last year by workingmen by 
 drinking-disability-age classification. — The pre- 
 ceding description, on the basis of weekly income dur- 
 ing the winter season, is also generally valid on an 
 annual basis. Continuing on the supposition that $25.00 
 per week I $1,300 per year) is the minimum income 
 consistent with decent and healthful living for a family- 
 less man, then about 40 percent of the workingmen 
 on skid row fail to earn enough during the year to 
 support themselves at this level. About one-seventh of 
 the men do not achieve even one-half of this minimum. 
 This inadequacy of income is greatest among the handi- 
 capped and among the heavy drinkers. Even the work- 
 ingmen who are not handicapped and are teetotalers or 
 light drinkers earn a minimum adequate livelihood in 
 only 70 percent of the cases. The 30 percent of able- 
 bodied non-alcoholics who earn inadequate incomes are 
 subject to large amounts of involuntary unemployment, 
 although a small minority of them may be indolent. 
 
 Sources of income by drinking-disability-age 
 classification. — The preceding discussion of the in- 
 come of workingmen on skid row provides a convenient 
 opportunity to digress long enough to report the sources 
 of income of all skid row men, by their drinking-age- 
 disability classification. Only about one-half of all 
 men who live on skid row support themselves entirely 
 from wages or salary. The other one-half either live 
 entirely on pensions of some type ( 10 percent ) or else 
 on some combinations of wages and pension. Of the 
 40 percent who combine wages and pensions to obtain 
 a livelihood, by far the greatest proportion shuttle be- 
 tween unemployment insurance and employment, with 
 employment furnishing one-half or more of the income 
 in a majority of cases. Each year, about 15 percent 
 of the men receive gifts of some sort from inheritances, 
 from begging, or from other sources, but this provides 
 as much as 10 percent of the total income for only 
 about 6 percent of the men. 
 
 Men who are physically handicapped get a much 
 greater share of their livelihood from pensions and 
 gifts, and less from wages than do men who are not 
 handicapped. Also, men who are heavy drinkers (espe- 
 cially younger men who are heavy drinkers) tend to 
 rely upon small pension payments (unemployment 
 
 compensation ) and upon gifts for a larger part of their 
 income than do men who arc not heavy drinkers. 
 
 Onl\ about 40 percent of the alcoholic derelicts 
 depend soleh upon wages; 60 percent rely upon pen- 
 sions or gifts at least in part: 10 percent obtain their 
 full livelihood from pensions, and the other 50 percent 
 rely upon a combination of gifts, pension, and wages. 
 About 12 percent of them received no wages at all 
 during the past year. (These figures add to more than 
 100 percent because of multiple sources of income. I 
 
 This information concerning sources of income re- 
 ported demonstrates, in yet another way, just how 
 much the entire economy of skid row depends upon 
 transfer payments of public funds for unemployment, 
 public welfare, old-age, Social Security, or other 
 pensions. 
 
 Number of jobs beld last year, by drinking- 
 age-disability classification. — The average skid row 
 man who works holds two or more jobs during the 
 course of a year. Only about 40 percent of the work- 
 ingmen had held only one job, and 16 percent worked 
 only at spot jobs. In making these calculations, a job 
 was counted only if it was a potential "regular" job. 
 and not a "spot job." A higher proportion of men 
 who were disabled and heavy drinkers had held two 
 or more jobs than men who were not disabled or not 
 heavy drinkers. Young men who were heavy drinkers 
 had by far the greatest number of job changes; 12 
 percent of such men had 5 or more "steady" jobs 
 during the past year. 
 
 Contrary to what may be general opinion, the per- 
 sons who worked only at "spot jobs" during the year 
 preceding the interview (had held no regular jobs) 
 were not preponderantly heavy drinkers, but were 
 handicapped teetotalers, light drinkers or moderate 
 drinkers. Fully one-third of all handicapped persons 
 who were teetotalers or light drinkers had worked only 
 as spot job workers. The "spot job" worker is less 
 likely to be a chronic alcoholic than a disabled person. 
 
 Weeks worked per job, by drinking-disability- 
 age classification. — How long can a skid row work- 
 man hold a regular job? Only 13 percent of all men 
 who worked during the year had held one job through- 
 out that time. At the other extreme, about 30 percent 
 either changed jobs every day or so (worked only at 
 spot jobs) or else changed regular jobs every two 
 months or oftener. An additional one-third of the men 
 who worked changed regular jobs every 2 to 6 months, 
 giving them a total of 2 to 6 job changes for the year. 
 
 The ability to hold a job for a long period of time 
 is related closely to not being handicapped and not 
 being a heavy drinker. The men who had the most 
 frequent job changes (worked the shortest time per 
 job) were heavy drinkers (especially young, not dis- 
 
 poge 31 
 
abled, heavy drinkers) and handicapped teetotalers 
 and moderate drinkers. Spot jobs were the only em- 
 ployment most of the handicapped could obtain. Em- 
 
 ployers have found that the handicapped person holds 
 his job for long periods of time, when properly placed 
 in a job. 
 
 Opportunities for work are few for the weak 
 and aged men on skid row. This aged pen- 
 sioner (top left) recovers bottles, paper and 
 scrap metals from refuse discarded by the 
 commercial activities on skid row. 
 
 Having collected salvageable items, the 
 scavengers sell their wares (center) in an 
 impromptu market. They receive one-half a 
 cent for every bottle. The man with a sack 
 on his shoulder has bottles to sell; the man 
 facing him is the prospective buyer. 
 
 This newsstand (below) on North Clark Street 
 has been operated for twenty-five years by 
 a resident of the area. 
 
 I 
 
Chapter 
 
 9 
 
 The Old Man and Pensioner 
 
 Forty-seven percent of all residents of skid row are 
 pensioners, that is, they were receiving payments of 
 money or benefits paid from public funds. The en- 
 suing material focuses on this group of men. 
 
 Number of Pensioners of Each Type. — An esti- 
 mated 5,628 men received some form of pension. The 
 breakdown is: 
 
 Estimated 
 
 Number of Percent 
 
 Men on of Total 
 
 Skid Row, Men on 
 
 Pension Status 1957 Skid Row, 
 
 Total 11,926 100.0 
 
 Non-pensioners 6,298 53.1 
 
 Pensioners, total* 5,628 46.9 
 
 Public assistance 2,640 22.0 
 
 Old-age assistance 264 2.2 
 
 Social Security 1,236 10.3 
 
 Military pension 660 5.5 
 
 Railroad retirement 204 1.7 
 
 Unemployment 
 
 compensation 1,428 11.9 
 
 Combination of Pensions: 
 Public assistance and Social 
 
 Security 696 5.8 
 
 Public assistance and 
 
 railroad retirement 60 0.5 
 
 Railroad retirement and old 
 
 age assistance 60 0.5 
 
 * Some of these men hold pensions from two sources. 
 
 The pensioners are grouped into three major types: 
 
 (a) Persons on earned retirement — men with Social 
 Security, military, or railroad retirement pen- 
 sions for elderly men. 
 
 I b ) Welfare pensioners — men on general public as- 
 sistance (relief), or Old Age Assistance. 
 
 (c) Temporary pensions — unemployment compen- 
 sation. 
 
 When grouped thus, the number of pensioners in 
 each major type is as follows: 
 
 Percent 
 Estimated of All 
 
 Number Percent Pen- 
 of Men of All sioners 
 
 on Skid Men on on 
 
 Rows, 1957 Skid Row Skid Row 
 5,628 46.9 100.0 
 
 1.694 14.1 30.1 
 
 Major Type 
 of Pension 
 
 Total Pensioners. 
 Earned Retirement . 
 Welfare Pensioners . 
 Temporary 
 
 2,502 
 
 Pensioners 1,432 
 
 20.9 
 
 11.9 
 
 44.5 
 
 25.4 
 
 Thus, of the total pensioners on skid row, 30 percent 
 live on pensions earned while they were younger, al- 
 most one-half are supported as public dependents, and 
 one-fourth are temporary public dependents receiving 
 unemployment compensation. This last figure is large 
 because of the number of men spending the winter on 
 their "rocking chair pay" from railroad employment. 
 
 The principal purpose of this chapter is to learn 
 how these three groups of men differ from each other, 
 and how all three differ from the group of men who 
 do not receive pensions. 
 
 Age in Relation to Pension Status. — About 30 
 percent of the earned retirement pensioners are under 
 65 years of age. This is a higher rate of retirement 
 before 65 than is found among the general population, 
 and represents retirement because of disability. Men 
 who are retired on military, Social Security, or rail- 
 road pensions before 65 tend to be disabled veterans, 
 men who have had an industrial accident or whose 
 health has been broken. 
 
 The group of pensioners on public welfare are 
 neither extremely young nor elderly, but two-thirds of 
 them are highly concentrated in the middle-aged group 
 between 45 and 64 years. The men on temporary 
 I unemployment ) pensions tend to be much younger, 
 with a substantial proportion being 35-44 years of age. 
 
 page 33 
 
Men who do not have a pension tend to be younger 
 than men who are pensioned. Almost everyone who 
 reaches age 65 is pensioned, either on an earned pen- 
 sion or a welfare pension. In fact, by the time skid 
 row men reach age 50, a substantial proportion are on 
 welfare pensions, and the percentage rises with in- 
 creasing age. At these ages, unskilled homeless work- 
 ers begin to experience health breakdowns and no 
 longer can support themselves. 
 
 Educational Attainment in Relation to Pen- 
 sion Status. — Men who are not pensioned tend to 
 have a higher educational attainment than men who 
 are pensioned, while the men on earned retirement 
 pensions tend to be highly concentrated in the gram- 
 mar school educational level. This is largely a func- 
 tion of age; younger men tend not to have pensions 
 and they also tend to have more education. Despite 
 the fact that they are younger, the people on public 
 welfare tend to be less educated than the other types of 
 earned retirement pensioners. This suggests that many 
 of them may be "unemployables" who are on welfare 
 because they have none of the educational qualifica- 
 tions that help to secure and retain a steady job. 
 
 Pension Status in Relation to Drinking Be- 
 havior. — Very few men who are on earned retirement 
 pensions are problem drinkers. Only 18 percent of 
 this group of pensioners are heavy drinkers or alco- 
 
 holic derelicts, which is only about one-half of the 
 proportion of heavy drinkers among the skid row popu- 
 lation as a whole. This finding belies the assertion 
 sometimes heard that when elderly men who have spent 
 a lifetime as common laborers get their Social Security 
 or railroad retirement pensions, they voluntarily retire 
 to skid row and spend the rest of their days doing what 
 they like to do best — drink. Instead, the facts indicate 
 that more than 80 percent of the earned retirement 
 pensioners who live on skid row live there against 
 their will, because inflation has destroyed the purchas- 
 ing power of their monthly pension check and their 
 ability to live elsewhere. 
 
 A very surprising aspect is the finding that more 
 than one-half ( 55 percent I of the men on public assist- 
 ance are teetotalers or light drinkers. Many people 
 believe that public welfare cases are relegated to 
 skid row hotels and restaurants only when they are 
 known to be confirmed alcoholics who cannot be 
 trusted with cash for meals or lodging. Such men are 
 given a "disbursing order" addressed to a particular 
 cubicle hotel or skid row restaurant, usually one chosen 
 by the recipient or recommended by the social worker. 
 The statistics indicate, however, that more than 1,200 
 men ( 590 teetotalers and 635 light drinkers ) are forced 
 to live on skid row against their will, simply as a mat- 
 ter of public economy. Since legislative enactment im- 
 poses a ceiling of $80 per month on the total grant 
 
 North Clark Street has many elderly pensioners who live in single-rooms. The hotels in this area are better main- 
 tained than elsewhere on skid row. The men living in this area are more stable and better behaved than other 
 residents of skid row. 
 
 page 34 
 
for Old Age Assistance and Disability Assistance, a 
 homeless man can scarcely maintain himself anywhere 
 else than on skid row (even though there are no de- 
 partmental requirements that he live there, except, per- 
 haps in cases where the grant is paid by disbursing 
 orders to particular skid row establishments). Even 
 then, the homeless man must live at a minimal level 
 of adequacy; after rent and restaurant meals are taken 
 care of, he has only $4.20 left from his monthly allow- 
 ance for all other expenses. 
 
 On the other hand, the men living on temporary 
 pensions (unemployment compensation) are highly 
 concentrated in the heavy drinking and alcoholic der- 
 elict groups. Only 4 percent of these men were tee- 
 totalers and 18 percent were light drinkers. Almost 
 50 percent of unemployment compensation recipients 
 were heavy drinkers or derelicts, and 28 percent were 
 alcoholic derelicts. A high percentage of these men are 
 the gandy dancers, who work in summer and spend 
 their winters drinking on "rocking chair" pay. They 
 reputedly are joined by men who shrewdly hold steady 
 jobs just long enough to qualify for unemployment 
 compensation and then suddenly become "unemployed" 
 until their accumulated compensation rights expire. 
 Thus, on skid row, desirable programs of social legis- 
 lation to protect men from unemployment have been 
 perverted by some to institutionalize alcoholic derelic- 
 tion. Welfare authorities might give some consider- 
 ation to administering aid in such a way that would 
 encourage the workingman to seek employment during 
 the winter months and to assure that his payments do 
 not lead to a winter-long spree of debilitating drinking. 
 
 However, it should not be concluded that all heavy 
 drinkers on skid row are gandy dancers or men living 
 on unemployment compensation. More than one-third 
 of the men who are not pensioners are heavy drinkers. 
 
 As the above discussion suggests, a high percentage 
 of teetotalers and light drinkers receive earned retire- 
 ment or welfare pensions, while one alcoholic derelict 
 in four was being kept alive by unemployment compen- 
 sation. However, the unemployment compensation 
 program should not be condemned. Even among the 
 gandy dancers, many do not come to skid row to spend 
 the winter drinking but stay in other towns or other 
 parts of Chicago. 
 
 Pension Status in Relation to Drinking-Dis- 
 ability-Age Classification. — About 79 percent of the 
 men who are on earned retirement pensions are dis- 
 abled. Although the men who had welfare pensions are 
 younger, almost the same proportion were also dis- 
 abled. Thus, physical disability is by far the leading 
 reason why a homeless man is given a welfare pension. 
 When age and physical disability are combined, they 
 account for 82 percent of the welfare pensions. Of 
 the 18 percent of welfare pensions that were given 
 to men who were neither elderly nor physically dis- 
 
 abled (about 450 pensioners), more than one-half 
 went to men who were teetotalers or light drinkers. 
 The often-heard comment on skid row that large num- 
 bers of ablebodied "bums" managed to get themselves 
 on the welfare rolls by deceit and conniving appears 
 not to be correct. If the information available here is 
 accurate, only about 100 men (about 4 percent of alco- 
 holic derelicts ) might possibly have accomplished this. 
 In addition, the number cited above is subject to sam- 
 pling error, and hence, could be either somewhat 
 smaller or larger than indicated. A homeless man who 
 has resided in Illinois for one year, who has exhausted 
 all employment compensation rights, and who has been 
 unable to obtain employment despite all efforts, is eligi- 
 ble for public welfare, provided he accepts a job if the 
 welfare department finds one for him. In view of the 
 high unemployment rates reported earlier, it is sur- 
 prising that the number of younger able-bodied men 
 on public assistance is as small as it is. 
 
 Only about one-third of the men on temporary pen- 
 sions are severely or moderately handicapped; the 
 other two-thirds are only slightly handicapped, or not 
 handicapped at all. But, as has already been discussed, 
 an extraordinarily large percentage of heavy drinkers 
 or alcoholic derelicts are in this group. One-fifth of all 
 skid row recipients of unemployment compensation are 
 young men between the ages of 20 and 44 who are 
 heavy drinkers or alcoholic derelicts, but who are only 
 slightly physically handicapped, if at all. 
 
 Usual Occupation Last Year and Pension Sta- 
 tus. — Almost one-half of the men receiving earned 
 retirement pensions had worked on at least one job 
 during the year preceding the interview. At least one- 
 third of the earned retirement pensioners had held one 
 or more odd jobs in order to earn extra money. In 
 view of the large percentage of men among this group 
 who are disabled or too old to work, this proportion im- 
 plies a very substantial effort to increase income. Dish- 
 washing in restaurants and delivering handbills are 
 the two most common jobs these men get, although a 
 few get jobs as laborers on railroad gangs, in stock- 
 rooms of wholesale and retail establishments, or even 
 in factories. 
 
 Only one-third of the men on welfare pensions 
 worked in the preceding year. These men are screened 
 for public relief because they are no longer able to be 
 self-supporting, either because of injury, disability, or 
 other conditions which have kept them from being 
 employed. 
 
 Pension Status and Usual Industry of Employ- 
 ment. More of the younger men who are not pen- 
 sioned tend to be employed in factories and at more 
 skilled jobs than the men who are pensioners. The con- 
 centration of gandy dancers on temporary wintertime 
 pensions is heavy; 42.5 percent of all men receiving 
 
 page 35 
 
unemployment compensation on skid row are laborers 
 in the transportation industry. 
 
 Pension Status and Wages Earned Last Week. 
 
 — Since the number of pensioners who work is quite 
 small, the size of the sample upon which the income 
 distributions are made is too small for very precise 
 generalization. However, it is abundantly clear that a 
 great majority of pensioners who work earn less than 
 $20 per week, and that at least 30 percent earned only 
 $10 a week or less. This is a function both of low wages 
 and the small number of hours each week for which 
 they are able to get work. The elderly skid row pen- 
 sioner seeking work with which to supplement his 
 meager income is in a very poor position with respect 
 to the labor market. He is either elderly or disabled 
 and he is competing with many younger, able-bodied 
 men for unskilled jobs. Hence, the wage bargain he 
 makes is often an unfavorable one. 
 
 Pension Status and Income Received During 
 the Past Year. — The really poverty-stricken people on 
 skid row are the pensioners who are on public welfare. 
 This is only another example of the situation which 
 
 ceived $2,500 or more during the year — which is 
 enough to support a single workingman in any good 
 rooming house area of Chicago. As has earlier been 
 described, many of this more affluent group of pen- 
 sioners are gandy dancers or factory workers who are 
 also heavy drinkers and spend their time between jobs 
 on skid row from choice rather than necessity. 
 
 Pension Status and Source of Income. — Almost 
 60 percent of the men on retirement pensions received 
 income from no other source during the preceding 
 year, while approximately one man in eight had re- 
 ceived at least one-half of his income from another 
 source. About one-half of the welfare pensioners re- 
 ceived no other funds except their pension benefits, 
 and more than two-thirds of them received 80 percent 
 or more of their income from welfare sources. A very 
 high percentage of the skid row men on public relief 
 must stay there for a comparatively long period of 
 time. Quite different is temporary unemployment com- 
 pensation. More than two-thirds of the men received 
 less than 20 percent of their income from temporary 
 pensions. 
 
 Many varieties of aged men find refuge on skid row. On the left is a scavenger who immigrated from Italy at 
 an early age. He was never able to find a good job, but has supported himself by the collection and sale of refuse. 
 This man goes to Mass every Sunday, he says, and drinks only an occasional glass of wine. On the right is an aged 
 pensioner who lives in a single room where he prepares his own meals. 
 
 reveals itself with monotonous regularity throughout 
 this study. Poverty and the public policy for dealing 
 with it are very substantial reasons for the existence 
 of skid row in Chicago. Some of the most financially 
 desperate people on skid row are welfare pensioners. 
 About 70 percent of these men received less than 
 $1,000 income in the year preceding the interview. In 
 contrast, only 13 percent of the workingmen not on 
 pensions received so little income. The men receiving 
 unemployment compensation are the most affluent 
 group on skid row. In order to be eligible for unem- 
 ployment compensation or "rocking chair pay" these 
 men must have worked at steady jobs, which almost 
 automatically means that their rate of pay was much 
 higher than the non-pensioners who work at spot jobs. 
 Almost 40 percent of the temporary pensioners re- 
 
 Pension Status and Number of Months Pen- 
 sion Has Been Received during the Past Year. — 
 
 Eighty-eight percent of the earned retirement pen- 
 sioners and 58 percent of the welfare pensioners re- 
 ceived payments during each of the 12 months pre- 
 ceding the interview. Men on welfare pensions tended 
 to fall into two distinct groups — the more or less 
 "permanent" pensioners, and a smaller group who re- 
 ceived pensions for only 2 or 4 or 6 months. Most 
 of this latter group consists of residents who are helped 
 over temporary emergencies. 
 
 The group of men who receive unemployment com- 
 pensation tend to spend a substantial proportion of the 
 year in that status. About one-third of the men re- 
 ceived unemployment compensation or other related 
 
 page 36 
 
temporary benefits for 2 to 5 months during the pre- 
 ceding year. An additional one-fourth had been pen- 
 sioners for 4 to 6 months. One man in ten in this 
 group even claimed being pensioned for 6 to 8 months, 
 and a few had even longer tenure. Not all of this was 
 necessarily unemployment compensation — the men 
 were classified according to their pension status at the 
 time of the interview. They may have been on relief 
 or receiving some other type of pension during the 
 preceding year. 
 
 How Pensioners Manage their Financial 
 Affairs. — More than one-half of all skid row men on 
 public welfare did not handle money, but instead re- 
 ceived disbursing orders. This arrangement is made 
 whenever it is believed that the man cannot be trusted 
 with cash because of his drinking habits or for other 
 reasons. Of the pensioners who did get checks, more 
 than one-third made use of the currency exchange for 
 check-cashing. Only 5 to 7 percent of all checks were 
 cashed at a bank. The rest were cashed at hotels, res- 
 taurants, or taverns. Among men who received earned 
 retirement pensions, about 10 percent of the checks 
 were usually cashed at a tavern. Missions cash only 
 a few checks for pensioners. The group of pensioners 
 
 who receive unemployment compensation did not dis- 
 cuss their financial affairs very fully; more than one- 
 third failed to answer questions about check-cashing 
 and other financial matters. 
 
 Almost one-half of the earned retirement pensioners 
 arrange for their rooms a full month in advance, and 
 an additional one-fourth pay went a week or more ( but 
 less than a month) in advance. Only about 15 per- 
 cent of the pensioners pay for their room by the day. 
 
 Questions concerning financial arrangements were 
 not asked of men who were not pensioners so that the 
 financial arrangements of pensioners and non-pen- 
 sioners cannot be compared. 
 
 Skid row pensioners tend to be very independent 
 about their meal arrangements. More than one-half of 
 the earned retirement pensioners pay cash for each 
 individual meal rather than purchasing meal tickets 
 or making boarding arrangements. About one-fourth 
 of these pensioners purchase meal tickets for a week 
 or more in advance, but only 13 percent arrange for 
 their meals for a full month in advance. The men on 
 welfare pensions who are not on disbursing orders have 
 a similar pattern, while the men on unemployment com- 
 pensation tend to do even less planning ahead for their 
 meals than the other two groups of pensioners. 
 
 This restaurant on West Madison Street has a choice of meals at prices ranging from 25c for a bowl of chili to 65c 
 for short ribs, potato, vegetable, bread and butter. Even the pensioner getting less than $3 a day can afford this diet. 
 
 page 37 
 
Chapter 
 
 10 
 
 Migration and Mobility 
 
 There is a mistaken notion that skid row residents 
 are highly mobile, and float from one city to another 
 at frequent intervals. The skid row homeless man often 
 is identified with the nomadic hobo. In his book The 
 Hobo, Nels Anderson discusses skid row as a com- 
 munity of hoboes, ex-hoboes, and transient workers 
 who spend their off season in the big city. In his book 
 and others, skid row was widely represented as a re- 
 gional labor pool from which industrialists can draw 
 to meet seasonal and emergency needs. Crews of 
 workers for railroad maintenance, farm harvesting, 
 logging and lumbering, highway and other construc- 
 tion in rural or remote areas, and cargo handling on 
 trucking, steamship, and freight lines were recruited 
 from the skid rows of Chicago. Minneapolis. New York. 
 Seattle, Los Angeles and other major cities. 
 
 Although this may have been the situation before 
 1940, it certainly is not true now. Except for the 
 "gandy dancer" and railroad commissary and freight 
 yard worker ( most of whom make one town their 
 headquarters and return to it when a particular assign- 
 ment is over ) , skid row is comprised of long-term resi- 
 dents who do not move about very much. In Chicago 
 the vast majority of residents are legal residents of the 
 state, and a substantial percentage were born in 
 Chicago. 
 
 Movement between Chieago and other Areas 
 
 About 70 percent of skid row residents were in Chi- 
 cago continuously during the 12 months prior to their 
 interview. Only 30 percent had resided outside Chi- 
 cago at any time during the preceding year. About 
 16 percent of the skid row men had shipped out for 
 temporary railway maintenance jobs and then returned. 
 Furthermore under normal circumstances one could 
 expect an additional 10-15 percent of the men who 
 live on skid row to be inmigrants who have come to 
 seek permanent jobs in Chicago with the intent of 
 settling down for an indefinite stay if they are success- 
 ful. The typical present-day homeless man on skid ion- 
 is not the nomadic type. As an acknowledged "port of 
 entry" for incoming migrants seeking to establish 
 
 themselves in Chicago, skid row has a substantial 
 percentage of newcomers. Hence, although a migration 
 rate for one year of 30 percent is roughly 5 or 6 times 
 the national average, it does not necessarily denote 
 massive amounts of wandering or floating. I_ ndoubtedly 
 many of the wanderers and floaters make use of skid 
 rows, but today they are only a minor segment of the 
 skid row population. 
 
 Only about 5 percent of the men interviewed spent 
 less than 10 weeks in Chicago during the preceding 
 year; the remaining 95 percent were there for a period 
 of 2 1 /i2 months or more. Residents of cubicle hotels 
 were more mobile than residents of hotels with single 
 rooms. The residents of skid row hotels with single 
 rooms have a migration rate that is almost as low as 
 that of the general population. But even in the cubicle 
 hotels, about 94 percent of the men had spent 10 weeks 
 or more in Chicago during the year preceding the inter- 
 views. ( See Appendix. Table X. ) The large number 
 of older and handicapped men are often captive resi- 
 dents with neither the means nor the motivation to 
 move to another city. 
 
 The only groups of mobile men were found living 
 in missions or sampled from mission soup lines, and 
 sleeping out and in jail. It is these groups, small in 
 comparison with the total skid row population, which 
 welfare workers most often encounter and which might 
 explain the tendency to overestimate the mobility of 
 skid row residents. 
 
 \<>t only are the skid row men less mobile then was 
 thought previously, but when they do leave Chicago, 
 they do not travel very far. Almost one-half of all 
 regional visits were made to the states of the East North 
 Central division, and about one-fourth were made to 
 the states of the West North Central division. Appar- 
 ently there is little circulation between Chicago's skid 
 row and the Atlantic Seaboard, the Pacific Coast, or 
 the Mountain divisions. The contact that is reported 
 for these divisions and with the South is probably due 
 in large part, to migrants from these areas arriving for 
 a permanent or a semi-permanent stay in Chicago. 
 
 page 38 
 
A disproportionately large share of trips were made 
 between Chicago and: 
 
 Minneapolis 
 
 Detroit 
 
 St. Louis 
 
 New York City 
 
 Los Angeles 
 
 Milwaukee 
 
 These are all cities with major skid rows. But they 
 are also either large nearby cities that have an unusual 
 attraction for all of Chicago's residents, or areas that 
 are attracting migrants from the entire nation. 
 
 There seems to be little evidence that such migration 
 as does occur is extremely concentrated between a few 
 major skid rows. Most trips are a departure from 
 skid row to some remote point away from a major 
 skid row, followed by a return. This pattern is created 
 largely by "gandy dancers," who comprise a very large 
 share of the mobile population. 
 
 Movement between Skid Row and other Types 
 of Residences 
 
 Exact statistics concerning the rate of circulation 
 between skid row and other residential areas are not 
 available, but indirect information is available. More 
 than 40 percent of the men on skid row had lived off 
 skid row during the year. This may include residence 
 in other neighborhoods before coming to live on skid 
 row, leaving skid row to live in a labor camp, or 
 moving out of skid row areas during times of steady 
 employment and returning only when the job ended. 
 
 Unfortunately, there is no way to determine, from 
 the sample for this study, the number of men who leave 
 skid row each year. However, the total in-migration 
 rate from all sources ( in-migration from non-skid row 
 areas in other communities and in-movement from 
 other neighborhoods of the city I is about 40 percent. 
 The total skid row population appears to be roughly 
 constant in size or growing only slowly. This suggests 
 that the rate of out-migration each year is also about 
 40 percent. Thus, for each 10 men one encounters on 
 skid row, 6 have been on a skid row continuously 
 throughout the year, and 4 are either newcomers or 
 men who have lived a part of the year away. And for 
 each set of 10 men there. 4 will drift out of skid row 
 or die in the area. Some of those who leave will return 
 from work camps, other skid rows, or from small 
 towns they are visiting. Some will never return because 
 they have improved their living conditions above that 
 of skid row and moved into more desirable neighbor- 
 hoods. 
 
 Many of the trips of homeless men are between Chicago 
 and Minneapolis skid rows. The Minneapolis skid row, 
 above, is on a square in the Lower Loop. 
 
 Another section of the Minneapolis skid row adjoins a 
 park. 
 
 
 This mission-residence was built for homeless men in 
 Minneapolis. 
 
 page 39 
 
Chapter 
 
 11 
 
 Death on Skid Row 
 
 To study the mortality rate of skid row in compari- 
 son with the population at large, the death records of 
 the City of Chicago for 1955-57 were analyzed. A list- 
 ing of cubicle-type hotels, with names and addresses, 
 was used to isolate all instances of death of persons 
 living at each of these addresses. The death records 
 were then tabulated to show the age, color, and other 
 characteristics for the decedents. Using information 
 from the sample interviews, an estimate was prepared 
 of the average number of men living at this identical 
 set of addresses during the three year period. Death 
 rates were computed by dividing the deaths by the 
 estimated resident population. 
 
 Skid row men living in cubicle-type hotels are sub- 
 ject to death rates that are almost unbelievably high. 
 Death rates of the magnitude calculated for skid row 
 never have existed among the general population at 
 any time in the nation's history. They are even higher 
 than the mortality rates of India, Africa, and other 
 places where the level of medical care is very low. 
 
 A first measure of the very great toll that death 
 takes on skid row is given by the general death rate. 
 In 1956, the general death rate among white males in 
 the United States was 10.8 deaths per 1,000 residents; 
 among white males living in cubicle-type hotels in 
 Chicago in 1957 it was 70.0, or more than 6V2 times 
 as large. 
 
 A part of this difference could result from differ- 
 ences in age composition. However, a more exact way 
 of making the comparison is to construct a life table 
 for the skid row population and to compare the life 
 expectancy at each age with the similar value for U. S. 
 white males. The full impact of mortality upon the 
 skid row population may be summarized by saying 
 that at most ages, skid row inhabitants may expect to 
 live less than one-half as long as the general population 
 of the same age. For example, the average U. S. white 
 male aged 50-54 may look forward to 23 additional 
 years of life, but on skid row a typical resident of this 
 age may expect to live only 10.6 years, or only 46 
 percent as long. Similar high mortality occurs for 
 men of all ages in cubicle hotels, with much higher 
 mortality among the older men. 
 
 The death statistics upon which the above findings 
 are based are almost certain to be an underestimate. 
 Deaths were included only where the decedent could 
 be definitely allocated to a specific address. Skid row 
 men without a permanent place to stay, who died out- 
 of-doors or who were found wandering the streets in a 
 condition of serious illness and rushed to a hospital 
 where they died, would not be included in these tabu- 
 lations. One can only speculate on how much higher 
 the true skid row death rate is than the estimate shown 
 here. 
 
 Circumstances of Death 
 
 A conservative estimate is that about one-half of 
 the skid row deaths occur without benefit of medical 
 attention immediately preceding the terminal illness. 
 This is indicated by at least two items of information. 
 First, only 39 percent of the 1,012 death certificates 
 allocated to the cubicle-type hotels in the years 1955-57 
 were signed by an attending physician ; the remainder 
 were certificates issued through the Coroner's office. 
 Second, almost one-half of all deaths occur under cir- 
 cumstances where it appears that medical attention was 
 not given or arrived too late. The deaths of the skid 
 row men occurred in the following places: 
 
 Total, percent 100 
 
 Probably with little or no medical care. . 52 
 
 Died in the cubicle 42 
 
 Died en route to hospital 5 
 
 Place of death unspecified 5 
 
 Probably with some medical care 48 
 
 Died in Cook County Hospital 39 
 
 Died in other hospital or convalescent home 6 
 
 Died in jail 3 
 
 In a high percentage of cases the men who are not 
 on General Public Assistance or some other pension 
 program that guarantees them minimum medical care 
 simply are found dead in their cubicles by the maids 
 when they clean in the morning, and the bodies are 
 turned over to the police. At the Monroe Street Station, 
 one officer is kept busy almost continuously trying to 
 locate relatives and attending to other matters inciden- 
 tal to deaths of this kind. 
 
 page 40 
 
Interviews with hotel managers revealed some rather 
 heart-breaking stories of unsuccessful efforts to get a 
 physician to visit residents who had lived in the hotel 
 for several years and who were known. Welfare rules 
 prohibit such a visit unless the man is a regular wel- 
 fare client. A private physician performs an act of 
 charity if he responded to a call to such an address. 
 Often, the hotel manager himself calls the doctor for 
 a man who has been a long-term customer, and pays 
 for the doctor's visit. Sometimes a man's friends will 
 contribute enough money to get a doctor. However, 
 if the man is unknown in that hotel, there is almost 
 nothing he can do to get medical aid. 
 
 The down-and-out stranger on skid row is helpless 
 against illness and accident. He is alone, with his 
 family not knowing where he is, without enough money, 
 and in a situation where death is almost a weekly 
 occurrence. There is no law that requires anyone to 
 give him emergency aid, and there is no systematic 
 program of private charity to help him. All too often 
 the death is avoidable. For example, a single shot of 
 antibiotics might give a sick man a fighting chance 
 against pneumonia. It may be difficult for a dying man 
 to excite any attention on skid row ; death sounds are 
 not too dissimilar from the noises of common drunk- 
 enness. 
 
 Cause of Death 
 
 Because of the circumstances surrounding their 
 death (lack of prior medical attention), the cause of 
 death is frequently unknown or only vaguely defined. 
 Unless an autopsy is performed (and in most cases an 
 autopsy is not performed upon homeless men found 
 dead), the cause of death cannot be stated exactly; the 
 coroner (or his representative) makes the best possible 
 guess from external evidence. For purposes of com- 
 parison, the following table contrasts the death rates 
 on skid row and the general population. From this 
 evidence it may be seen that mortality among homeless 
 men is considerably greater than among the general 
 population, for the following causes of death: 
 
 Ratio of Skid Row Rate to 
 Cause of Death National Rate for Males 
 
 Heart disease, type not specified. . .233.0 times as large 
 
 Tuberculosis 36.9 times as large 
 
 Alcoholism and alcoholic psychosis. 16.0 times as large 
 
 Accidents from falls 14.7 times as large 
 
 Pneumonia 14.2 times as large 
 
 Cirrhosis of the liver 1 1 .0 times as large 
 
 Other diseases of respiratory system 9.4 times as large 
 Suicide 5.1 times as large 
 
 It has been demonstrated in other studies that the 
 skid row area is an important incubator of tuberculosis 
 infection. This has an immediate effect upon the gen- 
 eral population because skid row workers come into 
 direct contact with the general public in a variety of 
 ways. The most common contact is in restaurants, 
 where they are often hired temporarily to meet over- 
 lie >w crowds on week-ends and during conventions. 
 
 If one applies any one of the factors used by public 
 health officials to measure the prevalence of tuber- 
 culosis as a ratio of the tuberculosis death rate, one 
 cannot avoid concluding that a large percentage of 
 the skid row population is tubercular. The cubicle- 
 hotel, with a minimum of sunlight, ventilation, and 
 cleanliness, provides a good environment for the cul- 
 ture of tuberculosis. 
 
 The long continued exposure to the elements, poor 
 diet, inadequate clothing, and excessive drinking which 
 occur on skid row contribute to many respiratory ills. 
 In the winter, almost everyone on skid row has a cold. 
 The sidewalks are strewn with sputum (one respondent 
 stated sarcastically that skid row gets its name from the 
 thousands of "oysters" on the sidewalks!) and infec- 
 tion spreads easily in cubicle hotels where the air 
 breathed by each is shared by all. 
 
 Accidents often occur to homeless men as pedes- 
 trians, as they are struck by passing automobiles. 
 The accidental deaths from "falls" are partly the work 
 of jackrollers, partly the result of fighting while drink- 
 ing, and partly a self-inflicted by-product of drinking. 
 Many men experience severe depression and suicidal 
 tendencies after episodes of heavy drinking, and* the 
 discouragement of skid row life also tends toward 
 suicide. 
 
 Season of Death 
 
 There is a definite seasonality to death even among 
 the general population, where a disproportionately 
 large share of all deaths occur during the winter 
 months. The winter months are even more severe for 
 homeless men on skid row. The following summary 
 shows the situation: 
 
 Percent of Deaths 
 Season Skid Row U.S. Males 
 
 Winter 30.5 26.2 
 
 Spring 25.0 25.7 
 
 Summer 18.2 23.9 
 
 Autumn 26.3 24.2 
 
 Total 100.0 100.0 
 
 page 41 
 
Chapter 
 
 12 
 
 Selected Attitudes of Skid Row Residents 
 
 Toward Employment, Housing 
 
 and Each Other 
 
 Among the residents of Skid Row are a significant 
 number (approximately 4,500 to 6,000) of the home- 
 less men who are there because of poverty. They 
 fall into two main categories: first, old men who live 
 on small pensions or public welfare payments, and 
 secondly, unskilled and poorly educated men who are 
 unable to successfully compete in the job market. 
 
 One way to improve the lot of this latter group 
 would be to offer them some kind of training that 
 would allow them to rise out of the ranks of unskilled 
 laborers and to acquire better and more satisfying 
 work. In order to find out whether the men had any 
 interest in such a program they were asked, "If you 
 could get free training to prepare you for a better 
 job, would you be interested in taking it?" Those 
 who answered "No" were asked "Why?" and those 
 who answered "Yes" were asked what kind of training 
 they would like to get. 
 
 Three-fourths of the men said they would be inter- 
 ested in obtaining free training, while only one-fourth 
 reported no interest. The reason most often given 
 for not being interested was that they were too old 
 or sick. This answer was especially frequent among 
 the men who were physically handicapped. Most of 
 the remainder of those not interested reported that 
 they were satisfied with their present job. Only about 
 2 percent said they were not interested because they 
 could not or would not want to learn. 
 
 Of course, this was only a hypothetical question, 
 and does not necessarily bear any relationship to what 
 the men would actually do if given the opportunity 
 to get free training. However, the desire for vocational 
 retraining was frequently verbalized. 
 
 When asked what kind of training they would like 
 to get, almost one-half wanted to learn a craft. Also, 
 a substantial number wanted to learn to be operatives 
 in factories. 
 
 Since many of the men on skid row are veterans, 
 free vocational training has been available to them 
 under the "G.I. Bill." All veterans of World War II 
 and the Korean War were asked, "Did you try to get 
 
 training under the G. I. Bill? I If not, why not?)" Of 
 all men on skid row, 38 percent were veterans and had 
 been eligible for veterans educational benefits. Of 
 these, 10.7 percent of the men, or 28 percent of those 
 who had been eligible, had taken such training. About 
 the same percentage of heavy drinkers and light drink- 
 ers had taken additional training. 
 
 Eligible veterans gave two major reasons for not 
 taking advantage of their veterans benefits: they had 
 not been interested in training then, and they had been 
 anxious to earn money when they got out of service. 
 Smaller proportions reported they had family obliga- 
 tions. About 5 percent confessed they were too restless 
 to study, and an additional 5 percent said they know 
 they couldn't complete a program of training because 
 of heavy drinking. Ten percent said they doubted their 
 own ability. These self-doubters were teetotalers or 
 light drinkers as frequently as they were heavy 
 drinkers. 
 
 Attitudes toward Living on Skid Row 
 
 When this research program was first conceived, 
 the researchers asked themselves, "How do the men 
 themselves feel about living on skid row?" "Are 
 they satisfied with their life?" "Is this way of living 
 what they really need and want in order to be happy?" 
 "If Chicago did something to improve their living and 
 other conditions, would the public merely be imposing 
 its standards of respectability and comfort upon a 
 group that feels no need for such improvement?" In 
 order to explore this subject, the men were asked a 
 sequence of questions about how well they liked skid 
 row living, and what things they liked or disliked 
 about it. 1 
 
 ■One important qualification must be called to attention in 
 connection with this section and the section on "attitudes 
 toward each other." The findings are derived from the state- 
 ments made by the skid row men themselves and, even though 
 the statements were elicited by skilled interviewers under as- 
 surance of complete anonymity and confidentially, they cannot 
 always be taken at face value as is noted at various points in 
 the text of the NORC report. Notwithstanding this limitation, 
 the findings which follow are \ery important in revealing the dis- 
 satisfaction and some of the physical and social conditions which 
 produce this frame of mind. 
 
 page 42 
 
Contrary to what may be popular belief, most home- 
 less men stated they disliked their way of life. Seven 
 out of each ten men interviewed reported a dislike for 
 living on skid row. and only two in each ten said they 
 liked it. By tabulating separately the verbal comments 
 made by the men as they answered, counts were kept 
 of those who indicated extremes of like and dislike — 
 those that indicated they "like skid row life very much" 
 and those who said they "dislike it very much." Only 
 10 percent of the men were sufficiently enthusiastic 
 to receive the "like very much" classification, whereas 
 22 per cent showed enough aversion to be categorized 
 as "dislike very much." Men living in cubicle type 
 hotels were much more negative about skid row life 
 than those living in hotels with rooms. The most in- 
 tense dislike for skid row life was displayed by those 
 living in missions or selected for interview from mis- 
 sion soup-lines. Supposedly, this group is the most 
 depressed by skid row living, and hence has the 
 greatest incentive to dislike it. 
 
 However, 84 percent of the men mentioned at least 
 one thing about skid row that they liked. Most fre- 
 quently mentioned were: 
 
 Percent of 
 Things Liked Men Mentioning* 
 
 Cheapness of living 57 
 
 Employment opportunities nearby, other 
 
 economic facilities 25 
 
 The people 24 
 
 Hotels, living accommodations 11 
 
 Freedom to do, dress, as you please 7 
 
 Mission activities 7 
 
 Interest, excitement, variety of the life. ... 7 
 
 Welfare and community facilities 4 
 
 "Feels at home" here, has friends 3 
 
 Drinking facilities, taverns 2 
 
 *Percents add to more than 100 because each person could 
 mention several different things liked. 
 
 Surprisingly enough, comparatively few men gave 
 responses that would suggest they found skid row 
 life satisfying. Responses of "feel at home," of "find 
 life here interesting or exciting," or "you can be your- 
 self and do as you please," were given by only a small 
 fraction. Most of the likes expressed referred to the 
 hard facts of economics and livelihood — the cheap- 
 ness of living and proximity to employment opportu- 
 nities, welfare units, and missions. More than one-half 
 (57 percent) mentioned the lower cost of food and 
 shelter as something liked about skid row. For a large 
 percentage of the men, this was the only thing favor- 
 able they could find to say about their neighborhood. 
 Only 24 percent of the men voluntarily expressed a 
 liking for the other people, their fellow residents. 
 
 The men who lived in cubicle-type hotels in the West 
 Madison area liked fewer things about skid row than 
 those living in other areas and those living in hotels 
 with rooms. In general, a higher percentage of the 
 men living in hotels with rooms than the men who lived 
 in cubicles like the freedom and the feeling of being 
 at home, and found skid row life interesting. 
 
 When asked "What DON'T you like (are there 
 things you DON'T like) about living here?" 
 
 almost everyone also was able to mention at least one 
 thing he did not like about skid row living. Surpris- 
 ingly, the two things homeless men mentioned most 
 frequently were la) the other homeless men; and (b) 
 drunkenness and heavy drinking; 61 percent reported 
 they did not like at least some of their neighbors, and 
 39 percent did not like the prevalence of drinking. 
 The frequency with which various things were men- 
 tioned as disliked is as follows: 
 
 Percent of 
 Things Disliked Men Mentioning 
 
 The people 61 
 
 Drunkenness and heavy drinking 39 
 
 Low status of skid row residents 27 
 
 Poor living conditions, hotels 24 
 
 Skid row symbolizes failure 18 
 
 Dirt, deterioration, poor health conditions 12 
 
 Physical mistreatment 7 
 
 Eating places 5 
 
 Economic exploitation 5 
 
 Although the men are unhappy with physical condi- 
 tions, their spontaneous complaints were overwhelm- 
 ingly directed toward social situations and other people 
 in the area. Society at large is unhappy about skid 
 row because of the social conditions that exist there, 
 and the way people behave who live there. The men 
 themselves are unhappy about skid row for exactly the 
 same reasons. Dissatisfaction with the material aspects 
 — housing, physical deterioration, the physical environ- 
 ment — was mentioned by only about one-third of 
 the men who made any complaints. Although this is 
 a high level of discontent with housing, and is strong 
 indication that urban renewal is needed, these results 
 suggest that physical renewal is only a part of the 
 problem; even the homeless men themselves realize 
 this. 
 
 Having localized the major positive and negative 
 attitudes toward skid row, the interviewer tried to get 
 each respondent to amplify his feelings and to describe 
 them in more detail. This took the form of probing 
 in two directions: (a) his attitude toward his hotel 
 and housing situation, and ( 1> ) his attitudes toward 
 his fellow homeless men. 
 
 page 43 
 
Attitudes Toward Housing 
 
 In order to learn how homeless men feel about their 
 housing, each was asked, "How do you like living in 
 this (hotel) (rooming house) (other lodging place)?" 
 Roughly one-half (47 percent) of the men who ex- 
 pressed an opinion about their hotel stated that they 
 liked living there, while 30 percent reported outright 
 dislike for their present place of residence. 
 
 An additional 16 percent reported that they disliked 
 their present place of living but considered it better 
 than other places on skid row. (The remainder of the 
 men were noncommittal ) . Thus, almost one-half of 
 the men like and one-half dislike their present living 
 situation. The number and variety of things disliked 
 was considerably greater among residents of cubicle 
 hotels than among hotels with rooms, and is somewhat 
 greater on West Madison Street than in the other skid 
 row areas. 
 
 Roughly one-quarter of the men volunteered the 
 information that one of the things about skid row they 
 dislike was the housing situation. At least 45 percent 
 expressed dissatisfaction. Both of these figures reveal 
 impressive dissatisfaction. Yet it is evident that there 
 are other serious troubles. Seventy percent showed a 
 general dislike for skid row living, while only 46 per- 
 cent disliked their housing. 
 
 Among the characteristics important to homeless 
 men when they select a place to live, the following 
 seven items stood out above all others: 
 
 Percent of Men 
 Things liked Mentioning 
 
 Cleanliness 31 
 
 Other residents of the hotel 22 
 
 The management, way clerks treat them .... 22 
 
 Quiet 19 
 
 Hot water, bathing facilities 15 
 
 Privacy I hotels with rooms, rooming 
 
 houses I 10 
 
 Less drinking, less rowdiness than other 
 
 hotels 7 
 
 Questions concerning liking for elevators, fireproof 
 construction, laundry facilities did not have a chance 
 to receive a large vote because many hotels do not 
 have these facilities, and the man was being asked to 
 evaluate his particular place of residence. When en- 
 couraged, 80 percent of the men were able to mention 
 at least one thing about their abode that they liked. 
 
 In many ways, the things disliked about the hotels 
 in which they live are simply the reverse of the things 
 liked. In response to the query, "And what DON'T 
 you like about living in this (hotel, etc.)?" the follow- 
 ing list of "gripes" emerged: 
 
 Percent of Men 
 Things disliked Mentioning 
 
 Dirt 19 
 
 Noise 18 
 
 Rooms I cubicles I too small 17 
 
 Too much drinking, rowdiness 17 
 
 Other residents of the hotel 16 
 
 Poor bathing facilities, not enough hot 
 
 water, not enough toilets 6 
 
 Theft of belongings, jackrolling 4 
 
 The management, way clerks treat them .... 4 
 
 More than one-third of the men could not mention 
 anything about their living situation which they disliked, 
 and hence appeared to be fully satisfied. This is a very 
 important finding. Almost one-half of the men on skid 
 row like their living place and more than one-third 
 find no faults with it. This suggests that some of the 
 places to live are good and well-operated, even though 
 others may be bad and poorly operated. In order to 
 test this hypothesis the responses to the question. "How 
 do you like living in this place?" were tabulated sepa- 
 rately for each hotel. This permitted a rating of each 
 hotel according to the percentage of residents who 
 reported they liked living there. Although the rules of 
 confidentiality prevent a reporting of the score for 
 each hotel by name, by grouping the hotels it is pos- 
 sible to learn to what extent the men rated them as 
 being "all alike" — and to what extent they rated some 
 as being much better than others. Following is a sum- 
 mary of the intensity of the likes or dislikes for the 
 lodging places: 
 
 Percent of Residents 
 
 Who Report They 
 
 Like Living in Their Number of Number of 
 
 Present Place of cubicle hotels 
 
 Residence hotels with rooms 
 
 Total 34 37 
 
 90 to 100 percent like living here. 6 18 
 
 70 to 89 percent like living here. 3 1 
 
 50 to 69 percent like living here. 9 7 
 
 25 to 49 percent like living here. 9 2 
 Less than 25 percent like riving 
 
 here ' 9 
 
 page 44 
 
Some hotels have only satisfied residents, while 
 almost everybody dislikes living in other hotels. 
 It seems there is a very great variation among the 
 hotels in their physical condition, in the way they are 
 run, and in the way the men are treated. In order for 
 a hotel to obtain 90 to 100 percent approval by its 
 occupants, it would appear that the management has 
 made a determined effort to provide those items that 
 the men like and to minimize the things that the men 
 indicate they dislike. One-third of the hotels (6 cubicle- 
 type and 18 hotels with rooms) received such a rating. 
 Conversely, when more than one-half of the residents 
 dislike the place in which they live, it would appear 
 that the building is so old and the management is 
 so greedy to maximize profits that almost nothing 
 is done to furnish the things the men like and to 
 eliminate the things they dislike. Yet almost one-half 
 of the hotels fall in this category (16 cubicle hotels 
 and 11 hotels with rooms). On the basis of these 
 ratings, one might classify all hotels on skid row 
 into three categories: 
 
 Cubicle Hotels with 
 hotels rooms 
 
 Acceptably good and well operated 
 
 (rating of 70 to 100 percent) ... 9 19 
 
 In need of rehabilitation and pos- 
 sible change of management 
 (rating of 50 to 69 percent) .... 9 7 
 
 Could be demolished 16 11 
 
 It is not suggested that the votes cast by the men 
 be adopted as the criterion for action. These calcula- 
 tions were made merely to show the extreme differences 
 in the quality of hotels on skid row, and that the men 
 themselves are aware of this. When plans are made to 
 renew skid row areas, thought should be given to cap- 
 italizing upon the knowledge and experience of the 
 good hotel managers, instead of making the mistaken 
 assumption that all are bad. Similarly, care should 
 be taken to avoid listening to the counsel of operators 
 whose record is not good. 
 
 What Homeless Men Think of each Other 1 
 
 Exploratory and experimental studies had hinted 
 that homeless men felt very little sentimental attach- 
 ment for each other. To test this hypothesis, the 
 question, "What do you think of the other men that 
 live on this street?" was included in the interview. The 
 results reveal that 40 percent of the respondents showed 
 open dislike for the other men and an additional 26 
 percent were noncommittal or ambivalent. Thus, less 
 than one-third of the men said they liked other home- 
 less men. The level of dislike was higher on West 
 
 Madison Street than in other skid row areas. The men 
 who live in single rooms tend to dissociate themselves 
 from skid row, and hence were considerably above- 
 average in showing dislike for the other residents. 
 
 However, when asked "What DO you (is there any- 
 thing that you) like about the men?", the vast ma- 
 jority of the men (85 percent) were able to think of at 
 least something they liked about the skid row residents 
 or that would express tolerance for or sympathy with 
 them. The things mentioned, ranked in order of fre- 
 quency of mention, are: 
 
 Percent 
 of Men 
 Things Liked Mentioning 
 
 Congeniality — friendly, good to talk to. . . 41 
 
 Security — they will help you when you 
 
 need it 20 
 
 Empathy — respondent feels sorry for 
 
 them, pities them 19 
 
 Impersonality — don't ask questions, leave 
 
 you alone 15 
 
 Identification — they are my kind, like me. . 12 
 
 Industry — they work, earn their own way. . 11 
 
 Some of the above categories, into which the multi- 
 tude of responses were fitted, certainly do not specify 
 traits or characteristics of the men. Instead, they reflect 
 the kinds of things the respondents said when asked 
 to say something nice about close neighbors for whom 
 they have little feeling. 
 
 In contrast to the statistics just cited, 93 percent 
 of the respondents had at least one critical comment 
 to make when asked the question, "What DON'T you 
 (is there anything that you DON'T) like about the 
 other men that live on this street?" Their com- 
 plaints were quite specific and detailed. Several of 
 these criticisms were directed to all of the residents 
 generally, while many of them were directed toward 
 
 !An additional qualification is necessary here. The Continua- 
 tion Study of the Homeless Man on Skid Row (see Preface) 
 concerned itself with the social and psychological charac- 
 teristics of the men on skid row. These findings indicated 
 that ahout three-fourths of the men were suffering from per- 
 sonal maladjustments of some kind. The extent to whicVi this 
 proportion is high, as compared with men in the general 
 population, is not ascertainable, however, because systematic 
 data pertaining to the general population are not available. 
 About one-half of the men were rated as somewhat disorgan- 
 ized because of internal conflict, and 16 percent were rated 
 as badly disorganized. It would be more difficult for these 
 men to maintain "normal" relationships with others. Hence, 
 the high degree of dislike for others may stem from personal 
 problems as well as the external characteristics of the others. 
 The findings are important in showing the lack of "com- 
 munity spirit" as well as the specific characteristics which 
 the men find acceptable and unacceptable in each other. 
 
 page 45 
 
■ 
 
 ^ . at 
 
 Homeless men share the general disdain for the alcoholic derelict. Most men on skid row are not alcoholics and 
 resent being thought of as drunken bums. 
 
 specific groups. The most common dislikes, ranked 39 percent of the men have no close friends on skid 
 
 in order of importance, were as follows: row 
 
 Percent of ^ percent of the men have only a few close friends 
 
 Things disliked Men Mentioning triere 
 
 Drinking— they drink too much 63 16 percent of the men have a great many close 
 
 Begging — they bum you, look for a touch. . 23 friends there 
 
 Jackrolling — too many jackrollers 21 
 
 Other crime— numbers, rackets, theft 18 Those who reported having no close friends were 
 
 Laziness — lots of them won't work 15 then asked ' " Wh y do ?°" su PP° se 7°» have n °t found 
 
 Noisiness rowdiness . 14 °"^ friends among the men here?" The answers re- 
 Belligerence— they fight, bully each other, ceived fel1 into four categories: 
 
 quarrel 10 ^ """" "^"™™" 
 
 Personal hygiene — they are dirty, not clean . 11 Reasons for having no Percent of 
 
 Abnormal personalities — physically, men- friends on Skid Row Men Mentioning 
 
 tally deteriorated 10 , , , , r • i ■ ■ i ^o 
 
 ~ , i n i i i 1 don t want to be friends with these men. 03 
 Loarse language — they talk rough, loud. ... 6 
 
 Filthy habits— spitting, public urinating, etc. 6 You can ' 1 trust tne?e men 8 
 
 Lack of generosity— they won't help you ... 6 These men are incapable of friendship ... 18 
 
 Low cultural status — low level of intelligence 5 , , , . . , , , 
 
 ...... 1 haven t been here long enough to make 
 
 Dishonesty — they cheat, steal 4 , , -. 
 
 T . • i • r i r, friends 11 
 
 Lying, excessive bragging, false pretenses. . 3 ^_^^^^^^^^_^_^^^^__^^^^^^_^^^^^^^^_ 
 
 Unhealthy — they are diseased, not healthy. . 3 
 
 Unkempt appearance— they don't shave, If a respondent said that he had at least some friends 
 
 bathe, take care of themselves 2 ,,r man y friends on skid row ' he was asked ' " Are ^°" r 
 
 ^ — -^ ^ _ friends different from the other men on the street? In 
 
 As a further probe of this situation, each man was iihat way?" About three-fourths of those who had 
 
 then asked, "How many close friends do you. have friends claimed that these friends were different from 
 
 here?" The results were: the other men on the street: 
 
 page 46 
 
How are your friends different Percent of 
 
 from other men on the street? Men Mentioning 
 
 My friends are different 73 
 
 I can trust my friends; they will help me 
 
 if I need it 31 
 
 My friends drink less than the others. ... 20 
 
 My friends work, work steadier 20 
 
 My friends are more "normal," more like 
 
 other people 18 
 
 My friends are "better" — cleaner, better 
 
 dressed, better jobs 11 
 
 My friends are not bums, do not beg. ... 5 
 
 My friends are not different 27 
 
 These data present a picture of the skid row social 
 world that is far different from the public image. 
 Here we have a neighborhood where only 31 percent 
 of the inhabitants say they like their neighbors, and 
 where only 16 percent have more than just a few 
 close friends ( with 39 percent having no friends at 
 all). When asked why this situation exists, they 
 express strong aversion for the kinds of people who 
 live on skid row, and state bluntly either that they 
 don't want to associate with these men or else that 
 they aren't the kind of people with whom you can 
 make friends. When friendships are formed, the friends 
 are thought of as being "different" I in the sense of 
 
 being better I from the other residents rather than being 
 normal citizens of the area. If asked what he dislikes 
 about these men. he criticizes them in terms that one 
 would expect a critical outsider to use — the drunken- 
 ness, the begging, the jackrolling, the noise and rowdi- 
 ness, the laziness, and the lack of cleanliness. More- 
 over, this entire complex occurs in a situation in which 
 the individual man dislikes living here, even though he 
 may not dislike his particular hotel or rooming house. 
 Under these circumstances, one can only conclude 
 that any conception of skid row as a lightly -knit, well 
 integrated and organized community (where most oj 
 the residents interact freely and have a common culture 
 inn/ tradition) is a complete myth. Instead, skid row 
 seems to be composed largely of discontented individ- 
 uals who live in semi-isolation, who have few if any 
 close friends, and who survive by being suspicious of 
 everybody. Almost one-half of skid row's population 
 is forced by weight of simple poverty — due to inflation, 
 disability, small pensions — to live among a group of 
 people it dislikes, fears, and avoids. The men dislike 
 living in a type of housing (cubicles) that give them 
 no insulation from the sights, sounds, and smells of 
 chronic alcoholism — either during the daytime or at 
 night. They resent the low social status that they 
 acquire by reason of having a skid row address which 
 identifies them with alcoholism. 
 
 If some homeless men are unsociable, many others have formed warm friendships. This friendly group is on North 
 Clark Street, where homeless men and Puerto Rican families live as close neighbors. 
 
 page 47 
 
Chapter 
 
 13 
 
 Chicago's Present Activity 
 
 By assembling data from the several organizations 
 that assist skid row men and by making conservative 
 estimates where data cannot be assembled directly, it 
 is estimated that a grand total of $463,550 each month 
 I $5,562,600 per year ) is expended in assisting or sup- 
 porting homeless men in Chicago. The following pages 
 describe the nature of this support and the sources 
 from which it comes. An estimated three-fourths of 
 this very large expenditure is devoted to meeting the 
 day-to-day needs of the men or to police, legal, or 
 administrative expenses that have no long-run effect 
 in diminishing the size of skid row or rehabilitating 
 any skid row resident. 
 
 The City of Chicago lags behind the private agencies 
 in rehabilitation or remedial efforts. The fact is that 
 the City pays $4,719,948 per year into the skid row 
 areas for police, municipal courts, welfare, medical 
 care, and inspections in excess of what would be 
 necessary if this were a "normal" residential area. 
 Only about three percent of this is directed toward 
 salvaging the men. shrinking the area, or diminishing 
 the magnitude of the problem. 
 
 The problem of the homeless man and of skid row 
 is not a new one for Chicago. For more than three- 
 quarters of a century, both public and private agencies 
 were aware of the "dovvn-and-outers" who congregate 
 at the heart of the city. 
 
 At periodic intervals special investigations have 
 stimulated a major forward step in improving the 
 conditions of skid row. Inasmuch as one of the prin- 
 cipal goals of the present research is to prepare another 
 forward stride ( with special emphasis upon land 
 clearance, rehousing, personal treatment and a long- 
 run and enduring shrinkage of the problem I it is im- 
 portant to take an inventory of what already is being 
 done in behalf of these men. 
 
 With such an inventory, it is possible to map out 
 what would be an ■"ideal" program, to compare the 
 present program with the ideal, and. finally, to make 
 plans for progress toward the ideal program, keeping 
 in mind items of budget, needs of competing programs, 
 and the present state of knowledge about how to remedy 
 each of the problems. The present chapter is an inven- 
 tory of what now is being done in Chicago. 
 
 There are in Chicago no less than thirty-nine differ- 
 ent agencies that have activities or programs designed 
 to lend aid or otherwise deal with the problem of 
 homeless men on skid row. 
 
 The statistics reported here were submitted by the 
 agencies themselves. The descriptions were prepared 
 by the study director and submitted to the agency for 
 its approval. In all cases the recommended changes 
 suggested by the agencies were incorporated in the 
 statements that appear here. 
 
 The Olive Branch Mission, on West Madison Street, is one 
 of the oldest and most successful missions on skid row. 
 
 page 48 
 
Inventory of Services Rendered to Skid Row 
 
 Men by Public and Private Agencies During a 
 
 Typical Current Month, Chicago, 1959 
 
 TOTAL 
 
 14,758 
 125,778 
 
 16,472 
 
 All 
 Chicago 
 Type of Service Agencies 
 
 Number of meals given 
 without charge: 
 
 To "walk ins" from 
 
 street 68,656 
 
 To residents in 
 rehabilitation 
 
 program 373,854 
 
 Number of man-nights 
 lodging — no charge: 
 Temporary (1-3 
 
 nights only) . . . 
 More permanent . . 
 Number of men coun 
 seled : 
 
 Alcoholism 
 
 Economic, medical 
 and welfare prob- 
 lems 
 
 Religious, spiritual 
 
 problems 
 
 Attendance at religious 
 services: 
 
 "Walk-ins" from 
 
 street i 
 
 Residents — men in 
 
 program 
 
 Clothing given away: 
 (equivalent to full set 
 
 of clothing ) 
 
 Medical treatment given 
 ( number of men ) . . . . 
 First aid treatment 
 given (number of men) 
 Dental treatment given 
 ( number of men I . . . . 
 Jobs arranged for men : 
 Temporary I num 
 ber of jobs. . . . 
 Permanent (num 
 ber of jobs) . . . 
 Recreation: 
 
 number of men 
 
 Total man-months de- 
 voted to homeless men 
 Number of professional 
 or administrative man- 
 months devoted to 
 homeless men 
 
 6,959 
 
 31,676 
 443 
 
 135 
 
 Public 
 Agencies 
 
 90 
 
 328,680 
 
 109,560 
 
 Private 
 Agencies 
 
 68,566 
 45,174 
 
 14,758 
 16,218 
 
 1,882 14,590 
 
 2,644 
 
 — 
 
 52,644 
 
 9,940 
 
 — 
 
 9,940 
 
 5,674 
 
 — 
 
 5,674 
 
 2,852 
 
 1,257 
 
 1,595 
 
 924 
 
 400 
 
 524 
 
 72 
 
 _ 
 
 72 
 
 5,336 
 
 30,057 
 244 
 
 73 
 
 1,623 
 
 1,619 
 199 
 
 62 
 
 Many homeless men have received emergency care, 
 food, clothing and a place to sleep at the Cathedral 
 Shelter on West Madison Street. 
 
 Summary of Public Expenditures on Skid Row 
 
 Following is an estimate of the expenditures by 
 public agencies, city, county and state, made in Chicago 
 on behalf of skid row men. The total expense (when 
 multiplied by twelve to convert from months to years) 
 shows that skid row costs the taxpayer $4,719,948 
 per year in excess of what would be necessary if this 
 were a "normal" residential area. 
 
 Amount Manpower 
 
 per (number of 
 
 Agency month employees) 
 
 Board of Health of Chicago $ 500 2 
 
 Chicago Alcoholic Treatment 
 
 Center 3,486 5 
 
 Chicago Department of Buildings 700 1 
 Chicago Department of Fire 
 
 Prevention 4,200 8 
 
 Cook County Department of 
 
 Public Aid 248,800 30 
 
 Cook County Hospital 58,000 32 
 
 Illinois State Employment 
 
 Service 2,300 5 
 
 Municipal Court — judicial 
 
 activities 4,000 10 
 
 Municipal Court — social services 677 1 
 
 Oak Forest Hospital 12,000 16 
 
 Police Department 57,966 131 
 
 Reading Room 700 3 
 
 Total $393,329 244 
 
 In making these estimates, a consistent effort was 
 made to be conservative and to include only costs that 
 are being incurred in excess of the costs of a "normal" 
 residential neighborhood. It is very probable that the 
 true total, if it could be known, is more than five mil- 
 lion dollars. 
 
 page 49 
 
81.0 
 
 What does Chicago buy with this money? Essen- 
 tially, it purchases these commodities: 
 
 Monthly Percent 
 Purpose Expenditure of Total 
 
 I a ) Care of indigent skid row resi- 
 dents of Illinois ( Department 
 of Public Aid, Cook County 
 Hospital, Oak Forest Hos- 
 pital) $318,800 
 
 lb) Repetitive arrest and over- 
 night detention of chronic al- 
 coholic skid row men (Police 
 and Monroe Street Court — 
 judicial activities) 61,966 
 
 (c) Inspection and enforcement 
 of codes for health and safety 
 ( Board of Health, Chicago 
 Department of Buildings, De- 
 partment of Fire Prevention ) 5,400 
 Rehabilitation (Alcoholic 
 Treatment Center, Reading 
 Room, Municipal Court — 
 social services department, 
 Illinois State Employment 
 Service ) 
 
 15.8 
 
 1.4 
 
 Ml 
 
 7,163 
 
 1.8 
 
 Total $393,329 100.0 
 
 At the present time Chicago seems to be doing little 
 toward arriving at a long-range solution to the skid 
 
 row problem. Only 3.2 percent of the City's total 
 expenditures in the skid row area might be considered 
 as attempting to improve conditions, help the men 
 toward rehabilitation, and to remedy the underlying 
 conditions that create skid row. More than 80 percent 
 of the expenditures are devoted to keeping people 
 alive at the minimum level of subsistence our morals 
 allow. None of the agencies in Group (a) above has 
 a budget for a vigorous rehabilitation program. They 
 are seriously understaffed, overworked, and short of 
 funds to offer more than minimum care to the ill 
 and impoverished. There are no facilities, staff, or 
 funds for rehabilitation or prevention of skid row 
 conditions. 
 
 An additional 15.8 per cent of the public funds are 
 expended in arresting chronic alcoholic men, detain- 
 ing them overnight and turning them loose again on 
 the streets the next day, so that they are rearrested, 
 redetained, and rereleased again and again. This serves 
 only two useful functions — ( 1 ) to protect the drunken 
 man from exposure to the elements, and 1 2 1 to cull 
 out the ones who are too weak, too sick, or too men- 
 tally deteriorated to be released for another day in 
 the taverns. It does nothing to help any man to stop 
 drinking. The Referee at Monroe Street Court screens 
 one hundred twenty-five to two hundred men in less 
 than one-and-a-half hours, which gives him between 
 forty-five seconds and one minute for each man. 
 
 The Reading Room, operated by the City of Chicago, provides a place to pass the time in reading, meeting friends 
 or keeping warm in the winter days. 
 
 page 50 
 
At the present time the active constructive programs 
 of the city, county, and state consist of (a) alcoholic 
 treatment for seven skid row men (out of a total of 
 at least 4,800 who need it ) ; ( b ) brief counseling and 
 advice from overworked social workers at the Depart- 
 ment of Public Aid, Cook County Hospital, and the 
 social worker at the Monroe Street Court; Ic) an op- 
 portunity to read or to clean up at the Reading Room; 
 (d) a chance to work at spot labor through the Illinois 
 Employment Service; and (e) enforcement of the 
 city's building code that has been modified by special 
 arrangements in such a way that living in 5x7 cubicles 
 is legal. 
 
 Chicago's skid rows have improved. Public activities 
 are very important and have contributed to these im- 
 provements in the past few years. They are not enough, 
 however, to provide a full-scale program of rehabilita- 
 tion and reduction of skid row. 
 
 Summary of Private Expenditures on Skid Row 
 
 The private agencies perform two important func- 
 tions for the homeless men of skid row. The public 
 agencies do comparatively little work of these two 
 types: 
 
 ( a I Private agencies provide emergency care for 
 men who are completely destitute. The man who is 
 "down on his luck" and has absolutely no money can 
 get help to "keep going." He can get better clothes, 
 if he needs them, meal tickets or free meals by attend- 
 ing mission services, and a free night's lodging at a 
 mission. Agencies give preference to "deserving" men 
 who are victims of circumstances or poor judgment, 
 but not to alcoholic derelicts or professional beggars 
 who show few evidences of trying to get off skid row. 
 Private agency help is especially useful to the person 
 who is not a legal resident of Illinois, who is waiting 
 for his welfare status to be determined, or who. for 
 any reason, does not know where he will get his next 
 meal or sleep the following night. The amount of 
 emergency help given is really impressive, as shown 
 in the following summary of private agency activities: 
 
 Number 
 
 Activity per month 
 
 Meals given without charge to 'walk-ins" 
 
 from street, after religious service 68,566 
 
 Man-nights' lodging I beds I given away with- 
 out charge to "walk-ins" from street, refer- 
 rals, after religious service 14,758 
 
 Clothing given away (equivalent to complete 
 
 sets of clothing — trousers, shirt, shoes, coat) 5,674 
 
 First-aid treatment given 524 
 
 ( b ) Private agencies perform almost all of the 
 efforts that are made to accomplish a long-range reha- 
 bilitation of these men. Whereas the long-range plan 
 of the public agencies is one of "containment" and 
 caring for the minimum physical needs, the private 
 agencies place great emphasis upon trying to cause a 
 
 fundamental change in the personality or situation of 
 the man so he may leave skid row and maintain him- 
 self in the outside community. Almost all of the 
 present effort to solve the problem of skid row is 
 made by private missions or other private groups, 
 working independently. The following summary illus- 
 trates the situation: 
 
 Estimated 
 number of men 
 Agencies with under treatment 
 
 Rehabilitation Program at present time 
 
 Total Skid Row men being treated 
 for alcoholism and other personal 
 problems 640 
 
 ^Public agencies . 
 Private agencies 
 
 20 
 
 620 
 
 6 
 22 
 
 90 
 10 
 32 
 40 
 15 
 10 
 
 180 
 
 Cathedral Shelter 
 
 Catholic Charities 
 
 Chicago Christian Industrial 
 League 
 
 Chicago United Mission 
 
 Olive Branch Mission 
 
 Pacific Garden Mission 
 
 Peter Maurin House 
 
 St. Leonard's House 
 
 Salvation Army — Harbor 
 Light Center 
 
 Salvation Army — Men's Social 
 
 Service Center 200 
 
 Sunshine Mission 15 
 
 '"This is just a rough estimate, assuming that seven 
 men are in the Alcoholic Treatment Center and about 
 thirteen are at Manteno or other public institutions. 
 
 In terms of the total needs of the area, the private 
 agencies are limited by lack of funds and a program 
 which places considerable emphasis on spiritual salva- 
 tion. The private agencies spend about $70,000 a 
 month on skid row — about 15 percent of the total 
 expenditures for the area. 
 
 The total volume of services performed by private 
 agencies in trying to influence the lives of homeless 
 men, however, is really substantial, as the following 
 summary of their activities shows: 
 
 Activity 
 
 Counseling: 
 
 I a I To help overcome alcoholism 
 
 ( b ) To help solve economic, 
 
 medical welfare problems. 
 ill In religious, spiritual matters 
 
 Permanent and temporary jobs 
 arranged for 
 
 Men helped 
 
 per month 
 
 Private Public 
 
 14,590 
 
 ,623 
 
 1,882 
 
 5,336 
 
 page 51 
 
About one-fourth of all meals and lodgings pro- 
 vided for homeless men are distributed by private agen- 
 cies. More than four-fifths of all counseling for 
 alcoholism and for economic, medical, welfare, re- 
 ligious, and spiritual problems is made by private 
 agencies. Over half of the medical and first-aid treat- 
 ment given is through private agencies. 
 
 Private agencies have provided more than one- 
 fifth of all jobs secured for homeless men. The volume 
 of recreation services by private agencies appears 
 to be low in comparison to the total I approximately 
 95 per cent of recreation services are provided by 
 public agencies) . 
 
 Almost one-half of all personnel working with home- 
 less men are connected with private organizations. 
 
 This enumeration of activity includes many repeats 
 and duplications. In one month, a man may be 
 seen only once or almost every day and counted sepa- 
 rately each time. Hence, it is impossible to know the 
 exact proportion of the skid row population that the 
 missions reach. 
 
 Furthermore, it is impossible to know to what ex- 
 tent these men arc involved in mission programs other 
 than accepting the food and lodging provisions. It is 
 beyond the scope of the present research to evaluate 
 the scientific validity of the missions" programs in 
 rehabilitating the men or attaining a basic change in 
 their personality so that they could function off skid 
 row. However, many experts feel that an effective re- 
 habilitation program should include a greater empha- 
 sis on social, psychological, and physical rehabilita- 
 tion techniques than the missions are now providing. 
 
 So far as the long-term shrinkage of skid row is 
 concerned, the public agencies are doing little and the 
 private agencies are attempting it in a highly particu- 
 laristic and uncoordinated manner. Scientific experi- 
 mentation which would evolve techniques and a willing- 
 ness to discard old ideas and old methods which were 
 not very effective in the past is not evidenced by either 
 the public or the private agencies. There is little co- 
 operation evidenced between private agencies or be- 
 tween private and public agencies to map out a major 
 rehabilitation program. 
 
 The modernized Pacific Guardian Mission is a primary resource for emergency shelter on South State Street. 
 
 page >-' 
 
Chapter 
 
 14 
 
 Summary of Problem 
 
 Health and Welfare 
 
 At least one-half of the residents of skid row are 
 either teetotalers or else men who drink in a controlled 
 manner, whereas the remaining men are alcoholic 
 derelicts or heavy drinkers, and moderate drinkers who 
 soon may become heavy drinkers. This strengthens the 
 conclusion that there are basically two kinds of home- 
 less men on skid row: ( 1 ) the men who are here pri- 
 marily because they are disorganized and have a 
 drinking problem and (2) the men who are here 
 primarily because they are poor and do not have 
 enough income to live elsewhere or who choose to 
 live here for personal reasons. A composite picture 
 of these groups using the evidence presented in prev- 
 ious chapters, would be as follows: 
 
 Group A. Homeless men who live on skid row 
 because they are poor or for other 
 personal reasons 
 
 Percentage 
 Classification Distribution 
 
 Elderly men, no drinking problem 11.9 
 
 Non-alcoholic, employed 14.9 
 
 Non-alcoholic, not employed 16.3 
 
 Disabled 9.7 
 
 Not disabled 6.6 
 
 Group B. Homeless men on skid row who are 
 alcoholic derelicts or heavy drinkers 
 
 Percentage 
 Classification Distribution 
 
 Potential alcoholics 23.8 
 
 I This group falls between 
 Groups A and B) 
 Problem alcoholics I heavy drinkers ) . . . 19.7 
 
 Alcoholic derelicts 13.0 
 
 Other 0.4 
 
 Winter has special hazards for men on skid row. Ex- 
 posure to the elements often aggravates their illnesses. 
 Some of the men are too poor or too negligent to own 
 warm coats and adequate shoes. 
 
 page 53 
 
Group A. Most of these men have accumulated from 
 the most poverty-stricken segments of Chi- 
 cago and the nation. Many are old men 
 who live on very small pensions (Social 
 Security, military pensions, or public wel- 
 fare). Others are the least educated, most 
 unskilled, and least employable men in the 
 labor force and hence, the ones who have 
 "lost out" in the competition for better 
 jobs. Some are immigrants from Europe 
 who "failed to make good" and who have 
 reconciled themselves to living on skid row. 
 Here also are the non-alcoholic Negro from 
 the South who has been unable to find work 
 and the widowed old man who has no rela- 
 tives with whom he can live and who is no 
 longer able to work. Here are the men 
 who have steady employment, but at jobs 
 that pay substandard wages. The migrant 
 worker who had come to the city to find 
 work, who has exhausted his funds and is 
 taking spot jobs or just any jobs to get 
 along, is also in this group. 
 
 Some of the men in this category are not 
 poor by the standards of skid row. Over 
 7 per cent of the men on skid row are tee- 
 totalers or light drinkers who had a yearly 
 income of over $2,500. For reasons of 
 their own, such as proximity to work, com- 
 panionship, or personal problems, these 
 men choose to live on skid row rather than 
 in other communities. 
 
 The men who control their drinking are 
 not necessarily "lost souls" in the sense 
 used by the mission preacher whose ser- 
 mons about repentance are sometimes less 
 important than the meals the missions 
 serve. They are "lost souls" economically, 
 and most of them, at the present time, can 
 only look forward to a life of economic 
 hardship. They are the men hardest hit by 
 inflation, the losers in the competition for 
 steady jobs. 
 
 Non-alcoholics or controlled drinkers 
 comprise 42 per cent of the skid row popu- 
 lation. At this stage of the analysis it is 
 impossible to say precisely why they are 
 on skid row. Poverty is certainly the great- 
 est factor. The other causes which act in 
 conjunction with poverty or separately are 
 less clear. Almost invariably it is a com- 
 bination of causes which bring a man to 
 this community. The Continuation Studies 
 (see Preface) may reveal some of these 
 causes. In the preliminary report of the 
 
 Continuation Studies, irregular employ- 
 ment or unemployment was mentioned as 
 a cause for 49 per cent of the teetotalers 
 and light drinkers being on skid row. Other 
 causative factors were marital discord, low 
 standards of living, social maladjustment, 
 wanderlust, poor health, cultural conflict, 
 discontinuance of family, and old age. 
 
 Group B. The problem of poverty compounds the 
 problem of alcoholism. Problem drinkers 
 and alcoholic derelicts comprise 32.7 per 
 cent of the skid row population. Potential 
 alcoholics add another 23.8 per cent. Al- 
 though some older men (pensioners, regu- 
 larly employed workingmen, and a small 
 percentage of those on public assistance are 
 in this group I the majority are young or 
 middle-age men. These men are irregularly 
 employed either as spot job workers or 
 railroad maintenance men, they draw un- 
 employment compensation when unem- 
 ployed. Some of the men are totally un- 
 employed, beg other homeless men for 
 drinks or live off the missions. They tend 
 to be Americans whose parents were na- 
 tive-born — and a disproportionately high 
 percentage of them are of Irish ancestry 
 and come either from the South or from 
 a metropolitan area. 
 
 The continuation study indicates that 84 
 per cent of the men with chronic alcoholism 
 had a severe drinking problem before com- 
 ing to skid row. Furthermore, prior eco- 
 nomic hardships were almost always pres- 
 ent in each man's life. This factor of eco- 
 nomic hardship is quite important in 
 bringing a man to his alcoholic condition 
 and residential decline. 
 
 A large percentage of the alcoholics 
 are in good physical health, except for the 
 more or less temporary condition induced 
 by their excessive drinking, and could be 
 physically rehabilitated to be either only 
 slightly handicapped or not handicapped 
 at all. However, many of the alcoholics 
 would still be left with their drinking 
 problem unresolved. 
 
 The explanation of why many men on skid row 
 do not work is quite simple. Five major factors are 
 involved: 
 
 ( a I These men work at occupations and for indus- 
 tries where involuntary unemployment is a 
 chronic condition, and where seasonal varia- 
 tions in unemployment are very high. 
 
 page 54 
 
(b) A high percentage of these men are physically 
 disabled or handicapped. They are unable to 
 hold steady jobs as laborers because of their 
 health and disability status. 
 
 (c) A high percentage of these men are past 40 
 years of age. Employers discriminate against 
 older workers when hiring unskilled laborers. 
 Rates of involuntary unemployment are very 
 high, even among teetotalers and light drinkers, 
 for men past their 40th or 45th birthday. 
 
 (d) Many of the minority of men who are heavy 
 drinkers or who are chronic alcoholics are ir- 
 regular in their work habits, and often do not 
 care to work. They work only long enough to 
 "get by." 
 
 (e) Low education, lack of job skills, and skid row 
 addresses make it more difficult for these men 
 to find jobs. 
 
 Quite often, drinking will be cited as the sole ex- 
 planation for widespread unemployment on skid row. 
 Evidence assembled in earlier chapters suggests that 
 although drinking is involved, it is a factor in less 
 than one-half the cases of unemployment. Even when 
 alcoholism contributes to unemployment, the other 
 important factors are also present. 
 
 Skid row is a regional collecting place for physically 
 disabled common laborers who are in poor health and 
 who have difficulty getting work, even though they may 
 not drink. Employment experts often talk of "unem- 
 ployables" — persons who lack any skills or qualifica- 
 tions for which there is a demand in the "labor mar- 
 ket" at the particular time. These men may be "un- 
 employable" for many reasons: they may be of low 
 intelligence, may have developed a severe hernia, or 
 may simply be past 45 years of age and hence too 
 old for unskilled labor. Such men, having no family 
 or other resources to fall back on, are slowly drawn 
 into this pool of unemployed. The chronic alcoholic 
 is only a special case in a general process. Therefore 
 the labor problem of skid row is not simply one of 
 alcoholism, but is a result of broad employment policy 
 and a consequence of the functioning of the labor 
 market. 
 
 In recent decades the nation has attempted to con- 
 trol the labor market, to make it impossible for per- 
 sons to be brutalized by the working of impersonal 
 competitive processes. Minimum wage laws and un- 
 employment compensation are intended to serve this 
 function. There are still flaws and loopholes in this 
 program. Through the force of circumstances, a 
 number of working men continue to sink to a level 
 below the socially established minimum. 
 
 Among the skid row workingmen are many who do 
 not work in an interstate industry, who have not estab- 
 lished legal residence in any state, who do not work 
 in industries covered by Social Security, or who work 
 for unscrupulous employers who avoid the spirit of 
 the law by declaring their employees I working at in- 
 humanely low rates of pay) to be "self-employed inde- 
 pendent operators." Some of the unskilled men simply 
 cannot locate a job because of lack of intelligence, 
 physical defects, or age. 
 
 One of the ways to shrink skid row is to broaden 
 and extend social legislation that seeks to establish 
 minimum employment conditions. Any American 
 citizen, irrespective of his drinking habits, when de- 
 nied work opportunities for a prolonged span of time 
 could end up in the skid row soup-line unless saved 
 from this fate by a family or by some program of social 
 legislation. The validity of this generalization has 
 already been established by the huge mushrooming 
 of skid rows that took place during the economic de- 
 pression of 1929-1939. We may forget that a similar 
 process is operating continuously, though on a less 
 massive scale, even during times of economic 
 prosperity. 
 
 Meanwhile, a high proportion of the men who are 
 on skid row express an interest in obtaining voca- 
 tional training or retraining to fit them for jobs higher 
 in the socio-economic scale. Their ambitions seem to 
 be modest and would be within the realm of possibility 
 if they are sincere in entering a vocational training 
 program. Occupational therapy is a necessary part 
 of the overall program to rehabilitate the men on 
 skid row. 
 
 The skid row population of Chicago contains a very 
 large number and a high percentage of pensioners 
 who live here against their own wishes. There are two 
 types of these "captive residents," ( a ) the earned 
 retirement pensioners who are forced to live here 
 because it is the only place they can "get by" on their 
 meager retirement pension from Social Security, and 
 ( b ) the welfare pensioners who are sent here by the 
 Department of Public Aid when they qualify for Gen- 
 eral Public Assistance and are found not to have a 
 family. More adequate welfare payments are a pre- 
 requisite to the shrinking of skid row. 
 
 All of these men do not live in cubicle-type hotels. 
 Vlany live in the dilapidated old buildings that line 
 the side streets of skid row and have been converted 
 to rooming houses. Some of these skid row pensioners 
 both those who are in cubicles and those who are 
 in rooming houses — are charity out-patients from 
 Cook County Hospital. It seems to be a very common 
 arrangement to give a convalescent charity out-patient 
 a bed in a cubicle hotel and a disbursing order for a 
 skid row restaurant. 
 
 page 55 
 
A conscientious and quite successful effort has been 
 made to keep able-bodied alcoholics off General Public 
 Assistance. It appears that under the present system, 
 unemployment compensation may be combined with 
 seasonal or intermittent steady employment to permit 
 a large group of able-bodied men to spend prolonged 
 periods drinking excessively without looking for work. 
 The system of "rocking chair pay" undoubtedly is a 
 very useful device for helping gandy dancers (only 
 a fraction of whom spend the winters in Chicago's 
 taverns ) to spread their income over a full year, 
 but it may also operate to institutionalize and to 
 give economic as well as sociological security to un- 
 controlled drinking, and thereby help create chronic 
 alcoholics. Beyond any doubt, the men on skid row 
 who are most addicted to heavy drinking are not the 
 retired pensioners or the year-around residents who 
 work in factories, stores, and at "spot jobs." The 
 heavy drinkers are largely the gandy dancers who earn 
 large amounts of money and are forced to come back 
 to Chicago's skid row to collect their pay. They may 
 spend their whole paycheck in a few days of drinking, 
 and must stand in mission soup-lines and take "spot 
 jobs" until they are shipped out again or, in the winter- 
 time, until the next unemployment compensation check 
 arrives. 
 
 Enlightened officials in railroad corporations should 
 sit down with welfare workers and devise some new 
 procedure for paying these men for the work they 
 do. The conditions under which benefits are paid for 
 off-season slack work should be altered in such a way 
 that they would be less able to go on week-long 
 "benders" with full economic security. 
 
 Veterans of World War I and before World War II 
 are overrepresented, and veterans of World War II and 
 Korea are underrepresented on skid row. Yet, the 
 veterans of World War II who live on skid row are 
 more inclined to be heavy drinkers and alcoholic 
 derelicts than either the non-veterans or any other 
 group of veterans. This is only partially accounted 
 for by the age of the men. 
 
 The skid row man is much less healthy and less 
 physically fit than the average person in the general 
 population. However, the handicaps of the homeless 
 men are not sufficient to fully explain their lowly eco- 
 nomic condition. According to a physician's analysis, 
 the homeless man is not supporting himself to his full 
 potential. However, he should not bear the entire 
 blame. Employers of unskilled and semi-skilled workers 
 are notoriously prejudiced against middle-aged and 
 older workmen, especially if they have health problems 
 or even mild handicaps, as the majority of skid row 
 men have. It appears that even if highly motivated, 
 and if the problem of drinking was completely solved, 
 the homeless man would need some kind of help in ob- 
 taining jobs if they are to become economically self- 
 sustaining to the maximum extent. 
 
 These findings have one very clear conclusion: Skid 
 row collects a substantial number of familyless men 
 suffering from chronic ailments, and many of these 
 men do not drink or drink very sparingly. Thus, one 
 of the very large groups of men on skid row consists 
 of middle-aged non-alcoholic workingmen who have 
 suffered a breakdown in health, and can neither afford 
 treatment nor command a steady job. They are perhaps 
 the crudest example in our society of lack of protec- 
 tion against chronic illness that strikes through no 
 fault of the individual. Public welfare helps some 
 of them. 
 
 Death rates from most causes are several times 
 higher among the homeless men than among the gen- 
 eral population. The reasons for this high mortality 
 are not fully understood. However, several contribut- 
 ing factors have been determined: (a) There probably 
 is a selective process, whereby men without families 
 whose health is failing and who have no money or 
 persons to care for them move here to die. (b) Men 
 who have lived in poverty and without medical care 
 for many years would be expected to have high mor- 
 tality rates, (c) Prolonged heavy drinking undoubted- 
 ly causes the life span to be reduced drastically — 
 many men on skid row literally "drink themselves to 
 death." (d) Life in the cubicle-type hotel may be 
 conducive to the spread of infectious diseases, and 
 especially to pulmonary disorders, (e) Medical help 
 is unavailable to many of the homeless men when 
 severe illness strikes, (f) Homeless men may be far 
 more negligent in caring for their health than most 
 other men ; they may eat poorer food, get less rest 
 and work when ill. Whatever the factors may be, the 
 situation produced is probably worse than in any other 
 segment of the population. Skid row appears to be 
 the last outpost of avoidable and preventable death. 
 
 Neglected and unwanted, the homeless man lives amid 
 refuse, vacillating between despair and defiance. 
 
 page 56 
 
The outdated conception of skid row as a regional 
 pool of migratory labor and vagabond hoboes should 
 be replaced with a contemporary and realistic view. 
 Skid rows are populated predominantly by men who 
 may move around a great deal locally, but who move 
 from one city to another only when forced by neces- 
 sity — unemployment, trouble with police, or a tem- 
 porary job — with the expectation of returning. To 
 the average skid row man, going to another city is 
 a routine adventure or the product of a capricious 
 whim. It is an outmigration caused by either duress 
 or by temporary work opportunities. It would be a 
 mistake to view Chicago's skid row as a deposit of 
 "human dross"' collected entirely from other commu- 
 nities and for which Chicago has no responsibility. 
 A major percentage of the men on skid row are legal 
 citizens of the state, registered voters, and a product 
 of life in Chicago. In the interviews with the men, 
 respondents declared over and over, "I know every- 
 body on this street, and everybody knows me." 
 Workers at the Monroe Street Police Station, in the 
 missions, and in the welfare stations verified this. 
 Strangers on skid row are detected immediately, not 
 because they may not dress and act like the rest, but 
 principally because theirs is a strange face among 
 familiar acquaintances. Over the course of a lifetime, 
 the average skid row man visits several cities, and 
 appears to have traveled much. But the interval be- 
 tween trips tends to be quite long, and moves are 
 associated with loss of jobs or other hardships. 
 
 There appears to be a considerable volume of move- 
 ment between skid row areas and other residential 
 neighborhoods. Probably most of this represents the 
 social and economic decline of the men to the point 
 where they are forced to live on skid row (due to old 
 age, loss of health, or progressive deterioration due to 
 heavy drinking! or the climbing up of poor but indus- 
 trious immigrants who are forced to live on skid row 
 temporarily while they find employment and save a 
 little money. Once a man has become a long-term 
 resident of skid row, the probabilities of his leaving 
 become much diminished. 
 
 Death is another major source of turnover in skid 
 row inhabitants. The high death rates cause old-timers 
 to disappear at a substantial rate, and they are re- 
 placed by newcomers who will stay many months or 
 years until they in turn die. This simple process of 
 high mortality with continuous replacement contributes 
 to the illusion of a high rate of migration. 
 
 Housing 
 
 The following characteristics are manifest in the 
 skid row complexes in Chicago: 
 
 1. The great majority of skid row hotels are located 
 in structures that are very old. About two-thirds are 
 in buildings which are 70 years of age, or older, and 
 
 only a comparatively few in buildings less than 40 
 years old. The oldest structures are those housing small 
 cubicle hotels and those with rooms, while the youngest 
 structures are the largest cubicle hotels. Inasmuch as 
 several of the largest cubicle hotels were designed and 
 built as fireproof flophouses shortly after 1920, or con- 
 verted from other large fire-resistant buildings (usually 
 warehouses) shortly before 1920, the large and me- 
 dium size cubicle hotels usually have fewer fire and 
 building violations. 
 
 The building surveys also show that even where 
 legal compliance with building and fire codes is an 
 actuality, the physical layout and the facilities and 
 construction of most of the older structures are unsafe, 
 unhealthful and socially undesirable. This applies in 
 greatest degree to the medium and smaller sized hotels. 
 
 2. Vacancy rates in the skid row hotels are high. 
 At the time of the field survey (winter of 1957-1958) 
 when hotel occupancy is assumed to be at peak level, 
 the general average for vacancies in the three Chicago 
 skid rows was 21 per cent for cubicle hotel rooms, and 
 8 percent for hotel rooms. The vacancy rates for South 
 State Street were extraordinarily high for all types of 
 housing (twice the rate for the other skid rows). On 
 West Madison Street the highest vacancy rates occurred 
 in the medium and small sized cubicle hotels, while 
 on South State Street the larger hotels had the highest 
 vacancy rates. 
 
 3. Only 40 percent of the net acreage of the three 
 skid rows is devoted to skid row or related uses. Sig- 
 nificantly, 17.5 percent of the total net acreage of the 
 three skid rows consists of unimproved vacant land, 
 vacant and abandoned structures and surface parking 
 areas. 
 
 Present Public and Private Activity on Skid Row 
 
 The present expenditure of money on skid row is 
 estimated at over $5,500,000 a year in excess of what 
 would be spent in a normal community. About 85 
 percent of this total is spent by the public agencies to 
 contain and control skid row. Only 3 percent of this 
 percentage is spent to actively rehabilitate and rede- 
 velop the area. 
 
 The private agencies are doing much more work to 
 change the way of life of the men in the area. However, 
 they are limited by lack of funds and a highly particu- 
 laristic approach to skid row rehabilitation. 
 
 As yet, there is no comprehensive and generally 
 accepted plan for the areas and cooperation between 
 the various agencies is limited. The following section. 
 THE PROGRAM, points up the inadequacies and poses 
 a series of recommendations which if backed by the 
 combined efforts of the existing agencies and carefully 
 followed, could lead to the elimination of skid row. 
 
 page 57 
 
Chapter 
 
 15 
 
 The Program 
 
 The population of skid row is amazingly diverse. 
 No single variety of homeless man predominates, as 
 shown conclusively by this study. Rather, there are 
 many kinds of men on skid row: the elderly pensioner, 
 the handicapped, the unskilled worker, the alcoholic, 
 the migrant laborer and the vagrant. Thus, men on 
 skid row have many different and special problems, 
 requiring diversified remedies. 
 
 No program which treats the area as a social entity 
 can succeed. A realistic program actually must be a 
 combination of a series of separate programs which 
 are needed for each of the several groups. Further- 
 more, these programs must combine both welfare and 
 housing resources to be effective. The program must 
 be comprehensive, multi-faceted, flexible, and well co- 
 ordinated. It is just this kind of a program which is 
 proposed in the following pages. 
 
 Another major conclusion of this study is that the 
 ultimate elimination of skid row is possible and can 
 be achieved through careful planning and concerted 
 action. This is an opportune time for instituting such 
 a program, as there is now a plan for the renewal of 
 the central area of the city. There need be no emer- 
 gence of another skid row during clearance and re- 
 housing if there be effective programs treating psy- 
 chological, social, medical, and vocational problems. 
 
 * -X- * * * 
 
 The preceding material demonstrates that skid row 
 is not a single problem, but a series of interrelated 
 problems and a product of history. From its begin- 
 nings as a locale where migrant working men con- 
 gregated, the skid row areas deteriorated socially as 
 they deteriorated physically. Skid rows became a 
 refuge for unattached men (whose common denomina- 
 tor was poverty ) who moved to skid row because there 
 was no place else to go. No other community was 
 economically prepared to provide the basic amenities at 
 bare subsistence levels. No other community was will- 
 ing to accept these residents. 
 
 The expanding economy and general upgrading of 
 society (through such media as universal mass educa- 
 tion, the growth of social welfare programs, and in- 
 
 creased opportunities for work) have served to drasti- 
 cally reduce the number of homeless men. By all indi- 
 cations, the number of homeless men will continue to 
 decrease, excluding major economic depressions or 
 other international catastrophes. 
 
 In large part, those who remained on skid row were 
 the least employable and the least stable elements. 
 There are indications that the ranks of homeless men 
 will be filled by a growing number of persons suffering 
 from serious mental disturbances. For example, a 
 trend toward a more youthful skid row population 
 in Chicago may be attributed to increased Social Se- 
 curity coverage for older men who choose to live 
 elsewhere. This may also indicate, as some fear, that 
 chronic alcoholism is on the increase among younger 
 men. These findings indicate that the problems and 
 programs for skid row will change from basically 
 economic problems (finding employment or issuing 
 mass relief grants I to problems which require psy- 
 chological treatment and social welfare programming. 
 
 Today, skid rows economic functions are minor. 
 The research thoroughly refutes one of the wide- 
 ly accepted rationalizations for the continued existence 
 of skid rows: that they provide an important casual 
 and low-cost labor pool. The entire skid row labor 
 force could disappear from the economic scene and 
 scarcely be missed, and employment agencies could fill 
 all spot job vacancies with young migrant workers 
 without using any of the men on skid row. 
 
 Skid row has been justified on the grounds that it 
 is a solution which has worked. It provides a low-cost 
 economy, it is the center for hiring unskilled workers, 
 it is the locus of welfare activity, and it provides com- 
 panionship and anonymity. These functions serve no 
 generally useful social or economic purpose except to 
 house and provide for the homeless men whom societ) 
 has rejected. If these men are rehabilitated so that 
 their earning capacity is increased, so that their per- 
 sonal problems are not debilitating and there is no 
 need to escape, and so that those who cannot function 
 economically are provided for. then lhc\ it ill not need 
 skid row and skid row need not exist. 
 
 page 58 
 
Skid row is a socially expensive and economically 
 unnecessary phenomena. It is the dark corner into 
 which society sweeps its rejects, many of whom are 
 still salvageable and useful. Skid row feeds upon itself 
 and. by cutting off the community which it represents 
 from normal interaction with the general society, it 
 compounds and complicates its many problem areas 
 with additional problems. This results in the increased 
 dependency of its inhabitants on society for sustenance 
 and even existence. 
 
 The present cost to society of this dependency is 
 immense. Yet this cost is based on stop-gap and gen- 
 erally ineffective remedial measures. Dr. Dunham 
 points out in his book. Homeless Men and Their Habi- 
 tats, that I in the absence of expert knowledge) plans 
 for remedying skid row conditions evolve from the 
 compromises of groups and persons having special 
 interests. The usual result is a competition among 
 agencies which deal with different aspects of the prob- 
 lem. The cost of any comprehensive program which 
 successfully can eliminate skid row very probably 
 would result in an actual monetary saving to the com- 
 munity. 
 
 For a unified and valid plan to exist, individual 
 biases and special interests must be transcended by a set 
 of goals and definitions upon which agreement can be 
 obtained. In addition, any ambitious program to up- 
 grade the economic, social, and physical conditions of 
 skid row must be carefully interpreted to the public. 
 Years of identifying skid row as an island of depravity, 
 drunkenness, crime, and indolence have created many 
 negative attitudes toward skid row residents, and rigidi- 
 fied the fears and disgust of many. A positive program 
 of public communication must destroy the prevalent 
 misconceptions and explain the tragic problems of the 
 non-alcoholic, the aged, the infirm, and the poor. The 
 problems of skid row, i.e., the problems of the aged, 
 the handicapped, and the alcoholic, must be related 
 to the same problems in the general community. The 
 economic desirability of redeveloping the central area 
 should be fully described. A good program of public 
 information will undoubtably mobilize the necessary 
 community support. This support often determines the 
 effectiveness and the extent of any public or private 
 program. 
 
 The final consideration of any community program 
 for the elimination of skid rows, however, must in- 
 evitably grapple with the question as to whether skid 
 row problems are of sufficiently high priority among 
 other city problems. This is basically an administrative- 
 political decision to make within the context of other 
 local issues. 
 
 The program which can eliminate skid row requires: 
 la) the planned, systematic physical clearance which 
 would shrink skid row; (b) the systematic relocation 
 of the residents to more appropriate or upgraded hous- 
 ing depending on their needs; and (c) the systematic 
 
 plan for rehabilitation of those men who need it. This 
 attack on many fronts would be a great improvement 
 from the present policies of merely containing skid 
 rows. 
 
 The elements of this combined housing-welfare ap- 
 proach are outlined on the following pages. The pre- 
 sentation is divided into two sections: Phase I which 
 • alls for immediate action, demolition of the worst 
 buildings and relocation of their residents; and Phase 
 II which requires long term planning, integration and 
 coordination for the rehabilitation and relocation of 
 the remaining men. The entire program probably can 
 be carried out in ten years, but it should always be 
 coordinated with the plans of the city to rezone and 
 reconstruct the Central Area. 
 
 HOUSING AND WELFARE PLANNING 
 PHASE I 
 
 Housing 
 
 Chicago's skid rows have a composite land coverage 
 of 315.5 acres of which only 43.3 acres are. in whole 
 or in part, in residential use. 
 
 There are 451 structures which provide housing for 
 skid row residents. These structures are very old. 
 Violations of building and fire codes are frequent. 
 Even with compliance, the physical layout, facilities 
 and construction of the majority of the older structures 
 would still be unsafe, unhealthful, and undesirable. 
 The areas rank high among the most blighted and de- 
 plorable areas of the city. 
 
 The structures contain 11,943 sleeping spaces, over 
 10,000 of which are cubicles. Since 21 percent of the 
 sleeping spaces in cubicle type hotels and 8 percent 
 in hotels with rooms were vacant, about 2,300 sleeping 
 spaces were unused during the peak season. 
 
 Consequently, 50-100 structures, depending on size 
 and designation as the most hazardous, could be de- 
 molished without seriously reducing the supply of 
 needed spaces. In geographic terms, the entire South 
 State and North Clark Street skid rows could be elim- 
 inated and the population now resident there could be 
 accommodated on West Madison. 
 
 The immediate steps needed to shrink skid row are: 
 1 ) The acquisition and razing of at least 15, 
 possibly 20, of the oldest, least fire-resistant 
 cubicle hotels ( the most substandard and hazard- 
 ous structures as well as the ones with the highest 
 vacancy rates and the least desired type of accom- 
 modation ) , would reduce the number of cubicle 
 hotels to 10 or 15. The remaining hotels would 
 be largely the newer, more fire-resistant units 
 that are clustered together within a few blocks 
 on West Madison Street, in adjoining streets, or 
 on the very edge of the Loop. Some of the worst 
 hotels with rooms, located in areas with a high 
 commercial value, also could be razed. 
 
 page 59 
 
Such action would have the immediate effect of 
 greatly reducing one of the most deleterious 
 aspects of Chicago's skid row area and would 
 concentrate the population into fewer units in a 
 diminished geographical space. The property 
 could he sold for commercial use or leased for 
 needed parking space. All of these steps should 
 be coordinated carefully with plans for redevel- 
 oping the central area. A concentration of the 
 population would also be conducive to an inten- 
 sified welfare program. 
 2 1 An intensive effort must be made by the munici- 
 pal agencies charged with licensing and inspec- 
 tion to concentrate on the remaining housing 
 with a view to improving the level of mainte- 
 nance of these facilities. 
 
 Already much has been accomplished. Since 
 the basic research was terminated, the City Coun- 
 cil passed several fire prevention ordinances per- 
 taining to hotels. In the Fire Prevention Bureau, 
 a group of eight Lieutenant Inspectors has been 
 assigned to inspect hotels on an around-the-clock 
 basis. Increased authority to enforce the ordi- 
 nances has been delegated to the Fire Prevention 
 Bureau and many of the deficiencies have been 
 corrected. In addition, a program is now in 
 effect to train and license desk clerks. The De- 
 partment of Buildings also has taken positive 
 steps. 
 
 More comprehensive and systematic inspec- 
 tions, intensive, strict, and frequent, are neces- 
 sary and followup inspections are crucial. A 
 system of more complete reporting and of better 
 coordination between the several agencies should 
 be initiated. Rigorous examinations of hotels 
 and missions must include the inspection of mat- 
 tresses, cubicle walls and floors, and the un- 
 healthy damp, non-ventilated cubicles that never 
 see sunlight. Shower rooms and toilet facilities 
 should receive special attention to insure that 
 these generally inadequate facilities be improved 
 to a clean and sound operating condition. 
 
 Severe action should be brought against all 
 hotels and missions which operate establishments 
 that are a threat to health, that are dirty, vermin- 
 ridden, and that use dirty linen and blankets. 
 
 With a high vacancy rate (which would be 
 maintained with a simultaneous program of relo- 
 cation), code enforcement programs should be 
 more effective. An improved hotel is more com- 
 petitive in securing occupants. This suggests a 
 dual approach of force and persuasion. 
 3) Condemnation procedures should be initiated 
 against those establishments unwilling or unable 
 to comply with the building and fire ordinances 
 and constituting demonstrable hazards. 
 
 4) Administrative procedures should be developed 
 by the Department of Public Aid to certify units for 
 occupancy of public welfare recipients. Many 
 of the rooming houses derive a large, if not 
 major share of their incomes from public funds, 
 through revenues obtained from elderly pension- 
 ers or from out-patients from County Hospital 
 who reside in these units. 
 
 The beginnings of the welfare program de- 
 scribed in the following pages should be simulta- 
 neous with this phase of the program. One of 
 the first steps of the welfare program is the 
 rehousing of the non-alcoholic and public welfare 
 recipients and elderly pensioners. 
 
 These measures, while providing the beginning 
 of a systematic and orderly program, would be 
 directed toward maximizing the opportunity pro- 
 vided by general vacancy rates and toward the 
 relocation of non-alcoholic elderly pensioners 
 and other welfare recipients. This program 
 would not contribute to the emergence of a skid 
 row in other communities. 
 
 The razing of the large and increasing number 
 of vacant, partially vacant and abandoned struc- 
 tures would result in the freeing of much needed 
 land, and would crack the historical physical 
 concentration. 
 
 Specific rehousing recommendations must be inte- 
 grated with the welfare recommendations for each 
 separate group on skid row. (The specific recom- 
 mendations, by type of skid row resident, are included 
 in the following section. I The resource persons who 
 cooperated in the study offered the following general 
 proposals for the provision and operation of housing 
 for the men of skid row. Investigation of the feasibility 
 of these alternative proposals should receive immediate 
 attention so that programs can be developed around 
 them. 
 
 a. Private hotels and rooming house owners should 
 provide housing which is regulated only by our 
 existing zoning and building codes. No public 
 subsidies or special government funds need be 
 involved in this proposal. 
 
 b. Private hotel and rooming house owners should 
 provide new or converted buildings in places 
 specified by the city plan commission and regu- 
 lated by a special health, welfare, and rehabilita- 
 tion ordinance that would specify the minimum 
 facilities that must be provided. The manage- 
 ment of these dwellings should be required to 
 participate in a possible federal-state-local pro- 
 gram of rehabilitation and treatment of chronic 
 alcoholism 1>\ providing space for certain reha- 
 bilitation programs. 
 
 page 60 
 
c. The City should provide new or converted build- 
 ings at rents which would make such public shel- 
 ters as nearly self-supporting as possible. This 
 would be an integral part of a program to reha- 
 bilitate present residents of skid row areas and 
 to prevent the development of more homeless 
 men. insofar as possible. The principal objec- 
 tive would be to rehabilitate or cure the men 
 rather than to recover the costs of housing. 
 
 d. The City should provide new or converted build- 
 ings owned and operated on a self-supporting 
 basis by the City. Those hotels would be required 
 to charge rates sufficient to pay their expenses 
 without subsidy. 
 
 NOTE: It was assumed that this housing would be 
 of a type suitable to the groups involved. 
 
 Welfare 
 
 Two major welfare steps are required in Phase I, 
 the establishment of a central agency and the provision 
 of services for the non-alcoholic older person. 
 
 In order to coordinate the general skid row program 
 and the various sub-programs, it is proposed that a 
 Bureau of Migrant and Homeless Persons be imme- 
 diately established. 
 
 The Cook County Department of Public Aid would 
 be the most suitable agency to establish this Bureau if 
 it can obtain sufficient funds and personnel to operate 
 the necessary program at the level of intensity that is 
 needed during the physical redevelopment of skid 
 row. The Department already maintains an ongoing 
 program which includes public welfare assistance, old 
 age assistance, aid to dependent persons and rehabilita- 
 tion programs. The Department recently has incor- 
 porated similar programs formerly carried on by the 
 City of Chicago, and various programs carried on 
 with State funds on behalf of public welfare. 
 
 Furthermore, existing legislation and policies permit 
 certain kinds of programs which are not being utilized 
 to their full capacity. Under Illinois statute, the wel- 
 fare departments may engage in programs designed to 
 prevent dependency. It is suggested that the possibility 
 of utilizing such existing legislation to relieve the de- 
 pendency of skid row be investigated. These expendi- 
 tures would diminish as the hard core of welfare cases 
 on skid row decreases and would level off finally to a 
 plateau concerned only with keeping newcomers off 
 skid row. 
 
 If no additional funds are forthcoming, it is sug- 
 gested that alternative auspices for the Bureau be in- 
 vestigated. To achieve official status, however, the 
 Bureau should be under the auspices of a public agency 
 or be a temporary public agency itself. 
 
 The major role of the Bureau would be the co- 
 ordination of activities of both public and private 
 agencies dealing with skid row. It would establish 
 communication and cooperation between the various 
 
 agencies and seek to prevent fragmentation and dupli- 
 cation in programming. It would provide the liaison 
 between the welfare and housing agencies. It will have 
 detailed knowledge of all existing facilities and pro- 
 grams and will distribute regular reports among the 
 agencies. 
 
 The Bureau would direct a program of remedial 
 services to all skid row residents. All residents seeking 
 assistance or counseled into accepting assistance should 
 be referred to the Bureau which would operate a central 
 intake service. Screening of the men by the Bureau 
 will entail medical, psychological, and financial evalua- 
 tions, after which the men will be referred to the proper 
 treatment facilities. In this way, the Bureau can deter- 
 mine total program needs and isolate specific program 
 inadequacies. The Bureau would seek to remove from 
 skid row those elements of the population whose pri- 
 mary problems transcend the need for decent housing, 
 such as the senile or mentally incompetent, and would 
 begin the operations of the relocation program. 
 
 The Bureau would embark upon a program of public 
 information to dispel some of the prevalent misconcep- 
 tions about skid row which stigmatize and condemn 
 the area. It would seek the support of the public in 
 carrying out its program. 
 
 The Bureau should have within its purview the func- 
 tion of reviewing and recommending the granting or 
 renewal of licenses of the various activities on skid row 
 requiring licenses, such as hotels and rooming houses, 
 employment agencies, taverns, liquor dispensing and 
 food dispensing establishments. 
 
 The Bureau should have the power to inspect and 
 investigate, in order to provide definitive information 
 (as part of its review powers! as to whether licensees 
 are operating in the public interest. Additional re- 
 search may show that greater social control in upgrad- 
 ing standards is needed for certain licensees and that 
 certain activities which are not subject now to inspec- 
 tion and control should be licensed. 
 
 The Bureau would develop uniform standards for 
 all agencies working with skid row residents, as there 
 appears to be a great disparity between the kind and 
 level of activitv of the various agencies working on 
 'the street." The Bureau would disseminate reports on 
 the activities and resources of agencies and collect and 
 distribute the latest studies on skid row and related 
 topics. It will act in a consulting capacity for any 
 agency seeking advice on programs or operations. 
 
 A permanent advisory committee on skid row prob- 
 lems should he established in order to engage in an 
 ongoing program of research, the setting-up of stand- 
 ards and criteria, as well as in an interchange of infor- 
 mation. The committee should set policy and serve as 
 the board of directors. 
 
 The estahlishment of the Bureau must be the initial 
 step in any move to rehabilitate skid row, socially and 
 physically. 
 
 jmge 61 
 
When full scale redevelopment begins, a relocation 
 agency will be established. It will work closely with 
 the Bureau and may be staffed by personnel from the 
 Bureau. Welfare services, such as those the Bureau 
 will coordinate and develop, must be established and 
 utilized long before relocation begins. 
 
 The next step must be the initiation of a program 
 directed toward the rehousing of the non-alcoholic 
 public welfare recipients and elderly pensioners. The 
 older proportion of the skid row population should de- 
 crease as more workingmen become fully covered by 
 social security payments and can afford to live else- 
 where. However, the present group of earned retire- 
 ment pensioners are receiving exceedingly low monthly 
 incomes, and, with the low-income welfare recipients, 
 are forced to live in skid row areas. The vast majority 
 of these men are not alcoholics or heavy drinkers, and 
 have openly expressed their dissatisfaction with skid 
 row living. 
 
 The problem suggests two alternative solutions. The 
 first is to seek increased welfare grants so that welfare 
 recipients can compete for housing in other communi- 
 ties and so that retired pensioners would be eligible 
 for supplementary grants to raise their total income. 
 Until the grants are increased, however, more immedi- 
 ate means of relocation must be sought. 
 
 The second means of rehousing can be achieved by 
 pooling the resources of public and private agencies 
 which are concerned with the aged. All of the agencies 
 which serve the aged give some assistance in finding 
 housing. Resources for foster home care, old age 
 homes, nursing homes, and shared apartments or single 
 rooms in structures with eating facilities should be 
 investigated. Rooming facilities near institutions which 
 provide day programs for the elderly should be sought. 
 Similar efforts should be made near neighborhood 
 settlement houses which have social groups for elderly 
 persons and the development of senior centers through- 
 out the city should be encouraged. Welfare agencies, 
 as part of this relocation program, should give careful 
 case by case attention to their recipients in the skid 
 row areas and work out solutions on an individual 
 basis. The resource persons who were questioned urged 
 that the recent programs developed for older persons 
 should be generally extended to the elderly family-less 
 men of skid row. 
 
 The almost 3,300 non-alcoholic welfare recipients 
 and elderly pensioners involved in this relocation 
 process would further reduce the skid row population. 
 This would permit the demolition of additional 
 structures. 
 
 HOUSING AND WELFARE PLANNING 
 PHASE II 
 
 The core of the housing problem is those men who 
 need combined housing and welfare assistance. The 
 
 combined health and welfare and rehousing pro- 
 gram seeks to: 1 I increase the economic independence 
 of skid row residents through medical, psychological, 
 and occupational rehabilitation, and 2 1 extend and 
 improve services for the permanently dependent group. 
 This phase of the program must be spaced over several 
 years as new programs and facilities are developed to 
 replace the presently inadequate services. 
 
 The combined housing-welfare program calls for 
 careful diagnosis and evaluation of the strengths and 
 needs of individual men with counseling and follow-up 
 service necessary to assist them in obtaining rehousing 
 and specialized help from existing public and private 
 agencies. 
 
 Based on this diagnosis, the men would need the 
 following services and housing facilities: 
 
 1 ) The non-alcoholic elderly with marginal incomes 
 — the provision of counseling, friendly visiting, and 
 leisure time services — the provision of housing which 
 is suited to their needs, located off skid row. 
 
 2 I The non-alcoholic workingmen — vocational reha- 
 bilitation, training and job placement services to enable 
 men to obtain employment in private industry or to 
 upgrade their skills — rehousing in decent, safe, and 
 sanitary dwelling units for those who prefer to live out- 
 side the usual residential areas. 
 
 3 ) The mentally ill, senile, or chronically ill — refer- 
 ral to the appropriate institutions. 
 
 4 ) The handicapped and ill — medical care and reha- 
 bilitation to restore the disabled to optimum health 
 and functioning — provision of sheltered employment 
 opportunities. 
 
 5 ) The alcoholic — experimentation in providing 
 treatment for alcoholics who for various reasons can- 
 not be helped by such existing programs as Alcoholics 
 Anonymous and the Missions — housing for those un- 
 dergoing primary treatment for alcoholism and for 
 those who have completed the primary treatment stage. 
 
 6) The temporarily destitute, the "bum," and the 
 migrant worker — programs for the detection and man- 
 agement of and assistance to these men — building of 
 temporary shelters. 
 
 7) The ex-convict — provision of special services 
 such as counseling, temporary shelter and financial 
 assistance and employment for the discharged prisoner 
 to help him re-establish himself in the community. 
 
 8) The criminal — programs of apprehension. 
 
 9) Elimination of economic exploitation on skid 
 row through enforcement of existing minimum wage 
 laws and enforcement of liquor laws. 
 
 101 Special emphasis on giving needed help to new- 
 comers to skid row to prevent their falling into a deeply 
 rooted pattern of skid row life — services to the general 
 community which will prevent the formation of new 
 skid rows. 
 
 page 62 
 
1) The Non-alcoholic Elderly Pensioner 
 
 Many of the elderly will be relocated in the first 
 phase of the skid row program. It is suggested that 
 the welfare and housing program be continued until 
 all of the pensioners have been rehoused off skid row. 
 The resource people felt that it is the principal respon- 
 sibility of the city to take the lead in furnishing suit- 
 able housing for dependent elderly men. Overwhelm- 
 ing support was given to the proposal that the federal 
 housing program provide funds I matched with local 
 funds) for low-cost public housing for elderly persons, 
 and this housing be of a type suitable to the way of 
 life of the unattached elderly men. The recommended 
 public housing should not be labeled "skid row hous- 
 ing." It is public housing for the elderly for which 
 elderly homeless men on skid row are eligible. 
 
 Additional possibilities for new construction are ex- 
 plained in the next section, particularly the program 
 recommendations for the non-alcoholic workingman 
 whose problems are similar to those of the elderly. 
 
 2) Non-alcoholic Workingmen 
 
 Housing. — The segment of the core population of 
 skid row which is most amenable to conventional re- 
 housing ( in addition to the non-alcoholic elderly group 
 discussed previously) is the non-alcoholic family-less 
 workingman, most of whom are at the lowest rung of 
 the economic ladder. 
 
 There are two major proposals for housing these 
 unattached workingmen: 
 
 a. Their accommodation in a residue of existing 
 skid row structures (in appropriate locations and 
 in the best condition ) which may be permitted 
 to remain on the condition of a continuing and 
 rigid enforcement of standards and codes of 
 maintenance and occupancy. The resource peo- 
 ple felt that these structures should not be of the 
 cubicle-type and should permit the workingmen 
 to live in greater privacy, comfort, and security 
 than previously. 
 
 b. Stimulation of limited new construction or reha- 
 bilitation under Sections 202 and 231 of the Na- 
 tional Housing Act, as amended by the Housing 
 Act of 1959. These sections, designed to encour- 
 age rental housing for elderly persons as well as 
 elderly families, provide both direct loans and 
 mortgage insurance for constructing new housing 
 and rehabilitating existing housing. 
 
 Under the direct loan provisions, it is possible to 
 include as part of a project, related facilities, defined 
 as: 
 
 "la ) New structures suitable for use as cafeterias or 
 dining halls, community rooms or buildings, 
 or infirmaries or other inpatient or outpatient 
 health facilities, or for other essential service 
 facilities, and (b) structures suitable for the 
 above uses provided by rehabilitation, altera- 
 
 tions, conversion or improvement of existing 
 structures which are otherwise inadequate for 
 such uses." 
 
 It is therefore possible to build or rehabilitate com- 
 plexes of housing and essential service facilities, as 
 well as single structures, for housing elderly persons 
 and families. 
 
 The mortgage insurance section, while emphasizing 
 occupancy by the elderly, provides for the possibility 
 of mixed occupancy, elderly and non-elderly. This 
 arrangement would be a salutary one as the research 
 for this study indicates that the elderly men themselves 
 would prefer housing which does not have the appear- 
 ance of an old age home. 
 
 Although at the time of this writing the regulations 
 implementing this act had not been published, the basic 
 language of the act indicates the following financing 
 possibilities: 
 
 1 . Under the "Direct Loan Program" provisions, 
 it is possible for non-profit corporations to obtain 
 direct loans for as much as 98 percent of the 
 development cost, not to exceed $5 million out- 
 standing at any one time. 
 
 2. Under the "Mortgage Insurance Program" pro- 
 visions, it is possible for Federal or State instru- 
 mentalities, municipal corporate instrumentali- 
 ties, or non-profit or limited profit corporations 
 to obtain Federally insured loans up to $50 mil- 
 lion, and for profit-making corporations to obtain 
 Federally insured loans up to $12,500,000. 
 
 Prohibited under this act is the construction of 
 facilities for "transient and hotel purposes," which is 
 defined as meaning facilities for rent for periods of 
 less than thirty days. 
 
 The benefits arising out of this act may be limited. 
 However, the act does provide philanthropic agencies 
 such as the Salvation Army, the Missions, and similar 
 groups with possible financial aids not heretofore avail- 
 able, enabling these groups to correct a long-festering 
 social problem. These facilities could serve the elderly 
 and family-less workingman of skid row in a climate 
 which the general community would accept. 
 
 Resource people who were questioned felt that self- 
 supporting men who are not a community problem 
 should be housed in buildings managed by private 
 businessmen. Of those who took this view, however, 
 more than one-half also favored a tightening of the 
 laws concerning the operation of these places. Also 
 recommended was the enactment of special ordinances 
 to assure that businessmen would cooperate fully with 
 municipal efforts to raise the level of living of the 
 men and to encourage them to move into different 
 neighborhoods. Such laws also would limit excessive 
 profits and insure more housing comfort for a given 
 amount of money. A considerable majority of the 
 resource people recommended sites away from the 
 present skid row location. 
 
 page 6 •' 
 
it mii iH - 
 
 Rehabilitation of the men on skid row often requires both job training and treatment for alcoholism. Industrial train- 
 ing (ABOVE) can revive economic independence. This Rehabilitation Service, provided by the Cook County Depart- 
 ment of Public Aid, is unequalled for completeness. Treatment for alcoholism (BELOW) is one of the aids offered by 
 the Salvation Army. These men at Harbor Light are drinking colas instead of alcohol while watching television. 
 
 page 64 
 
Welfare. — The research indicates that approxi- 
 mately 40 percent of the men on skid row worked at 
 some job during the week preceding their interview, 
 and that 86 percent of the men had worked at some 
 job during the year preceding the interview. These 
 men are employed largely in unskilled occupations and 
 in industries where involuntary unemployment is a 
 chronic condition, and where seasonal variations in 
 employment are high. 
 
 A program to upgrade the work skills of homeless 
 men also is required to remove as many of the men as 
 possible from the ranks of the unskilled labor pool. A 
 high percentage of the younger men on skid row indi- 
 cated a desire for training that would allow them to 
 escape from the ranks of unskilled labor. Their aspira- 
 tions were, in general, modest and realistic. Almost 
 one-half wanted to learn a craft, and a substantial 
 share wanted to learn to be operatives in factories. 
 
 At present, there are facilities for giving occupa- 
 tional rehabilitation to disabled and handicapped per- 
 sons through the Welfare Rehabilitation Service 
 maintained by the Cook County Department of Public 
 Aid and through the Illinois Board of Vocational Edu- 
 cation, Division of Vocational Rehabilitation. 
 
 The Welfare Rehabilitation Service also provides 
 vocational counseling and placement services to alco- 
 holics who belong to an Alcoholics Anonymous group 
 that meets in the Welfare Rehabilitation office weekly. 
 It also refers problem drinkers to these open meetings. 
 
 The possibility of expanding this program should 
 be explored, with a view toward emphasizing services 
 to homeless men, as part of an over-all program to 
 reduce the population of the skid row areas by reducing 
 dependency status and improving the earning capacity 
 of the men. 
 
 The Illinois State Employment Service currently 
 makes "spot job" and permanent job placements of 
 skid row men through its Casual Labor Office, located 
 on skid row. and through its unit which works through 
 the Monroe Street Court. The work of the free State 
 Employment Service should be expanded through 
 wider publicity of its testing, counseling and placement 
 service, both among skid row men and employers. The 
 testing, counseling, and placement of skid row workers 
 will have limited success if the State Employment Serv- 
 ice must rely entirely upon on-the-job training within 
 business and industrial establishments, and rehabilita- 
 tion is unlikely to take hold unless opportunities are 
 made available to the men to learn new skills. 
 
 The Chicago Board of Education has already insti- 
 tuted a program of adult education in its evening school 
 divisions under the Bureau of Education Extension. 
 In addition, the Board should begin an experimental 
 program for the men on skid row, offering elementary 
 training geared to increase the earning power of men 
 without skills and evening classes in such fields as auto- 
 motive mechanics. 
 
 If existing public educational facilities were used, 
 an experiment of this kind could be tried for a minimal 
 cost, consisting only of teachers' salaries, materials and 
 overhead. The success of such a program would de- 
 pend on widespread publicity. Counselors at all pres- 
 ent centers should be informed of such programs and 
 encourage their younger clients to enroll. 
 
 Minimum wage laws must be rigorously enforced 
 and their coverage should be extended. If an adequate 
 minimum wage level was secured, then a large propor- 
 tion of the low income workingmen could move to 
 neighborhoods away from skid row. 
 
 3) The Psyehotie, Senile, and Chronieally 111 
 
 The study has indicated that skid row contains many 
 men who are in poor mental health, and the number 
 of men in this category probably will increase with 
 the passage of time. A small, but important, percentage 
 of these men undoubtedly would be institutionalized if 
 they lived in neighborhoods other than skid row. 
 
 These cases now come to official attention chiefly 
 when the homeless men deteriorate to the point of 
 near complete helplessness, and must rely more and 
 more on assistance by private charitable organizations. 
 Case-workers in existing private agencies on skid row 
 often detect these serious problem cases and make 
 recommendations for further investigations of diag- 
 nosis. At present, however, these agencies do not have 
 the power either to act or to make effective recom- 
 mendations. 
 
 Power to obtain psychiatric examinations, safe- 
 guarded by appropriate legal proceedings, should be 
 given to those private agencies which work closely 
 with the homeless men. These agencies would work 
 closely with the Bureau and all referrals would be 
 first made to the Bureau for central intake. In Chicago, 
 these powers might be extended to the Salvation Army, 
 Cathedral Shelter, Pacific Garden Mission, Christian 
 Industrial League, Travelers Aid and the Catholic 
 Charities. The Bureau then would make appropriate 
 referrals to treatment facilities and rehabilitation cen- 
 ters. Where necessary, institutionalization of the af- 
 flicted could be recommended and effected. 
 
 Extension of these powers would require no new 
 screening organizations or facilities and probablv few 
 additions to personnel. It would rely upon the experi- 
 enced persons who now work with homeless men. 
 
 It is estimated that this program might bring as 
 many as three hundred defectives into existing public- 
 institutions in the first six months of operation. Where 
 treatment and rehabilitation procedures succeed and 
 result in the return of the homeless man to open society, 
 then the Bureau would refer the case to the proper 
 agency concerned with housing and employment 
 assistance. 
 
 It is recommended that nursing homes, public and 
 private, also be utilized for rehousing the mentally 
 and physically disabled. 
 
 page 65 
 
1) The Handicapped and III 
 
 The study indicates that there is a considerable po- 
 tential for improving the health of skid row men and 
 removing their physical disabilities. 
 
 A high percentage of the men on skid row need 
 medical care they cannot afford. In most of these cases, 
 the disorders could he greatly relieved and rendered 
 much less disabling by appropriate medical treatment. 
 A coordinated program of medical rehabilitation would 
 greatly reduce the amount of physical disability and 
 greatly increase the employability of the men. 
 
 For those men who are not chronic alcoholics ( for 
 example, non-alcoholic working men suffering from 
 hernia), rehabilitation could be accomplished at mod- 
 erate cost. Among heavy drinkers, alcoholism is com- 
 plicated by chronic sickness in a substantial proportion 
 of cases. Rehabilitation of such men requires both 
 medical care and treatment for alcoholism. 
 
 Men who receive public welfare assistance payments 
 are entitled to receive publicly assisted medical care 
 if they need it. Welfare workers in both public and 
 private organizations are acquainted with the facilities 
 available to these men at public expense and, through 
 skilled counseling, should encourage greater use of 
 these facilities. 
 
 The problem of obtaining medical care is more acute 
 for the man who is self-supporting but cannot pay 
 for his medical care. The county is responsible for 
 providing medical care for the "medically indigent" 
 at Cook County Hospital but County Hospital cannot 
 meet all of the demands. Voluntary hospitals and 
 clinics can meet only limited demands for free care 
 because of limited financial resources. Throughout 
 Illinois, except for Chicago and Cicero, the Illinois 
 Public Aid Commission reimburses private hospitals 
 for the cost of care provided to the medically indigent. 
 The removal of the restriction on Chicago and Cicero 
 would make existing hospital and clinic services more 
 readily available to the men on skid row. 
 
 Another approach is to investigate the feasibility of 
 interest free loans which would be repaid from the 
 earnings of the recipient when he returns to work. Even 
 when the services and financing for medical treatment 
 are available, the men on skid row must be encouraged 
 to use them. Suspicion and fear may prevent many 
 from seeking out these services for themselves. 
 
 In addition, private charitable organizations which 
 operate medical facilities should be encouraged to ex- 
 pand their activities to do more medical rehabilitation 
 work, and be given whatever assistance is possible 
 for this purpose. The current experience of the Salva- 
 tion Army with its West Madison Street Clinic, and 
 of the medical activities of the Pacific Carden Mission, 
 and Chicago Christian Industrial League should be 
 studied, with a view to expanding and enlarging them 
 to handle an expanded program of first aid and simple 
 
 rehabilitation. The latter organization has made sub- 
 stantial strides forward since the study was made. 
 Since July 195 ( J. it has had in operation a medical 
 clinic with a male registered nurse on full-time duty. 
 A stalf doctor spends one hour a day in the mission: 
 a dental clinic, staffed by volunteers, is in operation; 
 and a full-time psychiatric caseworker is employed. 
 
 5) The Problem Drinker and Alcoholic 
 
 Skid row is stereotyped as a haven for alcoholics. 
 Many conclude that the vast majority of men on skid 
 row are drunkards. This study shows that almost one- 
 half of the men are either teetotalers or light drinkers. 
 Only forty-four percent of the residents of the skid row 
 in Chicago are heavy drinkers or moderate drinkers. 
 Only 13 percent are alcoholic derelicts. The problem 
 is not to be minimized, however. Treatment of alco- 
 holism is one of the key facts in the rehabilitation of 
 skid row. 
 
 The programs themselves must be varied to deal 
 with the different types of drinkers. 
 
 Alcoholics who cannot be rehabilitated. — This 
 group should be recommended for institutional care 
 with minimum security. Here the men can live without 
 mistreatment and with minimum expense to the tax- 
 payer. 
 
 The cooperative alcoholic. — At present, there are 
 eleven private agencies located on skid row and five 
 public agencies which offer services to the skid row 
 alcoholic. These agencies found that no single solu- 
 tion emerges as a conclusive answer for the treatment 
 of skid row alcoholics. All programs have had some 
 degree of success. 
 
 In Chicago the public agency which has daily contact 
 with the largest number of skid row drinkers is the 
 Municipal Court of Chicago, Monroe Street Branch. 
 The Monroe Street Court, in its program for skid row 
 alcoholics, has discarded the penal approach to the 
 problem of alcoholism (jailing alcoholics I several 
 years ago and instituted a social welfare approach. The 
 operation of the Court and the screening process em- 
 ployed in dealing with the men is described in Chapter 
 13. The staff of the court, through its screening process, 
 refers the men to various welfare services. 
 
 The results achieved are promising, but they are 
 limited 1>\ the small staff and the lack of facilities. 
 This staff consists of the referee, a social service case- 
 worker and two employment counselors of the Illinois 
 Slate Employment Sen ice. 
 
 The Golden Ke\ Club is an adjunct to the Monroe 
 Street Police Court, which is operated under the 
 auspices of Alcoholics Anonymous and which works 
 with cooperative alcoholics in an effort to rehabilitate 
 them. One paid emplovce and several volunteers, oper- 
 ating in a two-room apartment in a nearby hotel, offer 
 those who want help an opportunitv to bathe, shave, get 
 
 page 66 
 
clean clothes, eat, and hear about the program of 
 Alcoholics Anonymous. The able-bodied men are re- 
 ferred hack to the Court to contact a member of the 
 Illinois State Employment Service. The sick men are 
 helped to secure funds for medical treatment. 
 
 The welfare work of the Court is accomplished 
 largely through the program of Alcoholics Anonymous, 
 the efforts of the Court referee and social caseworker 
 and contributions from volunteers. Even with these 
 limited resources, the Court is accomplishing a great 
 deal. To continue the welfare work with alcoholics, 
 the staff of the Monroe Street Court should be expanded 
 and other necessary facilities provided. 
 
 A particularly essential facility to support the work 
 of the court is the "half-way" house for men who arc 
 making a conscientious effort to rehabilitate them- 
 selves. The "half-way" house is the middle ground 
 between both the therapeutic and punitive agencies 
 and organized respectable society. The men are 
 expected to get jobs, pay for their room and board, 
 assist in the upkeep of the house, stay sober, and par- 
 ticipate in the therapeutic programs. A 'half-way" 
 house should be situated away from skid row. Then it 
 can be particularly effective in exerting group pressure 
 toward successful rehabilitation. 
 
 Institutions or small centers are also needed to give 
 primary treatment and training in the control of 
 drinking. 
 
 A second promising experimental program which 
 should be continued and expanded is paid for and 
 supervised by the Cook County Department of Public 
 Aid in cooperation with the Salvation Army. All of the 
 alcoholics given treatment by the Salvation Army were 
 on public assistance rolls because of their inability to 
 hold jobs. One hundred and three such cases were 
 referred to the Salvation Army Center where they lived, 
 were counseled, placed in sheltered employment and 
 gradually advanced to regular employment, or given 
 other types of treatment or welfare aid. 
 
 Of the 103 cases in the experimental program 84 
 were successfully terminated because the men are now 
 sober and self-supporting. Five men are undergoing 
 additional treatment, four are in hospitals, and only 10 
 were dropped from the program as untreatable. The 
 average length of stay of the men in the Salvation Army 
 Center was 15 days and the cost to the Department of 
 Public Aid was only $21.45 per case. 
 
 This cost appears to be negligible when compared to 
 the cost of indefinitely maintaining such alcoholics on 
 public relief rolls. The Department of Public Aid con- 
 siders the experimental program a success, since author- 
 ities in the treatment of alcoholics generally regard 
 any program as successful which returns more than 
 50 percent of its patients to a useful life. The Depart- 
 ment of Public Aid and the Salvation Army plan to 
 continue the program. 
 
 The uncooperative alcoholic. A program for 
 the uncooperative chronic drunk who is repeatedlj ar- 
 rested is also needed. Experts find some clues to suc- 
 cessful rehabilitation in the tendency for men who have 
 been jailed to stay sober for a short period after 
 release. A "treatment center," where the men arc in 
 confinement under auspices of the Municipal Court, 
 should include discussion of opportunities for employ- 
 ment, occupational training classes, and psychological 
 counseling to correct cases of personal disorganization. 
 This program can take place on the city farm. After 
 a second period of thirty to sixty days as part of such 
 a program (while in confinement), the men could be 
 placed in a sheltered half-way house, provided with 
 employment and given psychic support by a resident 
 caseworker. The final step for men who complete the 
 program would be rehousing in the tvpes of lodgings 
 described elsewhere in this report. 
 
 Approximately $850,000 is spent annually on repeti- 
 tive arrest and overnight detention of chronic alcoholic 
 skid row men, with almost no expenditure to try to 
 make them self-supporting again. If two hundred of 
 the repeaters were undergoing enforced treatment at 
 any one time this would reduce the number of daily 
 arrests by perhaps 20 percent or more; and within 
 three years the program could greatly reduce municipal 
 expenditures of this type. 
 
 The uncooperative alcoholic should be localized in 
 upgraded housing in skid row until such time as he 
 enters a treatment program. 
 
 The potential alcoholic. — The success of pro- 
 grams for treating skid row alcoholics will depend to 
 a large extent on general programs to control and 
 treat alcoholism in the city at large. The research dem- 
 onstrates that 29 percent j)f the men on skid row had 
 resided in Chicago for more than five years. In fact, 
 the vast majority of residents are legal residents of 
 the State, and a substantial percentage were born in 
 Chicago. The data shows that there is considerable 
 residential mobility for these men between skid row 
 areas and other neighborhoods in the city. Also, 
 most of the heavy drinkers and alcoholics had a 
 drinking problem before coming to skid row. It 
 would be incorrect to view Chicago's skid row as a 
 deposit of "human dross" collected entirely from other 
 cities and for which the city has no responsibility. 
 
 An over-all program for the control and treatment 
 of alcoholism in Chicago requires a program which 
 will prevent alcoholics who now live in other parts of 
 the city from ultimately drifting into skid row areas. 
 It is recommended that the Alcoholic Treatment Center 
 continue its specialized work with family men as part 
 of a program to prevent local alcoholics from deterio- 
 rating to conditions of homelessness. It is further 
 recommended that the Center establish, as part of it> 
 program, a pilot project of moderate size for the treat- 
 
 page 67 
 
ment of skid row alcoholics, using its multi-therapy 
 approach which combines medicine, psychiatry, reli- 
 gion, recreation, Alcoholics Anonymous, education and 
 research. Such a pilot project could do much to supply 
 valuable information to guide larger scale projects for 
 the control and treatment of alcoholics among homeless 
 men. The Center should cooperate with the Chicago 
 Committee on Alcoholism and its Portal House, the 
 only voluntary alcoholism agency in this area, and the 
 Illinois Division on Alcoholism, in its efforts to educate 
 the public and rehabilitate skid row alcoholics. 
 
 6) The Temporarily Destitute, the Migratory 
 Worker and the "Bum" 
 
 A lodging house for transient and destitute men 
 should be built. New York City has such a shelter 
 which it operates as a screening depot for men who 
 need help. Employment service, counseling and other 
 welfare activities are available to the resident. The 
 staff, which should be well-trained, must be realistic 
 and hard headed and encourage high standards of con- 
 duct and cleanliness. Such a shelter serves the unem- 
 ployed workingman, the "broke" new-comer who has 
 not yet found employment, the drunken man who is 
 placed in special sobering up spaces instead of being 
 thrown in jail or left in the streets, and the migrant 
 worker between locations. Partial payment for the 
 services should be accepted whenever the person can 
 afford to pay. 
 
 The resource people thought the public shelter would 
 attract at least some "bums" and derelicts from other 
 cities. Yet they generally favor the idea, believing its 
 advantages outweigh the disadvantages. 
 
 The resource persons who felt there was some hope 
 of making self-sustaining citizens of "bums," recom- 
 mended single rooms and a fairly high level of housing 
 with concentrated attempts to achieve rehabilitation. 
 Those who were pessimistic about the rehabilitation of 
 the resident bums would provide only the minimum of 
 comfort and safety. Open dormitories, as the cheapest 
 and most easily supervised form of housing on present 
 skid row locations, were recommended by the largest 
 number of resource persons. 
 
 A large proportion of the resource persons recom- 
 mended small single rooms for transients, but many rec- 
 ommended their rehousing in cubicles or dormitories. 
 They saw less benefit in providing higher quality hous- 
 ing to transients. However, they acknowledged an obli- 
 gation to improve housing conditions for transients as 
 well. If the cubicle hotels are allowed to exist, they 
 should be modernized and greatly improved with re- 
 spect to safety, ventilation, clean linens, and size of 
 cubicle. There was a strong desire to keep them local- 
 ized at the present site of skid row rather than scatter 
 them. This still would leave the city with a skid row 
 but one which is considerably smaller and considerably 
 improved. 
 
 7) Ex-convicts 
 
 Programs are needed for the ex-convict who cannot 
 adjust to and who are not accepted in the general com- 
 munity. These men often turn to skid row for com- 
 fort and anonymity. Facilities for their rehabilitation 
 are lacking at present and are badly needed. 
 
 8) The Criminal 
 
 There was a strong demand for a program for appre- 
 hension and housing in jail for criminals land most 
 persons had the jackroller in mind I . 
 
 9) Mini in ii in Wage Law Compliance 
 
 Wage rates paid on skid row leave much to be desired 
 and the minimum wage laws are frequently violated. A 
 careful review of minimum wage compliance should be 
 made of every hotel, restaurant, mission, employment 
 agency and firm known to employ skid row men. 
 
 Many of the more widespread abuses, excesses and 
 bad practices which take place on skid row can be 
 remedied by a greater and more sincere attention to 
 inspection, supervision and control, especially through 
 the municipal licensing powers. 
 
 10) Liquor Establishments 
 
 This study shows that skid row contains an inordi- 
 nately large number of liquor dispensing establish- 
 ments, as many as four to six to a block. None of 
 them exist for altruistic purposes and all are in busi- 
 ness for profit. Because of the heavy competition they 
 must sell every drink they can in order to make this 
 profit. Such competitive pressure often leads proprie- 
 tors to ignore the laws regulating the sale of alcohol. 
 
 The laws concerning the sale of liquor to intoxicated 
 persons should be enforced. Severe penalties should be 
 administered to taverns which fail to comply, and to 
 police officers who fail to enforce the laws. 
 
 Zoning laws limiting the number of alcohol dispens- 
 ing establishments in any given area should be insti- 
 tuted and rigidly enforced. 
 
 Cafeterias and food-dispensing establishments also 
 should undergo rigorous inspections as to cleanliness 
 of both premises and food preparation. Operating 
 licenses should be revoked for failure to comply with 
 the appropriate codes. 
 
 11) Prevention of Skid Rows 
 
 In the final analysis, the best type of skid row control 
 is achieved when effective preventitive measures elimi- 
 nate the conditions which create skid rows. The results 
 of this study show that the number of men arriving on 
 skid row would be reduced to a relatively insignificant 
 number if the following preventive steps are taken: 
 (a I Support of indigent elderly pensioners so that 
 they can afford neighborhoods other than skid 
 row. Such a program would shut off the flow of 
 victims of poverty to skid row areas. 
 
 page 68 
 
(b) Eliminate the loopholes in the laws relating to 
 
 Social Security, minimum-wages and pensions- 
 for-industrial-accidents, and develop a system 
 whereby pensions would be inflation free, so 
 that every workingman who had not been a 
 "hum" at retirement, would have a minimalh 
 adequate level of living assured him. Also at- 
 tempts should be made to regulate the system 
 of pay to the summer railroad workers, many 
 of whom spend their w inters drinking on skid 
 row. 
 
 (c) Provision of needed medical care. This would 
 not only cause a reduction in the number of 
 men presently on skid row, but would also 
 greatly diminish the supply of men arriving at 
 skid row. 
 
 id I Rehabilitation and employment programs for 
 handicapped persons. 
 
 I e I All programs to promote mental health tend to 
 reduce the skid row population in two ways: 
 first, they reduce the number of men who seek 
 refuge in drinking and. second, they reduce the 
 number of men who flee from regular society to 
 spend their life in comparative isolation. 
 
 if! A coordinate program of detection and treat- 
 ment of alcoholism in its early stages. An ex- 
 panded program of treatment for alcoholism in 
 its later stages. 
 
 I g ) Programs that attempt to reduce crime and other 
 forms of social deviation reduce the flow of per- 
 sons to skid row. Moreover, programs to re- 
 habilitate men with criminal records and to cor- 
 rect social deviation during the youth or early- 
 adulthood achieve the same results. 
 
 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 
 
 The material in this study serves to make a single 
 conclusive point very clear: the redevelopment of skid 
 ron areas cannot be achieved without a careful program 
 for relocating and rehabilitating the residents o) tin- 
 area. 
 
 The relocation process, as it relates to skid row, 
 should begin as far in advance as is possible of actual 
 redevelopment programs for the area. Iardv reloca- 
 tion and rehabilitation efforts would strain the avail- 
 able resources and lead the program to its own defeat. 
 The program calls for greater cooperation and co- 
 ordination between municipal planning, housing, and 
 redevelopment agencies and the various public and pri- 
 vate welfare agencies. Aggressive efforts on the part 
 of these groups can lead to the correction of the con- 
 ditions which create skid row. Specifically the pro- 
 gram calls for: 
 
 The establishment of the Bureau of Migrant and 
 Homeless Persons which will coordinate and direct 
 the work of the various agencies in treating and re- 
 locating the residents of skid row. The Bureau will 
 
 be responsible for research, public information. 
 
 setting of standards, inspection, and operation of a 
 
 central intake and referral division. 
 
 The program calls for the development of more cre- 
 ative and positive communication with the general pub- 
 lic regarding the nature of skid row and the advantages 
 of redevelopment of skid row and rehabilitation of the 
 men living there. 
 
 The program calls for centralized referral, by the 
 Bureau, of skid row men to appropriate treatment facil- 
 ities in order to reduce their dependency and alleviate 
 their problems. Programs of treatment would include: 
 
 Vocational rehabilitation and training. 
 
 Medical treatment. 
 
 Treatment for alcoholism. 
 
 Institutionalization for those who need it. 
 
 Care for the elderly and handicapped. 
 
 The program calls for the provision of decent, safe, 
 and sanitary re-housing for the residents of skid row, 
 based on their needs and within their means. This 
 includes: 
 
 Immediate re-housing for the elderly pensioner in 
 existing public or private nursing homes, foster 
 homes, old age homes, and standard low rent 
 rooms. 
 Provision of public' housing or housing under Sec- 
 tion 231 — Housing for the elderly and low income 
 workingman. 
 Construction of primary treatment centers and half- 
 way houses for alcoholics. 
 Erection of a public shelter for the temporarily desti- 
 tute and the migrant worker. 
 The upgrading of existing structures on skid row for 
 
 those who will not live elsewhere. 
 The program calls for the redevelopment of the pres- 
 ent skid row areas through: 
 
 The use of a comprehensive plan for the area. 
 Gradual acquisition and demolition of the worst 
 
 structures. 
 Systemized and intensified code enforcement. 
 New construction and rezoning. 
 Licensing restrictions on liquor establishments. 
 This program calls for programs of prevention which 
 will further decrease skid row as an entity or as a neces- 
 sity. These include: 
 
 Communitv programs for mental health. 
 Increased welfare and Social Sccuritv payments and 
 minimum w age law compliance to decrease poverty. 
 Communit) programs for medical care. 
 The present opportunity to detail and implement a 
 comprehensive welfare-housing program for skid row 
 is greater than ever before. The ultimate goal is in 
 si<dit. to rid the i itv of it- most obvious concentration 
 of human misery. This report, its findings and recom- 
 mendations, create a firm basis for positive action. 
 
 page 69 
 
Appendix I 
 
 Selected Maps: Skid Row 
 
 page 71 
 
SjgyjMS^sj! 
 
 CHICAGO'S SKID ROWS 
 RELATED TO 
 CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT 
 
 <~> 
 
 IOUSANO FEET 
 
 MAP NO I 
 
 page 73 
 
CHICAGO'S SKID ROWS 
 LOCATION WITHIN THE CITY 
 
 MAP NO. 2 
 
 page 74 
 
TVNVD S 
 
 IS 
 
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 Q 
 UJ 
 
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 ONVHHSV S 
 
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DISPERSAL OF IMPROVED AND 
 UNIMPROVED LAND 
 WITH LOW -USE INTENSITY 
 
 to 
 
 CO o 
 
 CO 
 
 > 
 < 
 
 W. VAN BUREN 
 
 ST. 
 
 SOUTH 
 STATE 
 COMPLEX 
 
 W CONGRESS 
 
 < 
 o 
 en 
 
 PRIVATE PARKING 
 
 RETAIL PARKING 
 
 VACANT LOTS 
 
 VACANT BUILDINGS 
 
 MAP NO. 4 
 
 page 76 
 
 ST. 
 
 '///////>. 
 
 ~4W' 
 
 3 
 O 
 
 a. 
 
 W. ROOSEVELT 
 co w 
 
 X 
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 < 
 
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 RD. 
 
DISPERSAL OF IMPROVED AND 
 
 UNIMPROVED LAND 
 WITH LOW- USE INTENSITY 
 
 PRIVATE PARKING 
 
 RETAIL PARKING 
 
 VACANT LOTS 
 
 VACANT BUILDINGS 
 
 -^J- 
 
 CO CO 
 
 W. CHICAGO 
 
 NORTH CLARK COMPLEX 
 
 J23 
 
 tl 
 
 
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 LU 
 
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 Chicago 
 
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 1 
 
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 AV. 
 
 RIVER 
 
 MAP NO. 5 
 
 W. WACKER 
 
 DR 
 
 page 77 
 
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 page 78 
 
COMMERCIAL 
 
 CONCENTRATION 
 
 w 
 
 CO O 
 
 CO 
 
 W. VAN BUREN 
 
 IhII 
 
 SOUTH 
 
 W. CONGRESS 
 
 : a :i i 1: 
 
 ST. 
 
 STATE 
 
 I 
 
 CO 
 
 COMPLEX 
 
 CO 
 
 MIXED USE ( RESIDENTIAL - COMMERCIAL) 
 
 COMMERCIAL 
 
 230' aoo 
 
 MAP NO. 7 
 
 an 
 
 n 
 
 ST. 
 
 31 
 I- 
 ZX 
 
 o 
 
 a. 
 
 UJ 
 
 CO 
 
 £ 
 
 1 
 
 W. ROOSEVELT 
 CO w 
 
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 CD 
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 RD 
 
 page 79 
 
COMMERCIAL 
 
 CONCENTRATI ON 
 
 CO CO CO 
 
 W. CHICAGO AV. 
 
 NORTH CLARK COMPLEX 
 
 1 
 
 T 
 
 MIXED USE (RESIDENTIAL- COMMERCIAL) 
 COMMERCIAL 
 
 ay>' sou 
 
 3 IB 
 
 inn n~a 
 
 i 
 
 L I 
 
 H61 
 
 CHCA30 RIVER 
 
 MAP NO. 8 
 
 page 80 
 
 W WACKER 
 
 DR. 
 
IS 
 
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 page 
 
 81 
 
INDUSTRIAL LAND COVERAGE 
 
 to 
 
 CO o 
 
 
 > 
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 W. VAN BUREN 
 
 ST. 
 
 SOUTH 
 
 " _ 
 
 W. CONGRESS 
 
 ST. 
 
 STATE 
 
 COMPLEX 
 
 CO 
 
 < 
 
 o 
 
 CO 
 
 2J0' *>0 
 
 — I ■ I 
 
 W. ROOSEVELT 
 
 RD. 
 
 MAP NO. 10 
 
 page 82 
 
 CO 
 
 <A 
 
 V) 
 
INDUSTRIAL LAND COVERAGE 
 
 CO (O CO 
 
 W. CHICAGO AV 
 
 NORTH CLARK 
 
 COMPLEX 
 
 £50' VX^ 
 
 1 
 
 1" 
 
 ■ 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 in 
 
 m 
 
 CHIC/GO RIVER 
 
 W. WACKER 
 
 DR. 
 
 MAP NO. II 
 
 page 83 
 
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 r~i 
 
 
 
 
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 page 84 
 
LAND COVERAGE DEVOTED TO 
 STREETS AND ALLEYS 
 
 to 
 
 CO o 
 
 ■ — r 
 
 Li. 
 
 W WW BUREN 
 
 SOUTH 
 STATE 
 COMPLEX 
 
 W CONGRESS 
 
 < 
 
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 STREETS 
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 g ld^ M- ■ » Mi 1 
 
 250 500 
 
 CO 
 
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 ST. 
 
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 MAP NO. 13 
 
 W. 
 
 u 
 
 I- 
 
 < 
 
 n 
 
 OSEVELT 
 
 1/5 
 
 CO 
 
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 to 
 
 < 
 
 CO 
 
 < 
 
 CO 
 
 RD 
 
 page 85 
 
LAND COVERAGE DEVOTED TO 
 STREETS AND ALLEYS 
 
 w. 
 
 NORTH CLARK 
 
 COMPLEX 
 
 STREETS 
 ALLEYS 
 
 ^MM"%**J"^i" 
 
 &' - gj 
 
 CHICAGO 
 
 RIVER 
 
 MAP NO. 14 
 
 page 86 
 
 W. WACKER 
 
 DR. 
 
UJ 
 
 
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 page 87 
 
PROFILE OF HOTEL CAPACITY 
 BY BLOCK AND TYPE 
 
 10 
 
 25 CO <_> 
 
 <o 
 
 W. VAN 
 
 == 100 
 
 BUREN • 
 
 SOUTH 
 STATE 
 
 W. CONGRESS 
 
 COMPLEX 
 
 < 
 o 
 
 CUBICLE HOTEL 
 SLEEPING ROOM HOTEL 
 LIVING UNIT HOTEL 
 
 MAP NO 16 
 
 page 88 
 
 CO 
 
 3 
 O 
 
 Q. 
 
 > 
 < 
 
 ST. 
 
 ST. 
 
 - 100 
 
 - 200 
 
 W. ROOSEVELT 
 co to 
 
 x 
 
 CO 
 
 < 
 ffi 
 < 
 
 <o 
 
 RD 
 
PROFILE OF HOTEL CAPACITY 
 BY BLOCK AND TYPE 
 
 W. CHICAGO 
 
 co 
 
 AV 
 
 NORTH CLARK COMPLEX 
 
 = - 35 
 . so 
 
 
 = 100 
 
 
 
 
 == ■ 50 
 - 100 
 
 
 y.v.v. . 75 
 ^= - 100 
 
 ^^ 
 
 IS 
 
 225 
 
 
 = . 
 
 75 
 100 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 50 
 
 
 ill 
 
 100 
 
 CUBICLE HOTEL 
 
 SLEEPING ROOM HOTEL m 
 
 LIVING UNIT HOTEL 
 
 - 25 
 
 - 100 
 
 
 == - 50 
 
 
 
 
 - 25 
 
 
 =r - 50 
 - 100 
 
 500. 
 
 - 200 
 
 
 Hill 
 
 o o 
 
 
 
 
 = ■ 35 
 
 
 :•>:■: - 2 3 
 
 UJ 
 
 < 
 
 CO 
 
 CHCA30 
 
 RM R 
 
 M AP NO. 17 
 
 W. WACKER 
 
 DR. 
 
 page 89 
 
co 
 
 UJ 
 CO 
 
 3 
 
 Q 
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 o 
 
 UJ 
 Q_ 
 CO 
 
 2 
 
 8 
 
 o 
 en 
 
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 JO 
 3D 
 
 3D 
 
 AVMSS3WdX3 
 
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 ^tn^sao^ 
 
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 N33H9 S 
 
 t 
 
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 o: u. to 
 
 < < - 
 
 m o 5 
 
 pflgf 
 
 90 
 
SPECIAL RELATED USES 
 
 CO 
 
 CO o 
 
 CO 
 
 SOUTH 
 
 STATE 
 
 COMPLEX 
 
 BARS Q 
 
 CAFETERIAS A 
 
 MISSIONS "f 
 
 JJO 500 
 
 — < i I 
 
 MAP NO. 19 
 
 W. ROOSEVELT 
 io <*> 
 
 RD 
 
 CO 
 
 />«#e 97 
 
SPECIAL RELATED USES 
 
 co 
 W. CHICAGO 
 
 CO 
 
 CO 
 
 NORTH CLARK COMPLEX 
 
 BARS £ 
 
 CAFETERIAS A 
 
 MISSIONS t 
 
 UJ 
 
 AV. 
 
 □ 
 
 • f 
 
 A 
 
 ! 
 
 C 
 
 A 
 
 3T 
 
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 cr 
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 GO 
 
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 CHICA30 R^ER 
 
 MAP NO. 20 
 
 W. WACKER 
 
 DR. 
 
 page 92 
 
Appendix II 
 
 Selected Tables: Skid Row 
 
 page 93 
 
SECTION 1. LAND USE AND HOUSING 
 
 Table I 
 EXISTING LAND USE BY AREA, 1958 
 
 All 
 
 W. Madison 
 
 S. State 
 
 N. Cla 
 
 rk 
 
 l/iiiicl Use 
 
 Acreage 
 
 % Acreage % 
 
 Acreage 
 
 % 
 
 Acreage 
 
 % 
 
 
 100.0 185.9 100.0 
 
 18.2 36.6 19.8 
 3.9 7.4 4.0 
 
 9.8 21.5 11.6 
 
 2.9 4.6 2.5 
 1.6 3.1 1.7 
 
 37.9 69.7 37.5 
 
 17.3 31.8 17.1 
 12.3 22.2 12.0 
 
 6.8 11.9 6.4 
 
 1.5 3.8 2.0 
 
 43.9 79.6 42.7 
 
 70.0 
 
 7.0 
 
 .9 
 
 3.8 
 
 1.4 
 
 .9 
 
 32.8 
 
 15.6 
 
 11.2 
 
 5.6 
 
 .4 
 
 30.2 
 
 100.0 
 
 10.1 
 
 1.3 
 
 5.5 
 
 2.0 
 
 1.3 
 
 46.9 
 
 22.3 
 
 16.0 
 
 8.0 
 
 .6 
 
 43.0 
 
 59.6 
 
 13.8 
 4.1 
 5.6 
 3.0 
 1.1 
 
 16.7 
 
 7.2 
 
 5.2 
 
 3.8 
 
 .5 
 
 29.1 
 
 100.0 
 
 23.2 
 
 6.9 
 
 9.4 
 
 5.1 
 
 1.8 
 
 28.0 
 
 12.1 
 
 8.7 
 
 6.4 
 
 .8 
 
 48.8 
 
 Residental 57.4 
 
 Dwelling 12.4 
 
 Mixed 30.9 
 
 Public & Inst 9.0 
 
 Vacant 5.1 
 
 N on-residential 119.2 
 
 Commercial 54.6 
 
 Industrial 38.6 
 
 Unimproved 21.3 
 
 Streets & Alleys 138.9 
 
 PRESENT USE OF 
 
 Table II 
 STRUCTURES BY 
 
 AREA, 
 
 1958 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 Residential 
 
 
 n. Ind. 
 
 Inst. Vacant* 
 
 Area All Total Hotel 
 
 Comm. 
 2-3-4 Comm. Comm. 2-3-4 
 s Family Total Hotel FamilyComi 
 
 (1) 
 
 S. State 165 7 6 Res/Ind 39 39 92 
 
 N Clark 246 55 25 30 77 59 18 80 
 
 W. Madison 613 137 8 129 136 129 7 188 
 
 Total 1024 199 39 160 252 227 25 360 
 
 * Residential only — hotels; residential and commercial hotels include all residential structures ( 
 
 13 8 
 
 17 6 
 
 109 24 
 
 139 38 
 
 if 5 or more dwellin 
 
 6 
 11 
 19 
 36 
 
 
 page 94 
 
Table 111 
 HOTELS — AGE OF STRUCTURE 
 
 Total Before 
 Complex Structures 1900 
 
 W.Madison (Total) 61 48 
 
 Sleeping room 32 27 
 
 Cubicle 21 14 
 
 Living Unit 8 7 
 
 5. State (Total) 22 19 
 
 Sleeping room 7 6 
 
 Cubicle 15 13 
 
 Living Unit 
 
 N. Clark (Total) 34 34 
 
 Sleeping room 26 26 
 
 Cubicle 2 2 
 
 Living Unit 6 6 
 
 Total All Complexes 117 101 
 
 Sleeping room 65 59 
 
 Cubicle 38 29 
 
 Living unit 14 13 
 
 Capac- 
 
 1900- 
 
 
 1920- 
 
 
 ity 
 
 1919 
 
 Cap. 
 
 1929 
 
 Cap. 
 
 5.152 
 
 7 
 
 959 
 
 6 
 
 2,691 
 
 1,890 
 
 4 
 
 155 
 
 1 
 
 153 
 
 2,946 
 
 2 
 
 796 
 
 5 
 
 2,538 
 
 316 
 
 1 
 
 8 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 3,020 
 
 9 
 •J 
 
 632 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 311 
 
 1 
 
 32 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 2,709 
 
 2 
 
 600 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 1,984 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 1,388 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 261 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 335 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 10,156 
 
 10 
 
 1,591 
 
 6 
 
 2,691 
 
 3.589 
 
 5 
 
 187 
 
 1 
 
 153 
 
 5,916 
 
 4 
 
 1.396 
 
 5 
 
 2,538 
 
 651 
 
 1 
 
 Q 
 O 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 Table IV 
 
 SELECTED CHARACTERISTICS OF LIVING ACCOMMODATIONS 
 
 BY AREA, 1958 
 
 Characteristics All W. Madison S. State IN. Clark S. Clark & Van Buren 
 
 Distribution of men by type 
 
 of residence, Total (Percent) 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 
 
 Cubicle Hotels 67.4 68.8 73.8 29.5 100.0 
 
 Large 1 300 or more) 38.8 48.7 55.7 40.9 
 
 Medium (200-299) 14.9 10.1 29.5 47.2 
 
 Small I 1-199) 13.7 10.0 18.1 L1.9 
 
 Hotels with rooms 14.0 13.8 9.0 70.5 
 
 Rooming houses 6.8 9.3 3.5 
 
 Missions 8.2 8.1 13.7 
 
 Other 3.6 (unavailable by area, includes hospitals, jails, sleeping out) 
 
 Type of available sleeping 
 
 place. Total (Number) 11.943 7,493 2,015 755 1,680 
 
 Cubicle total 10,125 6.339 1.902 249 1 .635 
 
 Large (300 or more) 6,226 4,226 1,463 537 
 
 Medium (200-299) 2.118 1.150 249 719 
 
 Small (1-199) 1.781 963 439 379 
 
 Hotels with rooms 1.818 1.154 113 506 45 
 
 Vacancy rate total (Percent) 11.0 17.0 31.0 9.0 13.0 
 
 Cubicles, total 21.0 18.0 35.0 
 
 Large 26.0 13.0 36.0 
 
 Medium 16.0 34.0 20.0 
 
 Small 8.0 22.0 30.0 
 
 Hotels with rooms 8.0 10.0 20.0 1,(1 
 
 'Withheld to avoid disclosing information for individual hotels 
 
 jyage 95 
 
Table V 
 
 NUMBER OF DEFICIENCIES (BUILDING AND FIRE) 
 IN SKID ROW HOTELS 1955-57 
 
 All 
 No. Deficiencies Hotels 
 
 Total (Percent) 100.0 
 
 No deficiencies 2.5 
 
 1-2 deficiencies 5.7 
 
 3-4 deficiencies 13.3 
 
 5-6 deficiencies 17.1 
 
 7-9 deficiencies 30.4 
 
 10-14 deficiencies 20.3 
 
 15 or more deficiencies 10.7 
 
 
 Cubicle Hotels 
 
 
 Hotels 
 
 with 
 Rooms 
 
 Sleeping 
 Spaces 
 
 Large 
 
 Medium 
 
 Small 
 
 All Hotels 
 
 100.0 
 
 100.0 
 
 100.0 
 
 100.0 
 
 100.0 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 3.3 
 
 .4 
 
 8.3 
 
 7.1 
 
 — 
 
 5.8 
 
 7.8 
 
 25.0 
 
 21.4 
 
 9.1 
 
 11.6 
 
 20.7 
 
 33.3 
 
 28.6 
 
 45.4 
 
 11.6 
 
 27.3 
 
 8.3 
 
 35.8 
 
 45.5 
 
 30.6 
 
 23.1 
 
 25.1 
 
 7.1 
 
 — 
 
 23.1 
 
 17.2 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 14.0 
 
 3.5 
 
 Table VI 
 TYPES OF BUILDING DEFICIENCIES IN SKID ROW HOTELS, 1956-57 
 
 Per Cent Having Deficiency 
 
 Structures 
 
 All 
 Type of Deficiency Hotels 
 
 Plumbing fixtures not in good 
 
 operating condition 9.5 
 
 Inadequate plumbing, one or 
 
 more floors 69.0 
 
 Plumbing fixtures not clean 2.5 
 
 Heating inadequate 1.3 
 
 Hot water not adequate 1.3 
 
 Overcrowding of space 1.9 
 
 Floors not clean and sound 15.8 
 
 Walls not clean and sound 31.0 
 
 Ceilings not clean and sound 33.5 
 
 Materials improperly stored 
 
 under stairways 6.3 
 
 Basement wet or in poor condition. 11.4 
 
 Refuse or junk in basement 15.8 
 
 Garbage improperly stored 10.1 
 
 Garbage removal inadequate 2.5 
 
 Halls, stairs, exits obstructed 10.8 
 
 Evidence of rats 1.3 
 
 Evidence of vermin 6.3 
 
 Cubicle Hotels 
 
 Large 
 
 Medi 
 
 Small 
 
 Hotels 
 
 with 
 Rooms 
 
 Sleeping 
 
 Spaces 
 
 All Hotels 
 
 25.0 
 
 28.6 
 
 5.8 
 
 16.0 
 
 91.7 
 
 92.9 
 
 81.8 
 
 62.8 
 
 81.3 
 
 16.7 
 
 7.1 
 
 9.1 
 
 — 
 
 8.5 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 1.7 
 
 0.2 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 1.7 
 
 0.3 
 
 8.3 
 
 7.1 
 
 — ■ 
 
 0.8 
 
 4.7 
 
 8.3 
 
 14.3 
 
 18.2 
 
 16.5 
 
 13.4 
 
 41.7 
 
 35.7 
 
 45.5 
 
 28.1 
 
 38.2 
 
 33.3 
 
 21.4 
 
 54.5 
 
 33.1 
 
 30.7 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 8.3 
 
 2.2 
 
 — 
 
 14.3 
 
 18.2 
 
 11.6 
 
 7.2 
 
 8.3 
 
 14.3 
 
 9.1 
 
 17.4 
 
 12.5 
 
 16.7 
 
 14.3 
 
 9.1 
 
 9.1 
 
 12.9 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 3.3 
 
 0.7 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 9.1 
 
 13.2 
 
 6.0 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 1.7 
 
 0.4 
 
 
 
 7.1 
 
 — 
 
 7.4 
 
 3.5 
 
 page 96 
 
Table VII 
 NUMBER OF BUILDING DEFICIENCIES IN SKID ROW HOTELS, 1956-57 
 
 Per Cent Having Deficiency 
 
 Structures 
 
 All 
 Type of Deficiency Hotels 
 
 Number of Places, Total 100.0 
 
 No building deficiencies 20.3 
 
 1 deficiency 22.2 
 
 2 deficiencies 17.7 
 
 3 deficiencies 13.9 
 
 4 deficiencies 12.7 
 
 5 deficiencies 5.7 
 
 6 deficiencies 3.8 
 
 7 deficiencies 2.5 
 
 8 or more deficiencies 1.2 
 
 Cubicle Hotels 
 
 Large 
 
 Medium Small 
 
 Hotels 
 
 with 
 Rooms 
 
 Sleeping 
 
 Spaces 
 
 All Hotels 
 
 100.0 
 8.3 
 8.3 
 
 50.1 
 8.3 
 
 16.7 
 
 8.3 
 
 100.0 
 7.1 
 
 50.1 
 7.1 
 
 14.4 
 
 7.1 
 
 7.1 
 
 7.1 
 
 100.0 
 
 9.1 
 
 9.1 
 
 18.2 
 
 36.3 
 
 27.3 
 
 100.0 
 
 24.0 
 
 21.5 
 
 15.7 
 
 12.4 
 
 12.4 
 
 6.6 
 
 3.3 
 
 3.3 
 
 0.8 
 
 100.0 
 
 13.6 
 
 19.4 
 
 33.2 
 
 11.2 
 
 10.7 
 
 4.8 
 
 4.2 
 
 1.1 
 
 1.8 
 
 Table VIII 
 NUMBER OF FIRE PREVENTION DEFICIENCIES IN SKID ROW HOTELS 
 
 Per Cent Having Deficiency 
 
 Number of Deficiencies 
 
 Total (Percent) 
 
 No deficiencies 
 
 1 deficiency 
 
 2 deficiencies 
 
 3-4 deficiencies 
 
 5-6 deficiencies 
 
 7-9 deficiencies 
 
 10-14 deficiencies 
 
 15 deficiencies and over. . 
 
 
 
 Structures 
 
 
 
 
 All 
 
 
 Cubicle Hotels 
 
 
 Hotels 
 
 with 
 Rooms 
 
 Sleeping 
 Spaces 
 
 Hotels 
 
 Large 
 
 Medium 
 
 Small 
 
 All Hotels 
 
 .100.0 
 
 100.0 
 
 100.0 
 
 100.0 
 
 100.0 
 
 100.0 
 
 . 6.3 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 8.3 
 
 1.5 
 
 1.3 
 
 33.3 
 
 7.1 
 7.1 
 
 9.1 
 
 0.8 
 6.6 
 
 2.9 
 
 . 8.9 
 
 21.0 
 
 . 30.9 
 
 41.7 
 
 57.2 
 
 54.5 
 
 24.8 
 
 37.9 
 
 . 15.8 
 
 8.3 
 
 21.5 
 
 27.3 
 
 14.9 
 
 18.0 
 
 . 18.4 
 
 16.7 
 
 7.1 
 
 9.1 
 
 20.7 
 
 11.5 
 
 . 12.7 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 16.5 
 
 5.4 
 
 . 5.7 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 7.4 
 
 1.8 
 
 page 97 
 
Table IX 
 
 TYPES OF FIRE PROTECTION DEFICIENCIES 
 IN SKID ROW HOTELS, 1955 
 
 Per Cent Having Deficienc 
 
 Structures 
 
 ■Jl 
 
 All Cubicle Hotels 
 
 Type of Deficiency Hotels Large Medium Small 
 
 Floors not systematically patrolled 
 
 at night (a) 20.9 8.3 7.1 9.1 
 
 Stairways not enclosed 54.4 14.3 36.4 
 
 Stairways not enclosed with 
 
 fire resistant material 6.3 7.1 
 
 Doors to stairways not equipped 
 
 with self-closing device 5.1 8.3 
 
 Exit doors do not swing outward. . . 12.1 — 
 
 Obstruction blocks exits 
 
 to fire escapes 7.0 7.1 
 
 No crash or glass panels in doors 
 
 to fire escapes 4.4 8.3 9.1 
 
 Doors to exits do not have 
 
 illuminated signs 1.3 
 
 No emergency lighting system 14.6 8.3 7.1 
 
 Electric wiring does not conform 
 
 to city's electric standards 5.1 
 
 Hotels lack a fire alarm system.... 36.7 66.7 27.3 
 
 Hotels have no provision for 
 
 fire brigade 55.1 66.7 100.0 90.9 
 
 Fire brigade does not function 
 
 continuously — — 
 
 Ignorance of how to report fires 
 
 via alarm box 7.0 16.7 14.3 
 
 No fire warnings or fire instructions 
 
 for guest 13.3 8.3 7.1 27.3 
 
 Insufficient ash trays 2.5 8.3 7.1 
 
 No fire prevention program 29.1 16.7 14.3 9.1 
 
 Fire extinguishers not 
 
 properly tagged 5.1 
 
 Fire extinguishers not recharged 
 
 in last 12 months 8.2 7.1 9.1 
 
 Hotel has no standpipe system 85.4 75.0 85.7 90.9 
 
 Hotel has no sprinkler system 86.7 75.0 92.9 81.8 
 
 Flammable liquid is stored 
 
 on premises 14.6 7.1 9.1 
 
 Fire escape not in good condition. 5.1 — 
 
 Good housekeeping conditions 
 
 do not prevail 9.5 
 
 ,a) Patrolled at less than hourly intervals or irregularly, if at all. 
 
 Hotels 
 
 with 
 Rooms 
 
 Sleeping 
 
 Spaces 
 
 All Hotels 
 
 24.8 
 66.1 
 
 7.4 
 
 45.5 
 
 5.8 
 
 6.6 
 
 12.4 
 
 15.7 
 22.4 
 
 3.6 
 
 5.8 
 
 4.9 
 
 15.7 
 
 2.8 
 
 8.3 
 
 3.5 
 
 4.1 
 
 4.1 
 
 1.7 
 
 0.5 
 
 17.4 
 
 9.2 
 
 6.6 
 
 1.9 
 
 38.8 
 
 40.1 
 
 68.3 
 
 9.2 
 
 13.2 
 
 12.3 
 
 1.7 
 
 3.8 
 
 33.9 
 
 21.5 
 
 1.8 
 
 9.1 
 
 3.8 
 
 86.0 
 
 87.6 
 
 87.6 
 
 88.0 
 
 17.4 
 
 9.2 
 
 6.6 
 
 2.7 
 
 4.2 
 
 page 98 
 
SECTION 2. THE RESIDENTS 
 
 
 S. Clark & Van 
 
 N. Clark 
 
 Buren & Otr. 
 
 691 (5.8) 
 
 2,023(17.0) 
 
 100.0 
 
 100.0 
 
 6.0 
 
 7.6 
 
 9.0 
 
 25.2 
 
 33.0 
 
 19.9 
 
 32.0 
 
 35.8 
 
 20.0 
 
 11.5 
 
 Table X 
 CHARACTERISTICS OF THE RESIDENTS BY AREA, 1958 
 
 Characteristics All W. Madison S. State 
 
 Population 11,926(100.0) 7,525(63.1) 1,687(14.1) 
 
 Age, Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 
 
 20-34 10.3 10.1 14.8 
 
 35-44 23.6 25.1 21.4 
 
 45-54 29.5 28.7 36.7 
 
 55-64 19.5 18.0 13.2 
 
 65 and over 17.1 18.1 13.9 
 
 Employment Status 
 
 Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 
 
 Employed during 
 
 preceding weeks 39.7 37.1 42.0 
 
 Not employed 60.3 62.9 58.0 
 
 Reason not Working 
 
 Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 
 
 Too old or disabled 35.9 32.7 37.0 
 
 Temporary illness 9.9 9.8 9.6 
 
 Applied for work 39.4 41.9 41.1 
 
 Did not care to work 14.8 15.6 12.3 
 
 Receipt of pension or 
 
 Public Aid— Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 
 
 No pension or aid 53.1 53.6 51.0 
 
 Receives aid* 46.9 46.4 49.0 
 
 OASI 10.3 10.1 13.6 
 
 OAA 2.2 2.3 
 
 Public Assistance 22.0 20.9 22.7 
 
 UC 11.9 12.5 14.1 
 
 Other 7.2 8.4 3.0 
 
 Income— Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 
 
 Less than $500 13.1 11.4 19.7 
 
 500-1000 33.2 32.6 39.1 
 
 1000-1500 17.1 16.7 17.1 
 
 1500-2000 1 0.2 10.7 7.0 
 
 2000-2500 8.8 9.3 7.0 
 
 2500-3500 10.6 12.3 4.8 
 
 $3500 and over 7.0 7.0 5.3 
 
 •Some of these men receive pension or aid from two sources and are listed for each source 
 
 100.0 
 
 100.0 
 
 42.0 
 
 42.7 
 
 58.0 
 
 57.3 
 
 100.0 
 
 100.0 
 
 63.8 
 
 48.3 
 
 — 
 
 21.4 
 
 20.7 
 
 21.4 
 
 15.5 
 
 8.9 
 
 100.0 
 
 100.0 
 
 55.2 
 
 52.3 
 
 44.8 
 
 47.7 
 
 13.4 
 
 3.4 
 
 4.5 
 
 3.4 
 
 22.4 
 
 30.7 
 
 9.0 
 
 3.4 
 
 4.5 
 
 6.8 
 
 100.0 
 
 100.0 
 
 7.1 
 
 20.0 
 
 39.4 
 
 27.2 
 
 21.4 
 
 18.4 
 
 14.3 
 
 9.6 
 
 7.1 
 
 8.8 
 
 7.1 
 
 4.0 
 
 3.6 
 
 12.0 
 
 (Continued on next page) 
 
 page 99 
 
Table X— continued 
 
 Characteristics All 
 
 Hours worked last week 
 
 Total 100.0 
 
 1-14 23.9 
 
 15-34 24.6 
 
 35-40 28.3 
 
 41-47 11.9 
 
 48 or more 11.3 
 
 Wage per week 
 
 Total 100.0 
 
 $ 0-$ 9 17.9 
 
 10-19 17.4 
 
 20-29 15.3 
 
 30-39 9.5 
 
 40-49 13.7 
 
 50-69 14.0 
 
 $70 and over 12.2 
 
 Occupation — Total 100.0 
 
 Professional — 
 
 Mgr., ofc, prop., 
 
 exec, farm 0.9 
 
 Clerical and 
 
 kindred workers 11.6 
 
 Sales workers 2.5 
 
 Craftsmen, foremen and 
 
 kindred workers 7.5 
 
 Operatives and 
 
 kindred workers 10.3 
 
 Private household 1.8 
 
 Service workers 37.3 
 
 Farm laborers 0.4 
 
 Laborers ( farm and 
 
 mine excluded) 27.7 
 
 Length of residence on 
 
 skid row since last 
 
 coming to Chicago — Total. ... 100.0 
 
 Transient - - months 9.4 
 
 1 mo. - 2 months 11.4 
 
 3 mo. - 5 months 13.4 
 
 6 mo. - 11 months 10.2 
 
 1 yr. - 1 yr., 11 mo 10.1 
 
 2 yr. -2 yr., 11 mo 8.5 
 
 3 yr. -4 yr., 11 mo 8.0 
 
 5 yr. and over 29.0 
 
 W. Madison S. State 
 
 
 S. Clark & Van 
 
 N. Clark 
 
 Bnren & Otr. 
 
 100.0 
 
 100.0 
 
 14.3 
 
 12.3 
 
 14.2 
 
 24.6 
 
 35.7 
 
 35.8 
 
 35.7 
 
 12.3 
 
 — 
 
 15.0 
 
 100.0 
 
 100.0 
 
 7.1 
 
 4.0 
 
 7.1 
 
 6.7 
 
 — 
 
 14.7 
 
 28.6 
 
 17.3 
 
 43.0 
 
 29.3 
 
 — 
 
 12.0 
 
 14.2 
 
 16.0 
 
 100.0 
 23.7 
 25.8 
 28.2 
 10.3 
 12.0 
 
 100.0 
 20.0 
 18.5 
 
 17.4 
 6.0 
 10.9 
 14.3 
 12.9 
 
 100.0 
 
 0.7 
 
 27.1 
 
 100.0 
 36.8 
 24.2 
 19.5 
 9.3 
 10.2 
 
 100.0 
 23.9 
 24.0 
 13.0 
 11.2 
 
 2.8 
 19.5 
 
 5.6 
 
 100.0 
 
 36.8 
 
 100.0 
 
 7.1 
 
 14.3 
 
 100.0 
 
 12.1 
 
 19.5 
 
 — 
 
 4.0 
 
 2.0 
 
 1.9 
 
 14.3 
 
 — 
 
 8.4 
 
 — 
 
 7.1 
 
 13.3 
 
 11.9 
 
 10.3 
 
 
 
 6.7 
 
 2.0 
 
 — 
 
 7.1 
 
 — - 
 
 35.1 
 
 31.5 
 
 50.1 
 
 50.7 
 
 0.7 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 25.3 
 
 100.0 
 
 100.0 
 
 100.0 
 
 100.0 
 
 9.8 
 
 10.9 
 
 3.1 
 
 6.2 
 
 12.3 
 
 9.0 
 
 7.3 
 
 10.9 
 
 14.3 
 
 10.0 
 
 3.1 
 
 20.3 
 
 10.0 
 
 9.3 
 
 12.4 
 
 12.5 
 
 9.2 
 
 15.6 
 
 12.4 
 
 4.3 
 
 8.7 
 
 9.3 
 
 9.3 
 
 4.7 
 
 6.2 
 
 10.9 
 
 15.5 
 
 15.6 
 
 29.5 
 
 25.0 
 
 36.9 
 
 25.5 
 
 (Continued on next page) 
 
 page 100 
 
Table X — continued 
 
 Characteristics All 
 
 No. of weeks spent 
 in Chicago during 
 
 preceding year — Total 100.0 
 
 0- 9 weeks 5.4 
 
 10-19 weeks 5.1 
 
 20-29 weeks 7.2 
 
 30-39 weeks 6.0 
 
 40-51 weeks 5.8 
 
 52 weeks 70.5 
 
 Marital Status — 
 
 Total 100.0 
 
 Never married 44.1 
 
 Married 2.8 
 
 Separated 13.5 
 
 Widowed 10.6 
 
 Divorced 29.0 
 
 Drinking— Total 100.0 
 
 Teetotalers 15.3 
 
 Light 25.4 
 
 Moderate 16.6 
 
 Heavy 26.1 
 
 Alcoholic 16.6 
 
 Education — Total 100.0 
 
 None 2.9 
 
 Grade School 
 
 1 - 2 years 2.8 
 
 3-4 years 11.9 
 
 5-6 years 11.9 
 
 7 - 8 years 30.2 
 
 High School 
 
 1 - 3 years 21.2 
 
 4 years 13.3 
 
 College 
 
 1 - 3 years 4. 1 
 
 4 years or more 1.1 
 
 W. Madison S. State 
 
 N. Clark 
 
 S. Clark & Van 
 Bnren & Otr. 
 
 100.0 
 
 100.0 
 
 100.0 
 
 100.0 
 
 47.5 
 
 34.3 
 
 44.0 
 
 32.1 
 
 3.3 
 
 .8 
 
 3.0 
 
 2.3 
 
 11.3 
 
 21.4 
 
 14.0 
 
 17.6 
 
 8.5 
 
 17.7 
 
 12.0 
 
 15.3 
 
 29.4 
 
 25.8 
 
 27.0 
 
 32.7 
 
 100.0 
 
 100.0 
 
 100.0 
 
 100.0 
 
 13.9 
 
 16.2 
 
 25.0 
 
 17.2 
 
 24.6 
 
 23.5 
 
 32.1 
 
 28.1 
 
 15.8 
 
 22.1 
 
 17.9 
 
 14.1 
 
 25.9 
 
 27.7 
 
 19.6 
 
 36.9 
 
 19.8 
 
 10.5 
 
 5.4 
 
 3.7 
 
 100.0 
 
 100.0 
 
 100.0 
 
 100.0 
 
 3.4 
 
 3.2 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 2.7 
 
 3.2 
 
 3.0 
 
 2.3 
 
 12.8 
 
 10.5 
 
 9.0 
 
 8.6 
 
 12.2 
 
 11.3 
 
 20.0 
 
 4.7 
 
 30.4 
 
 32.4 
 
 21.0 
 
 30.5 
 
 1 7.8 
 
 27.0 
 
 35.0 
 
 30.5 
 
 15.2 
 
 5.6 
 
 6.0 
 
 17.2 
 
 4.5 
 
 4.4 
 
 6.0 
 
 6.2 
 
 1.0 
 
 2.4 
 
 — 
 
 — ■ 
 
 page 101 
 

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Table XII 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Drinking — Disability — Age Classification 
 
 
 
 
 Estimated Per Cent of 
 All Men on Skid Row 
 
 A. Severely and moderately handicapped*.... 
 1. Elderly — 65 years of age or older 
 
 Teetotaler and light drinkers 
 
 Moderate and heavy drinkers** 
 
 
 
 
 
 46.6 
 
 9.7 
 4.3 
 
 12.6 
 6.8 
 
 13.2 
 4.3 
 8.9 
 
 53.4 
 
 2.3 
 1.2 
 
 18.5 
 13.3 
 18.1 
 10.4 
 
 7.7 
 
 
 2. Young and Middle-aged- — 20 to 64 years 
 Moderate drinkers 
 
 
 
 
 45 - 64 years of age 
 
 1. Elderly — 65 year9 of age or older 
 
 
 
 
 2. Young and middle-aged — 20 to 64 years 
 Teetotaler and light drinkers 
 
 
 
 
 20 - 44 years of age 
 
 45 - 64 years of age 
 
 
 
 
 'Includes those unable to work. 
 **Includes alcoholic derelicts. 
 
 SECTION 3. ATTITUDES OF SKID ROW 
 
 RESIDENTS 
 
 
 
 
 Table XIII 
 ATTITUDE TOWARD SKID ROW BY AREA 
 
 AND 
 
 RESIDENCE 
 
 Areas 
 
 
 
 Residence 
 
 
 
 Cubicle 
 Hotels 
 
 Hotels 
 
 with 
 Rooms 
 
 Missions 
 
 Others 
 
 W. 
 
 Attitude toward: All Madison 
 
 Others 
 
 Living on Skid Row 100.0 100.0 
 
 Likes 20.5 17.5 
 
 100.0 
 
 28.1 
 
 3.3 
 
 67.5 
 
 1.1 
 
 100.0 
 
 50.4 
 
 43.1 
 
 6.5 
 
 100.0 
 
 30.8 
 
 27.5 
 
 40.3 
 
 1.1 
 
 100.0 
 
 20.3 
 
 3.4 
 
 74.9 
 
 1.4 
 
 100.0 
 
 42.6 
 
 51.8 
 
 5.6 
 
 100.0 
 
 39.7 
 
 25.7 
 
 32.5 
 
 2.1 
 
 100.0 
 
 29.5 
 
 6.5 
 
 64.0 
 
 100.0 
 
 60.8 
 
 32.7 
 
 6.5 
 
 100.0 
 40.3 
 
 28.0 
 29.5 
 
 2.2 
 
 100.0 
 
 8.5 
 
 10.6 
 
 80.9 
 
 100.0 
 
 68.1 
 
 29.8 
 
 2.1 
 
 100.0 
 44.6 
 
 27.7 
 27.7 
 
 
 100.0 
 
 100.0 
 100.0 
 21.4 
 32.1 
 46.5 
 100.0 
 42.8 
 
 17.9 
 25.0 
 14.3 
 
 Neutral or ambivalent. 4.5 4.9 
 Dislikes 69.8 70.8 
 
 No response 5.2 6.8 
 
 Hotels 100.0 100.0 
 
 Likes 47.3 46.2 
 
 Dislikes 45.4 46.2 
 
 Neutral or ambivalent. 7.3 7.6 
 
 Each Other 100.0 100.0 
 
 Don't like others .... 40.3 44.1 
 Noncommittal or 
 
 ambivalent 26.0 25.4 
 
 Like others 31.2 27.6 
 
 No information 2.5 2.9 
 
 
 page in i 
 
Appendix III 
 
 A Selected Bibliography: 
 Skid Row and Skid Row Problems 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 In the course of the background research, an extensive review was made of the 
 literature in selected problem areas which might contribute to a better understanding 
 of the homeless man and skid row areas. The following list of materials is not ex- 
 haustive. It became clear in studying the works that much of the literature was 
 duplicative or not directly pertinent to the subject of our research efforts. In the 
 fields of gerontology or housing, for example, there is a voluminous body of material 
 which might have been expanded indefinitely if the criterion of relevance to our skid 
 row study were not adhered to. The items appearing on the following pages were 
 selected in the belief that they would contribute directly to understanding the home- 
 less man, as well as stimulate planning efforts toward solving the problems created by 
 the existence of skid row areas. 
 
 We wish to acknowledge our indebtedness to the authors of the items listed, 
 as well as to the local agencies and resource persons. Together, these sources gen- 
 erated most of the hypotheses which were explored in the interviews with the homeless 
 men and in other phases of the study. 
 
 I. INTRODUCTORY AND 
 
 BACKGROUND MATERIALS 
 
 A. Homeless Men and Skid Row- 
 Anderson, Nels. Men on the Move. Chicago: The Uni- 
 versity of Chicago Press, 1940. 357 pp. 
 
 Beasley, Robert M. Men in the Crucible: A Report of 
 the Clearing House for Men Operated under the Au- 
 thority of the Illinois Emergency Relief Commission. 
 Chicago: Illinois Emergency Relief Commission. 
 1932. 77 pp. 
 
 Dunham, H. Warren. Homeless Men and Their Habi- 
 tats: A Research Planning Report. Detroit: Wayne 
 University. 1953. 55 pp. 
 
 Ellison. Earl Jerome. "Shame of Skid Row," The Sat- 
 urday Evening Post, Vol. 225 (December 20, 1952) 
 pp. 13-15. 
 
 Foote, Caleb. "Vagrancy-Type Law and Its Adminis- 
 tration," University of Pennsylvania Law Review, 
 Vol. 104 (March. 19561 p. 603. 
 
 Homeless Men in New York. A Welfare Council Re- 
 port. New York: Welfare Council of New York City. 
 1949. 
 
 Jackson, J. K.. and Connor, R., "The Skid Row Alco- 
 holic," Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcohol, Vol. 
 14 (September. 1953) p. 468. 
 
 Larson. M. G. Skid Ron Stopgap. Wheaton, 111.: Van 
 Kampen Press. 
 
 "New Hope for the Homeless Non-family Man," Public 
 Administration Clearing House News Bulletin. Vol. 
 1935 l June 17. 1935) p. 1. 
 
 Ottenberg. Donald I. "TB on Skid Row," National 
 Tuberculosis Association Bulletin, June, 1956. 
 
 "The Petty Offender: A Philadelphia Study of the 
 Homeless Man. The Prison Journal, Vol. 36 ( April, 
 1956) pp. 1-32. 
 
 Rose, Arnold M. "Living Arrangements of Unattached 
 Persons," American Sociological Review, Vol. 12 
 (August. 1947) pp. 429-435. 
 
 Solenberger, Alice W. 1,000 Homeless Men: A Study 
 of Original Records. New York: Survey Associates, 
 Inc.. 1914. 374 pp. 
 
 Straus. Robert. "Alcoholism and the Homeless Man," 
 Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcohol, Vol. 7 
 (1946) pp. 360-404. 
 
 Sutherland, Edwin H., and Locke, Harvey. Twenty 
 Thousand Homeless Men. Chicago: Lippincott, 1936. 
 207 pp. 
 
 Wattenberg. W. W., and Moir. J. B. Counseling Home- 
 less Alcoholics. 
 
 B. Hoboes, Tramps, and Vagrants 
 
 Anderson, Nels. The Milk and Honey Route: A Hand- 
 book for Hoboes. New York: Vanguard Press, 1931. 
 
 Augustin. J. Human I agabond. London: Hutchinson 
 & Co.. Ltd.. 1933. 
 
 Beck. Frank 0. Hobohemia. Rindge. New Hampshire: 
 R. R. Smith, 1956. 95 pp. 
 
 Benson. Ben. Hoboes of America: 500,000 Miles with- 
 out a Dollar. New York: Hobo News. 1942. 96 pp. 
 
 Booth. William. The I agrants and the Unemployable. 
 London: The Salvation Army. 1909. 
 
 "For Hoboes: Hobo News," Time, Vol. 20 I May 17. 
 1937) pp. 67-00. 
 
 Gape, W. A. Half a Million Tramps. London: George 
 Routledge & Sons. Ltd.. 1936. 
 
 Gray, F. Tramp. London: J. M. Dent & Sons. Ltd., 
 1 93 1 . 
 
 Jennings, F. L. Tramping with Tramps. London: 
 Hutchinson & Co.. Ltd.. 1932. 
 
 Laubach, F. Charles. Why There Are Vagrants. A 
 thesis. New York: Columbia University Press, 1916. 
 128 pp. 
 
 page 104 
 
•'Men of the Road," National Review, Vol. 129 (Sep- 
 tember, 19471 pp. 244-247. 
 
 Orwell. George. Down and Out in Paris and London. 
 New York: Harper. 1933. 292 pp. 
 
 Phelan. J. L. Tramping the Toby. London: Burke Pub- 
 lications Co., Ltd., 1955. 
 
 We Follow the Roads. London: Phoenix 
 
 House, Ltd., 1949. 
 
 Rolph. C. H. "Vagrant Men," New Statesman, Vol. 44 
 (September 6, 1952) p. 259. 
 
 Schockman, C. S. We Turned Hobo. Columbus, Ohio: 
 F. J. Heer, 1937. 
 
 Stuart, F. S. Vagabond. London: Stanley Paul & Co., 
 Ltd., 1938. 
 
 Willard, Josiah Flynt. Tramping with Tramps. New 
 York: Century Company, 1899. 308 pp. 
 
 C. Migratory Workers 
 
 Hathaway, Marion. Migratory Workers and Family 
 Life. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 
 1934. 240 pp. 
 
 Los Angeles Bureau of Public Assistance, Department 
 of Charities. A Study of Single Unattended Men in 
 Los Angeles. Los Angeles: Los Angeles Bureau of 
 Public Assistance, 1955. 29 pp. 
 
 Taylor, P. W. "Perspectives on Housing Migratory- 
 Agricultural Laborers," Land Economics, Vol. 27 
 (August, 1951 ) pp. 193-204. 
 
 Webb. John N. The Transient Unemployed. Research 
 Monograph III. Washington: WPA Division of So- 
 cial Research, 1935. 148 pp. 
 
 II. PROBLEM AREAS: 
 
 SELECTED MATERIALS 
 
 A. Alcoholism 
 
 Bacon, Selden Daskam. Sociology and the Problems of 
 
 Alcohol. 2nd ed. Foundation for the Sociological 
 
 Study of Drinking Behavior. New Haven: Hillhouse 
 
 Press, 1946. 
 Cushman. Jane F., and Landis, Carney, eds. Studies of 
 
 Compulsive Drinkers. New Haven: Hillhouse Press, 
 
 1946. 90 pp. 
 Haggard, Howard W., and Jellinek, Elvin M. Alcohol 
 
 Explored. Garden City: Doubleday, 1942. 297 pp. 
 Hampton. P. J. "Descriptive Portrait of the Drinker," 
 
 Journal of Psychology, Vol. 25 (February-May, 
 
 1947) pp. 69-132, 151-170. 
 Harris, R. E., and Ives, V. M. "A Study of the Person- 
 ality of Alcoholics," American Psychology, Vol. 2 
 
 (1947) p. 405. 
 Hirsh. J. "The Alcoholic — A Public Responsibility," 
 
 Social Forces, Vol. 25 (May, 1947) pp. 426-428. 
 Jellinek, Elvin M., ed. Alcohol Addiction and Chronic 
 
 Alcoholism. New Haven: Yale University Press, 
 
 1942. 336 pp. 
 Jellinek. Elvin M. Phases in the Drinking History of 
 
 Alcoholics. New Haven: Hillhouse Press, 1946. 88 
 
 pp. 
 
 Keller, Mark, and Efron, Vera. "The Prevalence of 
 Alcoholism (Trends in the United States since 1910 I : 
 Alcoholism in the Big Cities of the United States," 
 Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcohol, Vol. 16 
 [December, 1955) pp. 619-649, and Vol. 17 (March, 
 1956) pp. 63-72. 
 
 Knehr, C. A. "Problem-Action Responses and Emotion 
 in Thematic Apperception Tests: Stories Recounted 
 by Alcoholic Patients." Journal of Psychology, Vol. 
 35 (April. 1953) pp. 201-226. 
 
 Lerner, A. "Interaction Among Male Alcoholic In- 
 mates," Sociology and Social Research, Vol. 38 
 (May, 1954) pp. 313-319. 
 
 Mason, Morse P. "Educational Characteristics of Alco- 
 holics," Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcohol. 
 Vol. 11 (1950) pp. 30-50. 
 
 Maxwell, M. A. "Interpersonal Factors in the Genesis 
 and Treatment of Alcoholic Addiction," Social 
 Forces, Vol. 29 (May, 1951 ) pp. 443-448. 
 
 Mowrer. H. R. "Alcoholism and the Family," Journal 
 of Criminal Psychopathology, Vol. 3 I 1941 ) pp. 
 90-99. 
 
 Patrick, Clarence H. Alcohol, Culture and Society, 
 Sociological Series No. 8. Durham: Duke University 
 Press, 1952. 176 pp. 
 
 Peltenburg, C. M. "Casework with the Alcoholic Pa- 
 tient," Social Casework, Vol. 37 (February, 1956) 
 pp. 81-85. 
 
 Pitt. Don, et al. Salvation Army and the Alcoholic. 
 New York: The Salvation Army. 
 
 Rea, F. B. Alcoholism: Its Psychology and Cure. Lon- 
 don: Epworth Press, 1956. 143 pp. 
 
 Sapir, J. V. "Relationship Factors in the Treatment 
 of the Alcoholic," Social Caseivork, Vol. 34 (July. 
 1953) pp. 297-303. See also "Reply," Vol. 34 (Octo- 
 ber, 1953) p. 355. 
 
 Schneyer, Solomon. "The Marital Status of Alcoholics: 
 A Note on an Analysis of the Marital Status of 2.008 
 Patients of Nine Clinics," Quarterly Journal of 
 Studies on Alcohol, Vol. 15 (June. 1954) pp. 325- 
 329. 
 
 Scott, W. W. "Recorded Inebriacy in Wisconsin: An 
 Analysis of Arrested Inebriates in Two Wisconsin 
 Counties," Sociology and Social Research, Vol. 39 
 (November. 1954) pp. 96-102. 
 
 Seliger. Robert V., and Crawford, Victoria. Cuide on 
 Alcoholism for Social Workers. Baltimore: Alco- 
 holism Publications. 1945. 94 pp. 
 
 "Study of Arrests for Drunkenness in Salt Lake City," 
 Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcohol. Vol. I 1 
 i L950) pp. 695-701. 
 
 15. Mousing 
 
 Chicago Community Trust. Housing the non-Family 
 
 Woman in Chicago. Chicago: Chicago Community 
 
 Trust. 1921. 33 pp. 
 
 page 1 05 
 
Kraus, Hertha. "Housing for Older Citizens: Factors 
 in Unsatisfactory Housing; Foreign Developments; 
 Proposals for the United States," Annals of Ameri- 
 can Academy of Political and Social Science (Janu- 
 ary, 19521 pp. 126-138. 
 
 McCann, Charles W. Long Beach Senior Citizens Sur- 
 vey: A Community Study of the Living Conditions 
 of the Persons 65 and Over in Long Beach (Califor- 
 nia I 1955. Long Beach: Community Welfare Coun- 
 cil, 1955. 59 pp. 
 
 New York (City) Mayor's Committee for Better Hou- 
 ing. Subcommittee on Special Problems, such as 
 Housing for the Aged and Large Families and Dis- 
 crimination and Integration. Report. New York: 
 New York Mayor's Committee for Better Housing. 
 June 1955. 27 pp. 
 
 New York State Conference of Mayors and Other Mu- 
 nicipal Officials. Lodging Facilities for Transients. 
 Albany: Bureau of Municipal Information Report 
 No. 3125, April 18, 1950. 8 pp. 
 
 C. Problems of the Aging and Retired 
 
 American Journal of Sociology. Entire issue devoted 
 to the subject of aging and retirement. Vol. 59, Jan- 
 uary, 1954. 
 
 American Public Welfare Association. Committee on 
 Aging. Needs of Older People and Public Welfare 
 Services to Meet Them. Chicago: American Public 
 Welfare Association, 1953. 146 pp. 
 
 Canadian Welfare. Special issue of this magazine de- 
 voted to problems of old age. Ottawa, May 1, 1955. 
 
 Hawkins, Charles E. "Recipients of Old Age Assist- 
 nce; Income and Resources (1953)'' Social Security 
 Bulletin (April, 1956), pp 3-6. 
 
 United States Department of Health, Education, and 
 Welfare. Selected References on Aging, Annotated. 
 Washington, 1955. 64 pp. 
 
 D. Psychological and Personality Problems 
 
 Adler, A. Guiding Human Misfits. Rev. ed. New York: 
 Philosophical Library, 1948. 114 pp. 
 
 Coleman, J. V. ''Psychiatric Implications in Casework 
 Service to the Male Migrant," Social Casework, Vol. 
 32 (October, 1951), pp 333-337. 
 
 Ford, John C. Depth Psychology, Morality and Alco- 
 holism. Weston, Mass.: Weston College Press, 1951. 
 
 Kreinheder, Albert. Objective Measurement of Reality- 
 contact Weakness. Washington: American Psycho- 
 logical Association, 1952. 23 pp. 
 
 Michaels. J. J. Disorders of Character. Springfield, 
 111.: Charles C. Thomas, 1955. 
 
 Wallen, John E. Personality Adjustments and Mental 
 Hygiene. New York: McGraw, 1949. 581 pp. 
 
 Weinberg. Samuel K. Society and Personality Dis- 
 orders. New York: Prentice-Hall, 1952. 536 pp. 
 
 E. Relief and Welfare Problems 
 
 Chicago Relief Administration. Study of the 547 Tran- 
 sients Accepted for Shelter Service in June, 1937. 
 An unpublished report. 
 
 Clark, Donald Adams. Men on Relief in Lackawanna, 
 New York, 1934-35; Social Pathology in a Satellite 
 City. University of Buffalo Studies. Vol. 4, No. 4. 
 Buffalo: University of Buffalo, August. 1937. 119 pp. 
 
 Illinois Emergencv Relief Commission. Cook Countv 
 Service Bureau for Men. Characteristics of Un- 
 attached Men on Relief. Chicago: Illinois Emergency 
 Relief Commission, February. 1935. 
 
 Johnson, Glenn H. Relief and Health Problems of a 
 Selected Group of Non-family Men. Chicago: Uni- 
 versity of Chicago Press, 1937. 77 pp. 
 
 King County (Washington) Board of County Commis- 
 sioners. Advisory Committee on Social Security. 
 Single Homeless Men, King County, Washington. 
 Seattle: King County Board of Countv Commission- 
 ers, 1937. 79 pp. 
 
 Locke, Harvey J. "Unemployed Men in Chicago Shel- 
 ters," Sociology and Social Research, Vol. 19 (135). 
 pp. 420-428. 
 
 Minneapolis Division of Public Relief. A Study of Un- 
 attached Women on Relief in the City of Minneapolis 
 in April, 1940. Minneapolis: Minneapolis Division 
 of Public Relief, 1940. 10 pp. 
 
 Rockmore, R. "Travelers Aid Service to Unattached 
 Individuals," Journal of Social Casework, Vol. 30 
 (October, 1949), pp. 327-329. 
 
 Roseman, Alvin. Shelter Care and the Local Homeless 
 Man. Publication No. 46. Chicago: Public Admin- 
 istration Service, 1935. 56 pp. 
 
 St. Louis Bureau for Men. A Statistical Analysis of 
 N on- family Men on Relief in St. Louis, 1925-36. 
 St. Louis: St. Louis Bureau for Men, September, 
 1937. 41 pp. 
 
 Shimberg. Myra E.. and Lockitt, Alfred G. "Some Are 
 Unable to Work." Public Welfare, Vol. 5 (July, 
 1947). pp. 154-156. 
 
 "Single Men on Relief," Social Welfare. January- 
 March, 1942. pp. 1-10. 
 
 Stern, Max. "The Transfer of Single Men to Home 
 Relief in Chicago," Social Service Review, Vol. 10. 
 10 (June. 1936), pp. 277-287. 
 
 III. PLANNING, TREATMENT, AND 
 REHABILITATION PROGRAMS 
 
 A. The Aged 
 
 Baltimore (Maryland) Commission of Aging and Prob- 
 lems of the Aged. Widening the Lengthened Path of 
 Life. Report. 1955. Baltimore: Baltimore Commis- 
 sion of Aging and Problems of the Aged. 1955. 89 pp. 
 
 Eaves, Lucile, ed. Aged Clients of Boston Social Agen- 
 cies. Boston: Women's Educational and Industrial 
 Union, 1925. 152 pp. 
 
 page 106 
 
"Living Costs of Oldsters; Annual Costs of Total Bud- 
 get, Housing, and Other Goods and Services in 34 
 Cities I United States ) ," Conference Board Business 
 Record. Vol. 8 (October, 1951), p. 398. 
 
 Welfare and Health Council of New York City. Bureau 
 of Community Statistical Services. Research Depart- 
 ment. Fact Book on the Aged in Neiv York City: 
 Some Characteristics of the Aged Population and 
 Specialized Services for the Aged. New York: Wel- 
 fare and Health Council, September, 1955. 83 pp. 
 
 B. Alcoholism and Personality Disorders 
 
 Community Research Associates, Inc. The Prevention 
 and Control of Disordered Behavior in San Mateo 
 County, California. Community Research Associates, 
 Inc., July, 1954. 
 
 "Dealing with the Problems of Alcoholism in New 
 York City, 1 ' Mental Hygiene, Vol. 38 ( September, 
 1954), pp. 334-336. 
 
 Hirshberg, Besse. "Alcoholism in the Case of the New 
 York City Welfare Department: Statistical Analysis," 
 Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcohol, Vol. 15 
 (May, 1954), pp. 402-412. 
 
 Pearson, 0. A. "Pioneer House — Minneapolis Project 
 for Rehabilitation of Alcoholics," Quarterly Journal 
 of Studies on Alcohol, Vol. 11 (1950), pp. 353-359. 
 
 Shepherd, E. A. "Alcoholic Rehabilitation in Florida," 
 State Government, Vol. 29 (June, 1956), pp. 110-111. 
 
 Wilkins, G. F. "Industry's Stake in the Rehabilitation 
 of Problem Drinkers," Industrial Medicine and Sur- 
 gery, Vol. 22 (January, 1953), pp. 29-33. 
 
 C. Community Redevelopment and 
 Improvement 
 
 California University Bureau of Governmental Re- 
 search. American Institute of Planners. Local Plan- 
 ning Research: Selected Resources of Information 
 for California, 1955-1956. Los Angeles; Bureau of 
 Governmental Research. University of California, 
 1956. 94 pp. 
 
 Cincinnati Bureau of Governmental Research. An 
 Urban Re-Development Study of 10 Cincinnati 
 Blighted Areas with Related Economic, Population 
 and Land Market Data. Report No. 109. Cincinnati: 
 Bureau of Governmental Research, September, 1951. 
 
 Juster, Robert. "Rehabilitation in New Orleans," Town 
 Planning Institute Journal, Vol. 42 (December, 
 1955), pp. 10-12. 
 
 New York (City) Mayor's Committee for Better Hous- 
 ing. Subcommittee on Urban Redevelopment in- 
 cluding Slum Clearance, Neighborhood Conserva- 
 tion, and Rehabilitation. Report. New York: New 
 York Mayor's Committee for Better Housing, August, 
 1955. 19 pp. 
 
 D. Program for Homeless Men 
 
 Adams, Frank Dawson, Day Shelter for Unemployed 
 Men in Montreal: A Social Experiment. Montreal: 
 McGill University, 1932. 29 pp. 
 
 Center of Alcohol Studies, Yale University. What To 
 Do Before Skid Roiv Is Demolislied. Philadelphia: 
 Greater Philadelphia Movement, 1958. 21 pp. 
 
 Redevelopment Agency of the City of Sacramento in 
 conjunction with the Housing and Home Finance 
 Agency, Relocation Plan: Slum Area Labor Market, 
 Sacramento. Sacramento, 1959. 
 
 Wilson, Robert S. Community Planning for the Home- 
 less Men and Boys: The Experience of Sixteen Cities 
 in the Winter of 1930-31. New York: Family Wel- 
 fare Association of America, 1931. 144 pp. 
 
 United States Congress. Joint Committee on the Eco- 
 nomic Report. A Program for the Low-Income Popu- 
 lation of Substandard Levels of Living. 84th Con- 
 gress, 2nd session, S. Report 1311. Washington. 
 January 5, 1956. 14 pp. 
 
 University of Minnesota and the Minneapolis Housing 
 and Redevelopment Authority. A General Report on 
 the Problem of Relocating the Population of the 
 Lower Loop Redevelopment Area. Minneapolis: 
 Minneapolis Housing and Redevelopment Authority, 
 1958. 217 pp. 
 
 IV. MISCELLANEOUS 
 
 Edge. William. Main Stem. New York: Vanguard 
 Press. 1927. 
 
 Gilmore, Harlan Welch. The Beggar. Chapel Hill: 
 University of North Carolina Press, 1940. 252 pp. 
 
 Hapgood Hutchins. Types from City Streets. Reprinted 
 from various periodicals. New York: Funk and 
 Wagnalls, 1910. 379 pp. 
 
 Higgs, Mary. Down and Out. London: Student Chris- 
 tian Movement, 1924. 110 pp. 
 
 Irwin, Godfrey. American Tramp and Underworld 
 Slang. New York: Sears Publishing Co., 1931. 
 263 pp. 
 
 McMillen, Wayne. 'Single Blessedness," Survey, Vol. 
 LXX (March, 1934), pp. 74-75. 
 
 Mineham, T. Lonesome Road. Evanston, 111.: Row, 
 Peterson and Co., 1941. 
 
 Mullin, Glenn H. "Sidewalks of New York." Century 
 Magazine, Vol. 110 (1925), pp. 50-57. 
 
 Rose, Arnold M. "The Problem of Mass Society," 
 Antioch Review, Vol. 10 (Fall, 1950), pp. 378-394. 
 
 Schnore, Leo F., and Varley, David W. "Some Con- 
 comitants of Metropolitan Size," American Socio- 
 logical Review, Vol. 20 ( August, 1955) , pp. 408-414. 
 
 Stamper. J. Less Than the Dust. London: Hutchinson 
 & Co., Ltd., 1933. 
 
 page 107 
 
Left: Spring on West Madison Street. 
 
 Bottom: The Monroe Street Court is crowded with men 
 arrested on skid row. 
 
 Right: New skills, learned at the Industrial Training Shop 
 of the Cook County Department of Public Aid, 
 may lead to a new life of self-sufficiency. 
 
page 109 
 
Edited by 
 Gerald S. Newman 
 
 Maps 
 
 Carl Holmcren 
 Dwight Scott 
 
 Photographs 
 
 Cook County Department of Public Aid 
 
 National Opinion Research Center 
 
 Salvation Army 
 
 Mildred Mead 
 
 Gerald S. Newman