Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 254, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 October 1915 — Des Moines Experimenting With a Housing Plan [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Des Moines Experimenting With a Housing Plan

DES MOINES. —A practical demonstration to prove that individual apartments with modern plumbing, sanitary conveniences and absolute privacy for each family can be built to rent for from $8 to $12.60 per month and yet

yield a reasonable profit to the builder is being made here. The Octavia Hill association, which has already won renown in solving housing problems, has worked out the plan to the smallest detail and is building the model houses. Forty-five families will be provided for in the first block now under construction. The houses, which are of red brick, are simply finished, with sufficient trimming to keep them from being severely plain. One important

feature of the property is the provision for the children. About 8,000 square feet of ground in the center of the block will be used for & playground. The rent collectors are trained social workers and will volunteer to start the playground activities. - The investment will reach nearly $60,000, which is represented by capital stock and a mortgage which pays 4.4 per cent a year. The investment will yield a gross income of 10.9 per cent per year to the association, and a net income, after deducting taxes, insurance, water rents, cost of collection of rents, social work, depreciation, etc., of 5.7 per cent. The Des Moines venture is a test case to prove that the unsanitary and bad housing conditions which prevail for the low-salaried workingman are criminally unnecessary. It is Voicing an unanswerable protest against the crowded tenement, the dilapidated and unsanitary house which is virtually the only kind offered to the man who must pay less than sls a month rental. The association now owns or manages 353 dwellings, housing 2,500 people, has never failed to pay 4 per cent a year to its stockholders.