Tenants face evictions, rent hikes, harassment from “greedy landlords”
One hundred years ago today … New York was experiencing a housing crisis, and tenants were suffering the consequences of precipitous rent raises and unceremonious evictions. An August 2 editorial in The Evening World decried “greedy landlords,” and hinted at a solution. The landlords’ actions, the paper argued, are “driving tenants to the conclusion that the only remedy open to them is the definition of housing as a public utility” (“Disappointed Greed,” The Evening World, 2 August 1920, p. 14).
This came a day after the Tribune had boldly announced the legal plight of tenants faced with unscrupulous landlords, with a sardonic headline.
New York Tribune, 1 August 1920, p. 32. Chronicling America.
The rights of tenants had arisen in the New York State Legislature in March, 1920 (see our coverage), and would be addressed by a bill that September. (Check back for our coverage.)
Some landlords were getting creative in their harassment of tenants. Emmanuel and Henry Clayman, landlords of 250 West 85th Street, sabotaged the dumbwaiter, forbade deliveries, and hired a photographer to snap pictures of everyone entering the premises.
New York Tribune, 5 August 1920, p. 20. Chronicling America.
More specifically, the photographer was startling tenants by taking “flashlight pictures,” presumably meaning cameras with what were sometimes called “flash-lamps” (as flash bulbs were not invented until 1927).
wRITTEN BY JONATHAN GOLDMAN, AUGUST 2, 2020.
TAGS: housing, tenants, landlords, evictions, rent, cameras