New York City'slums In The Late 19th Century

Being thought as the place of opportunities, New York City became a symbol of freedom and economic mobility to the earliest immigrants coming from all over Europe and Asia in the 1800’s. Whether it was due to religious persecution, land and job shortages, famines or rising taxes, these immigrants were just looking to obtain a better quality of life for themselves and their families. Nearly 12 million people passed through the gates of Ellis Island and settled in New York City. Due to the fact that most immigrants hardly knew english and were in desperate need for work, they settled for low wage paying jobs that hardly covered living expenses. As a result, slums like the Lower East Side's Five Points, were quickly filling with newcomers. Nearly 2.3 million people (two-thirds of New York City's
Aside from the small space, in general the slums were a terrible place to live in. This was a place where crime flourished and gangs terrorized the residents into extortion through robberies and beatings. The first early efforts to help improve housing for the poor was during the late 19th century, when photojournalist Jacob Riis exposed the impoverished conditions that people in New York City were living in. His haunting photographs of the slums and his powerful book, How The Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York, really assisted in bringing attention to the subject of housing. The first sign of reform came with the New York Tenement act of 1895.This act basically gave the health department, fire department, and the newly created building department the right to regulate and enforce certain laws regarding the management of plumbing, drainage, light and ventilation in newly built tenement houses. An example of a law that was introduced due to this act would be the provision of fire escapes in all newly built tenement houses which the fire department was to