48
AACHEN.
of extreme difficulty. Of 47 6 tenements reported upon by the Municipal House
Inspector in 1905, 168 consisted of two rooms, and the average population per
room was four persons. The municipal authorities require that after the age of
12 years children shall no longer sleep in their parents’ room, and, if of different
sex, shall sleep in different rooms. Where the family numbers eight, and the rooms
are only two, a problem of great perplexity faces the parent sooner or later.
Should a municipal mandamus be received, the first device is for one of the
two rooms to be given to either sex, parent and children of all ages sharing
quarters as best they may. Then comes a new increase to the family, and the
makeshift breaks down. A third room must be taken, or the municipal authority
be defied. No doubt it is defied often enough ; but, if a larger house be rented,
quality has often to be sacrificed for the sake of quantity. Even so, it is
probable that not more than 25 per cent, of the working class households of
Aachen live in dwellings of three rooms.
In order to help somewhat to meet the case of large families the Benevolent
Building Society of Aachen ( Gemeinnützige Baugesellschaft) began work some
ten years ago. By the aid ( I ) of money subscribed by shareholders in
return for three per cent, interest. (2) of loans obtained from the Old Age
Insurance Authority of the province at 3 and 3& per cent., and (3) of loans
otherwise raised on mortgage, 17 blocks of houses, containing altogether
240 tenements of two, three and four rooms have been built in suitable parts of
the town, and these tenements are let by preference to respectable working men
with large families. Houses of 48 rooms were built at first, but now houses of
25 rooms only, and the cost of a house of the latter kind is £1,250 for land and
building together, £10 being reckoned per room for land and £40 for building
costs. Tenements of three rooms are built as much as possible, and the rent
for such accommodation varies, according to the character and situation of the
building, from 3s. 2(7. to 4s. 6d. per week ; while dwellings of two rooms cost
from 2s. to 3s., and dwellings of four rooms from 4s. 2d. to 5s. There are also
a few single room tenements for old persons. On the whole the rents work out
at about 5s. per room per month, which is below that of private houses
generally. Yet the Society is able to pay the interest on capital and loans and
to meet the 1J per cent, on building costs which the Insurance Authority
requires byway of redemption. At the present time it has at call over £25,000
available for building purposes, and it is only the difficulty of obtaining eligible
sites at reasonable prices which restrains its operations. The houses already
built are as convenient as the limitations of space allowed, and they are eagerly
sought after.
The largest building scheme so far undertaken is the colony in the
Sandkaulstrasse, where a site of ground 42,250 square feet in extent was
purchased and used for the erection of ten large detached houses containing
267 rooms, forming 100 dwellings. The average number of persons per dwelling
is five, but some of the families number nine, ten, and even twelve. Several of
the houses have balconies ; for the use of the housewives there are grass-plots
for drying purposes ; to young people a large room is allotted as a readingroom
; and the children have an extensive playground, partly covered. The
special merit of the Society’s work is that its aim is to help the very poor who,
through being handicapped by many children, are nowhere welcome tenants and
aie unable to pay for decent accommodation elsewhere, proportionate to their
needs.
A good work is also done by a free House Bureau, carried on by ;
benevolent society with municipal help in the interest of the working classe
and small tenants generally. °
The municipality of Aachen owns a number of dwellings which ar
let to its workpeople. They mostly consist of three or four rooms, and th
rents vary from £8 to £10 per annum. The houses have been built o
bought for convenience, However, and they do not in any way form part of
plan of housing reform The only industrial company in the neighbourhoo.
which provides houses for the workpeople is the Rothe Erde Steel and Iro,
Company, which owns altogether some 800 single dwellings, each of four room
noth attic, cellar storehouse and garden. In Aachen itself the fact tha
so many ot the mills are in the heart of the town enables workpeople to liv
near,to their employment, while those who work outside the town like to liv
within it.
