BARMEN.
of these were dwellings of £15 a year or under. The municipality maintains a
" Dwellings Registry Office,” where those who have house-room to let, whether
furnished or unfurnished, and those in search of such accommodation, may
register their requirements. Since January 1st, 1906, the office has been issuing
a fortnightly Journal giving full particulars, including the rents, of all houses,
tenements and lodgings to let. The paper can be bought for a halfpenny and a
six-months’ advertisement in its pages costs only 2Je/, per house, tenement or
lodging. Information is given verbally at the office free of charge.
The housing question does not, however, appear to have been at any time
an acute problem in Barmen if one may judge by the fact that the municipality
has not found it necessary to take any other action in the matter than that just
described. There exists, indeed, an Association (a joint stock society) of local
merchants and manufacturers formed in 1872 with the object of “providing
cheap and healthy dwellings for the working classes,” According to the rules
of the society, whose share capital amounts to £37,500, the dividend payable on
shares must not exceed 4 per cent. Up to May, 1905, this society had built
387 houses of the cottage type to be acquired by workpeople on the deferred
payment system. Some of these houses are built to accommodate four families,
but the majority contain two tenements only. They are pleasantly situated in
semi-rural surroundings on the slopes above the town and each has its own
garden. The same society has built seven large tenement houses containing
altgether 59 tenements intended only for letting. Of these tenements no less
than 19 were unoccupied on May 1st, 1905.
In Barmen, as in nearly all the larger cities of Germany, a census of dwellings
took place on December 1st, 1905, and the publication of the results has thrown
more light on the housing conditions of that town than any previous census of
che kind. The population of Barmen at the end of December, 1905, was 156,000.
At the beginning of that month there were found to be 153,152 people housed
in the 36,311 existing occupied dwellings, and these were distributed as shown
below :—
Number of habitable rooms in dwelling.
Population housed in such dwellings.
Total.
1 Room
2 Rooms
3 „
4 „
and upwards
2,220
37,195
44,073
27,654
42,010
Per cent.
1-5
24 3
28 8
18-1
27 3
153,152
100-0
According to the standard adopted in connection with the English census
a tenement is “ overcrowded ” when it “ contains more than two occupants per
room, bedrooms and sitting rooms included.” If we apply the same standard to
Barmen we find that 20 per cent, of all two-roomed and 1 < per c
roomed tenements are overcrowded. I his is shown by the fob
cent, of all threelowing
table
Number of Persons
in each Tenement.
Tenements of
1 Room.
2 Rooms.
H Rooms.
Per cent.
79-4
15*5
4-2
0-7
0-2
4 Rooms.
100-0
1000
1000
100-0
5 Rooms
and over.
100-0
