h its reputation, found no hesitancy in
moving in until better homes could be secured.

Congestion has been a serious problem only during short periods
when the influx was greater than the city's immediate capacity for
distributing them. During the summer of 1917 this was the situation. A
canvass of real estate dealers supplying houses for negroes conducted
by the Chicago Urban League revealed the fact that on a single day
there were 664 negro applicants for houses, and only 50 supplied,
while there were 97 houses advertised for rent. In some instances as
many as ten persons were listed for a single house. This condition
did not continue long. There were counted thirty-six new localities
opening up to negroes within three months. These localities were
formerly white.

An accompaniment to this congestion was the increase in rents of
from 5 to 30 per cent and sometimes as high as 50 per cent. This
was explained by landlords as a return to former standards after the
property had depreciated through the coming in of negroes. A more
detailed study of living conditions among the migrants in Chicago was
made by a student of the School of Civics and Philanthropy. The study
included 75 families of less than a year's residence. In the group
were 60 married couples, 128 children, eight women and nine married
men with families in the South.

How this large group--265 persons--fresh from a region where life
is enlivened by a mild climate and ample space was to find living
quarters in an overcrowded section of two Chicago blocks was a problem
of many aspects. A single furnished room, rented by the week, provided
the solution for each of 41 families, while 24 families rented
homes by the month, four families occupied two rooms each. In some
instances, this meant overcrowding so serious as to threaten morals
and health. The Urban League interested corporations and capitalists
in the construction of modern apartment houses with small individual
apartments. It endeavored also to have the city see the necessity
of preventing occupancy of the physically unfit houses. The league
conducted a campaign to educate the masses in regard to housing,
and payment of exorbitant rents was discouraged. The various city
departments were asked to enforce ordinances in negro neighborhoods.
In this way the league tried to reduce overcrowding and extortionate
rentals.

All of the arrivals here did not stay. They were only temporary guests
awaiting the