SIZE AND DESCRIPTION OF HOUSES CONSTRUCTED

Mr. FITZPATRICK. How many feet do those houses cover as a rule? Mr. IHLDER. The ones that I am thinking of, the lowest-rent houses that we have, are 171⁄2 feet wide, just 16 feet 11 inches wide, and 27 feet deep.

Mr. FITZPATRICK. How much space is in the back of the house?

Mr. IHLDER. Here is a diagram showing the ones that I am talking about. There are a group of houses there. The back is here and the entrance is here, opening on the street. They back on the service alley, so that they have service in back of the house with a little service yard. In front it is wide open space.

Mr. FITZPATRICK. What is the distance from the front of the street, the curb, to the rear of the lot? What is the length of the lot?

Mr. IHLDER. Here is the street. Back to there is 189 feet 6 inches. Mr. FITZPATRICK. And the house itself is, you say, 17 by 27 feet? Mr. IHLDER. It is approximately 17 by 27 feet.

Mr. FITZPATRICK. That gives you pretty good-sized rooms?

Mr. IHLDER. Yes. They are good rooms. They are more than the law would require. We do that with the belief that it is a good investment to make the rooms adequate for living purposes.

Mr. DIRKSEN. What is the square-foot realty cost for the lots on which you are putting them?

Mr. IHLDER. That varies so much that there is no rule. Mr. Hudgins can tell you the lowest and the highest.

Mr. HUDGINS. The lowest for individual parcels would be around

35 or 40 cents.

Mr. IHLDER. It is to be remembered that this is inside the old city. Mr. HUDGINS. Inside the old city. The highest that we have paid so far and that includes the improvements, of course, that we had to abolish-was about $1.80 or $1.85.

Mr. MANDELL. It averages about $1.45 on all of ours.

Mr. IHLDER. Our properties are in every part of the city, and the values vary a great deal.

Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. What rent are you charging?

Mr. IHLDER. For these new cheapest houses we charge $25 a month. For some reconditioned houses that we have, that are, we consider, interim houses, the rents are $13.55 and $15.55 a month. They are four-room houses.

Mr. FITZPATRICK. Are they for two families?

Mr. IHLDER. No. They are one-family dwellings. It is a group house of two stories with two rooms on the ground floor and two rooms and bath on the second floor.

Mr. FITZPATRICK. They are attached?

Mr. IHLDER. Yes. Group houses.

Mr. FITZPATRICK. Do they have an access in the rear?

Mr. IHLDER. Yes. There is a public-service alley in the rear.
Mr. FITZPATRICK. Public alley?

Mr. IHLDER. Yes.

Mr. FITZPATRICK. How many stories?

Mr. IHLDER. Two stories. They are row dwellings.

Mr. FITZPATRICK. How are the houses heated?

Mr. IHLDER. They are heated by stoves.

Mr. FITZPATRICK. Are they what we call cold-water houses?

Mr. IHLDER. The kitchen range has a water tank attached. So that they have hot water.

Mr. FITZPATRICK. The light is just in the front, without any air shaft or anything like that?

Mr. IHLDER. No. Every room opens either front or rear, including the bathroom. There is no air shaft.

Mr. FITZPATRICK. How many rooms downstairs?

Mr. IHLDER. Two rooms up and two down, with the bathroom upstairs.

Mr. FITZPATRICK. And you say that they are 17 by 27 feet?
Mr. IHLDER. Yes, sir.

Mr. FITZPATRICK. That gives you pretty good-sized rooms.

Mr. IHLDER. Very good-sized rooms. The inside of that 17 feet would be about, counting the wall, about 16 feet on the inside.

These are photographs showing the living rooms and kitchens in those houses.

Mr. HOUSTON. With one room right behind the other?
Mr. IHLDER. Yes. Two-room type.

Mr. FITZPATRICK. Is there a cellar underneath those houses?
Mr. IHLDER. There is not.

Mr. FITZPATRICK. The house is built right on the ground?
Mr. IHLDER. It is elevated above the ground.

Mr. FITZPATRICK. But there isn't any cellar under it?

Mr. IHLDER. No cellar. There are several reasons why we thought we didn't want a cellar for that kind of house. It would be just filled with junk and dirt. It is a nuisance.

Mr. FITZPATRICK. So far as health is concerned do you conisder that they are just as healthy as those with a cellar?

Mr. IHLDER. Oh, yes. They are well ventilated and dry underneath.

Mr. HUDGINS. They are about two and a half feet off the ground. Mr. IHLDER. The ground is carefully graded. There is no dampness there.

Mr. FITZPATRICK. And you get $25 a month?

Mr. IHLDER. Yes, sir.

TAX AND ASSESSMENT STATUS OF THESE PROPERTIES

Mr. FITZPATRICK. There isn't any tax paid to the District? That is one thing that the taxpayers furnish?

Mr. IHLDER. These properties are tax exempt. The District therefore contributes $1.75 a year on every hundred dollars of value. In addition, when we take property that includes closing an alley, the District gives us the land in the alley.

Mr. FITZPATRICK. Tax exempt?

Mr. IHLDER. Tax exempt.

Mr. DIRKSEN. Do you acquire these largely by condemnation or otherwise?

Mr. IHLDER. Primarily by negotiation. Where there is difficulty, we do it by condemnation.

We have had three condemnation suits. We hope to get a good price in the last one of them. In the other two we got a good price. In two of those three the question of constitutionality arose, and the court upheld our constitutionality.