Holding the Tenant Responsible Baltimore Alive to Its Housing Problem Interesting School Children in Housing Housing Betterment Vol. 6 105 East 22nd Street, New York City JANUARY, 1917 No. I W CERTIFIED TENANTS. E have all been accustomed for some time past to certified milk and we are getting accustomed to certified eggs. Since the establishment of the New York Tenement House Department in 1901 people in New York have become accustomed to certified tenement houses. New York has now adopted as its latest scheme a plan of "certified tenants,"-something which leaders in housing reform in that city have urged for the past ten years. A corporation known as "The Tenants' Record, Inc." has been formed for the purpose of furnishing to owners of buildings such information with regard to prospective tenants as will enable the owner or renting agent to determine whether the tenant is a desirable one or not. The scheme has a much wider application than to tenement houses or workingmen's dwellings; in fact, it applies to tenants of all buildings. The method of operation is quite simple. Upon application for a lease the owner of the building sends to the Tenants' Record a blank properly filled out containing the name and present address of the applicant, his present landlord and occupation, his business address, the term for which the lease is proposed, the amount of the annual rental, the number in the family including the number of children, in the event of the application being for residence purposes, and various references including banks, with a space for Remarks. The Tenants' Record thereupon at once makes an investigation |