LODGING, TENEMENT, AND ROOMING HOUSES.1

EL PASO, TEX.

Lodging Houses-Permit Required-Sanitary Regulation-Inspection. (Ord Apr. 5, 1917.)

SECTION 1. A lodging house is hereby defined to be a building or part of a building, where lodgings are provided and let for profit to five or more persons at any one time.

SEC. 2. No person, firm, or corporation shall maintain a lodging house in the city of El Paso unless a permit therefor shall be first obtained by such person, firm, or corporation from the board of health of the city of El Paso. Such permit shall be renewed each and every year that such lodging house is maintained.

SEC. 3. Every person, firm, or corporation conducting the business of a lodging house shall be governed by the following regulations:

Every lodging house shall be provided with at least

a. One shower or tub bath on each floor, to be supplied with hot and cold water and open for the free use of lodgers at all times.

b. One wash basin for every 25 beds or fraction thereof.

c. One water-closet for every 25 beds or fraction thereof.

d. A sufficient number of approved cuspidors shall be furnished and kept in a sanitary condition.

e. An adequate supply of clean individual towels shall be provided for lodgers free of charge.

f. Lodging house keepers shall cause all floors to be thoroughly cleaned and scrubbed at least once in every 30 days. Where walls are whitewashed, they shall be rewhitewashed once in every six months.

g. All floors shall be sprinkled before sweeping, which shall be done once in each day.

h. All beds shall be so arranged that the air shall circulate freely under and around each of them, and shall be at least 2 feet apart in a horizontal direction; all windows shall be open top and bottom at least three hours in each day; at least 12 square feet of window space, having unobstructed access into the open air shall be provided for each room and for each 100 square feet of floor space. At least one-half each window space shall be available for ventilation. i. All beds, bed clothing, mattresses, and pillows shall be kept free from vermin.

j. Every person, firm, or corporation maintaining a lodging house or houses in the city of El Paso shall keep the same at all times clean and free from dirt, filth, garbage, and rubbish in or on the premises belonging to or connected with the same.

k. All washbasins, baths, water-closets, windows, fixtures, furniture, fittings and painted surfaces shall be at all times kept thoroughly clean and in good repair.

See also Buildings and premises. p. 40.

1. Each bed shall be provided with a pillow slip for each pillow and two white linen or cotton sheets 99 inches long after being washed and of sufficient width to completely cover mattress and springs, and said sheets and pillow slips shall be laundered each eight days, or for each new guest or occupant.

SEC. 4. Any room, space, building, or part of a building where five or more persons are lodged gratis, or as part of any labor agreement shall be governed by the provisions of this ordinance, except that beds and bedding may not be required when lodgers' bedding, clothing, personal effects, and their persons have been certified as free from disease carriers by proper treatment.

SEC. 5. The board of health shall assign an inspector for the purpose of enforcing the provisions of this ordinance; and such inspector when showing a proper badge and certificate of authority, may enter and examine any premises within the provisions of this act at any time.

SEC. 6. Any person, firm, or corporation, violating any of the provisions of this ordinance shall forfeit and pay a penalty of not less than $10, nor more than $100.

SEC. 7. Any permit obtained as aforesaid may be revoked by the board of health upon 10 days' notice, when in its judgment any of the above regulations are being violated.

Tenement Houses-Sanitary Regulation-Vacation. (Ord. Apr. 5, 1917.)

SECTION 1. A tenement house is any house or building, or portion thereof, which is rented, leased, let, or hired out, to be occupied, or is occupied, or is intended, arranged, or designed to be occupied as the home or residence of three families or more living independently of each other and doing their cooking on the premises and having a common right to the halls, verandas, stairways, yards, water-closets or privies, or some of them; and any group of adjacent buildings having a right in common to use the conveniences aforementioned in this section, or any of them, shall be subject to the same regulations hereinafter stated for the regulation of tenement houses.

SEC. 2. No owner, agent of owner, lessee, or person in charge of, or in control of, any tenement or lodging house shall permit any person or persons to occupy any room of any tenement or lodging house, and no person or persons shall occupy any room of any tenement or lodging house, in which the air space afforded is less than 400 cubic feet of air for each person over 12 years of age and 150 cubic feet of air for each child under 12 years of age occupying the room.

a. Provided, That there is not less than 35 square feet of floor space for each occupant thereof, and that not less than 12 square feet of window space be provided for each room and for each 100 square feet of floor space, and that each window have unobstructed access into the open air and that one-half of each window be available for ventilation.

SEC. 3. Every tenement house and every part thereof shall be kept clean and free from any accumulation of dirt, filth, and garbage or other matter, in or on the same, or in the yards, courts, passages, areas, or alleys connected with or belonging to the same. The owner of every tenement house, or part thereof, shall thoroughly cleanse all the rooms, passages, stairs, floors, windows, doors, walls, ceilings, privies, water-closets, cesspools, drains, halls, cellars, roofs, and all other parts of the said tenement houses, or parts thereof, or parts of the house of which he is the owner, to the satisfaction of the board of health or its agents, and shall keep the said parts of the said tenement house in a cleanly condition at all times.

SEC. 4. The owner of every tenement house shall provide and maintain therefor suitable covered, water-tight metallic receptacles for rubbish, garbage, refuse,

and other matter. No person shall throw or place filthy water, rubbish, garbage, refuse, or other like matter in the yards, open areas, or alleys connected with or appurtenant to any tenement houses, except in such receptacles as described above.

SEC. 5. In every tenement house which is within 100 feet of a sewer there shall be at least one water-closet for each eight rooms, or major fraction thereof, which water-closet or closets can be approached by an entrance independent of any living room, and shall be easily accessible to the occupants for whose use they are intended, and all water-closets shall be kept clean.

SEC. 6. No horse, cow, calf, swine, sheep, goat, or chickens shall be kept in a tenement house or on the same lot or premises within 25 feet thereof, and no tenement house, or the lot or premises thereof, shall be used for the storing of handling of old rags, bottles, etc., nor for the storing or handling of vegetables of other food products intended for sale for human consumption: Provided, That this section shall not apply to stores located on the ground floor of tenement houses and not used for living purpose.

SEC. 7. In any tenement house in which the owner thereof does not reside there shall be a janitor, housekeeper, or other responsible person who shall reside in said house and have charge of the same, if the board of health or its agents shall require.

SEC. 8. In tenement houses or lodging houses no room in the basement or cellar shall be constructed, altered, converted into, or occupied for living purposes without a special written permit therefor having first been obtained from the board of health of the city of El Paso, Tex.

SEC. 9. Whenever it shall be certified by an inspector or agent of the board of health that a tenement house or any part thereof is unfit for human habitation or dangerous to life or health by reason of want of repair, or of defects in the drainage, plumbing, ventilation, or the construction of the same, or by reason of the existence of a nuisance likely to cause sickness among the occupants of said house, or is maintained in a manner in violation of this ordinance, the board of health, after a hearing, may issue an order requiring all persons therein to vacate such house, or part thereof, within not less than 24 hours nor more than 10 days, for the reasons to be mentioned in said order. In case such order is not complied with within the time specified, the board of health may cause said tenement, or lodging house, or part thereof, to be vacated. The board of health, whenever it is satisfied that the danger of said house, or part thereof, has ceased to exist, or that it is fit for human habitation, may remove said order or may extend the time within which to comply with the same.

MILWAUKEE, WIS.

Rooming Houses-License-Sanitary Regulation-Reports of Cases of Communicable Diseases. (Ord. 96, Effective Jan. 1, 1918.)

SECTION 1. There are added to the Milwaukee Code of 1914 12 new sections to read:

CH. 17. ART. 13.5. ROOMING HOUSES.

SEC. 858.1. Definitions.-A rooming house in the meaning of this ordinancer shall be any building or structure, or part thereof, in which four or more per sons are harbored, received, or lodged for hire, or any part of which is let to four or more persons in which to sleep: Provided, however, That duplex fla's so-called, or apartment houses actually divided into residential units, shall not be termed rooming house except when such flats or residential units are used

for the harboring of four or more persons received or lodged for hire, or let to four or more persons in which to sleep.

Rooming house, class A, as used herein, shall mean any rooming house harboring, receiving, or lodging four to eight persons, not members of the proprietor's family.

Rooming house, class B, as used herein, shall mean any rooming house harboring, receiving, or lodging nine or more persons, not members of the proprietor's fanrily.

Basement.-A story, partly, but not more than one-half its height, below the level of the lot.

Cellar. A story more than one-half its height below the level of the lot. Proprietor, as used herein, shall mean any person, firm, or corporationwhether owner, lessee, manager, or agent-in whose name the license, required herein, shall have been issued.

Hotel, so-called, or any place or business holding a hotel license, issued by the State of Wisconsin, shall be excluded from the provisions of this article, so long as this license remains in effect.

SEC. 858.2. Each sleeping room in any rooming house must have at least 400 cubic feet of air space for each lodger or person sleeping therein. Each such room must be adequately ventilated, having window space, opening on street, yard, or court, equal to one-tenth of floor area of such room. The bedding used therein must be clean. No such room may be located in a cellar or basement. Every such room must be free from filth and vermin. The walls, floors, and ceilings in each sleeping room of any rooming house, and the hallways, stairways, toilet rooms, or other parts thereof, must be cleaned and properly repaired and painted as frequently as may be required by the commissioner of health. SEC. 858.3. The commissioner of health is hereby authorized to require or make such reasonable rules and regulations as will insure the proper cleanliness of all rooming houses and the proper provision of water, towels, bathing facilities, cuspidors, beds, bedding, mattresses, and other furniture or things.

SEC. 858.4. In every rooming house (class B) there shall be at least one toilet room for every eight persons. All such toilet rooms shall be equipped with flowing water and shall be entirely shut off from sleeping rooms by a partition extending from floor to ceiling. Each such room shall have proper ventilation to outside air and shall have a window at least 3 feet square opening upon a street, yard, court, or vent shaft. There shall be provided an adequate number of wash basins and baths, as determined by the commissioner of health, and these basins and baths shall be equipped with flowing water.

SEC. 858.5. No person, firm, or corporation shall operate or conduct any rooming house without first being licensed so to do.

SEC. 858.6. The license required herein must be applied for and issued in favor of the person, firm, or corporation actually responsible for and in control of the rooming house to be licensed. Such person, firm, or corporation must file an application on a form prepared by the commissioner of health. The commissioner of health, by his authorized assistants, shall inspect each rooming house for which application is made, and when the requirements of this article have been met shall issue a license upon the payment of a fee of $2 for a rooming house, class A, and a fee of $3 for a rooming house, class B. All licenses so issued are effective until the next succeeding 1st day of January.

SEC. 858.7. Every license issued by the commissioner of health shall be conspicuously posted in the office, public corridor, or hallway of the rooming house for which it is issued and shall remain so posted at all times.

SEC. 858.8. The commissioner of health shall specify on every license issued the number of persons that may be accommodated in the rooming house for

which such license is issued, and shall specify not more than one person for every 400 cubic feet of air space that can ordinarily and safely be utilized for sleeping purposes. No person shall harbor, receive, or lodge more persons than are specified on the license so issued: Provided, That two children under the age of 12 years shall be deemed equivalent to one adult person.

SEC. 858.9. It shall be the duty of the proprietor of every rooming house to report within 24 hours to the commissioner of health any person suffering froa any communicable disease, and such report shall be made whenever there is reason to believe or suspect that any person in such rooming house may be afflicted with any communicable disease and especially with smallpox, scarlet fever, diphtheria, measles, chickenpox, typhoid fever, or tuberculosis.

SEC. 858.91. The licensee of any rooming house shall be responsible for any insanitary condition prevailing within such rooming house, and shall be responsi ble for the proper observance of all of the provisions of this article. The owner or agent shall be responsible for the proper sanitary condition of the premises upon which any rooming house is located and for the exterior condition of any rooming house.

SEC. 858.92. Any license granted under the provisions of this article may be revoked by the commissioner of health for failure to comply with the provisions hereof. No license issued under the provisions of this article shall be transferable, and every person, firm, or corporation must notify, in writing, the commissioner of health within 24 hours after having relinquished proprietorship or having sold, transferred, or given away, or otherwise disposed of such interest or control in any rooming house, and must file, in writing, with the commis sioner of health the name and address of the person, firm, or corporation to whom he, they, or it has relinquished proprietorship, or sold, transferred, given away. or otherwise disposed of such interest or control in any such rooming house. No person, firm, or corporation may conduct any rooming house the license whereof shall have been issued in the name of any other person, firm, or corporation.

SEC. 858.93. Any person, firm, or corporation operating a rooming house in the city of Milwaukee without having first been licensed so to do, or any person, firm, or corporation violating any of the provisions of this article shall be subject to a fine of not less than $10 nor more than $50 for each day's violation, or in default of payment thereof to imprisonment for not less than 10 nor more than 30 days for the first offense, and to a fine of not less than $50 for each day's violation, or to imprisonment for not less than 30 days for each subsequent offense.