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Settlement Houses
Descended from their predecessors in London,
the first settlement houses in the United States made their appearance
in poor urban neighborhoods during the last quarter of the 19th
century. Seeking to improve the lives of those in the surrounding
community, settlement houses developed into neighborhood centers
for civil, social, and philanthropic work. Though they often collaborated
with charitable organizations, settlement houses set themselves
apart by stressing betterment through one's own efforts rather than
through philanthropy. Their efforts were typically focused not on
the utterly destitute, but the working poor.1
Settlement workers usually lived in neighborhoods where the local
population was of diverse ethnic, religious, and cultural backgrounds
and seldom spoke English. Most American settlements came to be organized
and staffed by women who held college degrees but found the professions
closed them, seeing settlement work as an extension of their education
and an acceptable way to apply their skills. The settlement house
philosophy originally held that if middle-class residents and staff
actually lived in the neighborhoods they were serving, their relationship
would be more equal to those they sought to help. Living side by
side with poor immigrants, they would gain new insights into the
causes of poverty, and have an added right in seeking to improve
neighborhood conditions as members of the community.2
A survey conducted in 1935 found that there were 80 settlements
operating in New York City, 55 of them in Manhattan, with over half
of these on the Lower East Side. During the 1930s, as the New Deal
rapidly shifted the burden of public welfare to the federal government,
settlement houses such as Henry Street shifted its focus in part
to provide government agencies with surveys of neighborhood problems
geared toward supporting social change. The aim of these surveys
was to "personalize reality with descriptions of individuals
experiencing the problems they were asking the government to rectify."3
The post-World War II years brought about a new relationship with
government agencies and public funding for social service programs.
Settlements such as Henry Street were able to establish a mental
hygiene clinic and agencies to provide needed services to the residents
of the new public housing projects. In 1957, Henry Street helped
create a program to institute social services with the aim of reducing
juvenile delinquency. The result was Mobilization for Youth, a prototype
for the nation's War on Poverty. Subsequently, the War on Poverty
elaborated on Mobilization for Youth's model of directly involving
the poor in policy-making through community action.4
In the 1970s, settlement houses on the Lower East Side adapted to
changing conditions in the neighborhood including the aging of older
remaining European immigrants and the severe shortage of public
housing. The Educational Alliance, for example, expanded its facilities
and programs to include a senior citizens' apartment building and
a day care center. Henry Street developed a transitional housing
facility, the Urban Family Center, which gave families previously
housed in "welfare" hotels temporary apartments and provided
critical services to help these families improve their living skills
so that they could afford more permanent housing. In 1977, the program
was expanded to include one of New York's first battered women's
shelters, as well as a housekeeping service that allowed the disabled
and elderly to remain in their homes.5
See also: Immigration;
Lower East Side .
1 Kenneth T. Jackson,
The Encyclopedia of New York City (New Haven: Yale University Press,
1995).
2 Ibid.
3 Henry Street Settlement, Voices of
Henry Street: Portrait of a Community (New York: Henry Street Settlement,
1993).
4 Ibid.
5 Ibid.
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