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 opportunity to proceed further and settle in surrounding
cities and towns. This tendency appears to have been to reach those
fields offering the highest wages and most permanent prospects. With
Chicago as a center there are within a radius of from one hundred
to one hundred and fifty miles a number of smaller industrial
centers--suburbs of Chicago in which enterprises have sprung
up because of the nearness to the unexcelled shipping and other

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