Note 258 — Chapter XXVI · PUBLIC HEALTH AND SANITATION

These housing regulations now provide, as a rule, that houses designed to accommodate more than two families shall not occupy more than two-thirds of the lots upon which they are built, the remaining space being left for light and air. They also require that such houses shall not be of highly inflammable construction, that they be provided with lighted hallways, that sanitary equipment be installed, and that no rooms be used for ordinary living purposes unless they have one or more windows. A further provision in some of these tenement-house laws is that houses may be condemned as unsanitary if they contain less than so many cubic feet of air space for each person living in them. This last provision is difficult to enforce except by frequent inspection, yet it is very important because no matter how well a house may be constructed, there will be a danger to the public health if it is seriously overcrowded.