Pennsylvania Act 1913-459 — BUREAU OF HOUSING, ESTABLISHMENT

Act text

AN ACT

To establish a Bureau of Housing; for the sanitary inspection and control of tenement-, boarding- and lodging-houses; defining its powers and duties; and providing certain penalties.

Whereas, a very large proportion of our population occupy overcrowded and unsanitary tenement, boarding and lodging-houses; and,

Whereas, It is from these conditions that we derive much personal and industrial inefficiency, inebriety, dependence, tuberculosis, and disease in many forms, an appalling infant mortality, and preventable deaths at all ages, a debased citizenship, vice and crime--all of which lead to physical and moral degeneracy and an ultimate burden upon society and upon the State; and,

Whereas, We believe that a clean and healthful habitation for the parents works untold influence on a babe yet unborn, and that such babe should be received in a home prepared to welcome such a divine blessing, that in infancy and youth it should never know the misery and menace of the "slum," but that its environment should promote the highest type of physical and moral development; therefore,--

Section 1. (Repealed, 1923, Act No. 274, P. L. 498, Section 2901)

Section 2. It shall be the duty of said bureau to investigate the sanitary conditions of tenement, lodging, and boarding houses, and when the same are found, in the opinion of said bureau, to be a menace to those occupying the same, or employed therein, or to be overcrowded, to condemn the same, and to notify the owners or agents thereof in writing, setting forth the unsanitary or overcrowded conditions thereof, and specifying in writing the changes or alterations which shall be made thereto for the purposes of relieving such conditions, and further specifying the time within which such changes or alterations shall be completed or overcrowding relieved. (2 repealed in part Apr. 28, 1978, P.L.202, No.53)

Section 3. Upon the expiration of the time designated in the reports to the said court, where no appeal is taken, or from the final order, after appeal, the names of those who have failed to comply, either with the notice of said bureau, or the court's order based upon appeal, shall be certified by the officer or agent of said bureau to the district attorney, who, upon receipt of the same, shall cause a prosecution to be at once instituted against such person or persons. (3 repealed in part Apr. 28, 1978, P.L.202, No.53)

Section 4. The officers or agent of this bureau shall have at all times the right of ingress into all premises as aforementioned.

Section 5. Any owner or agent of any premises condemned as unsanitary or overcrowded, who shall neglect to comply with the order of said bureau, or with the order of court after appeal, and who may continue to rent or use such premises in violation thereof, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined twenty dollars ($20) per day for each day which the premises shall have been used, and, in default of payment of the same, shall be committed to the county jail for such period as the court may direct. And these penalties shall apply to the officers of corporations, or members of firms, either as owners or agents.

Section 6. And any owner, agent or occupant, who interferes with, or prevents ingress to, any officer or agent of this bureau, or to the persons designated by the court for the purposes aforesaid, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not less than fifty nor more than one hundred dollars for each and every such offense, or suffer an imprisonment of not more than sixty days, either or both, at the discretion of the court.

Section 7. (Repealed, 1923, Act No. 274, P. L. 498, Section 2901)

Section 8. All acts or parts of acts inconsistent with the provisions of this act are hereby repealed.