Do Tenements Still Exist Today?

While it may be hard to believe, tenements in the Lower East Side – home to immigrants from a variety of nations for over 200 years – still exist today. Suffice it to say, the tenements of Chinatown are not ideal housing choices, as they pose a number of physical and emotional health hazards. ...

What are modern day tenement houses?

The Oxford English Dictionary's primary definition of tenement is "a room or a set of rooms forming a separate residence within a house or block of apartments." It's a fairly all-inclusive definition that speaks to the historic definitions of tenement as well as its modern and colloquial connotations, which the ...

When did tenements end?

But until 1918, there were no laws requiring that even electricity be installed in the apartments. In 1936, New York City introduced its first public housing project, and the era of the tenement building officially ended.