Jacob Riis Sparks Tenement Reform
Riis’ work In 1890 shed light on these conditions, exposing them to a mass audience that otherwise would never see the reality of New York’s most impoverished residents. Riis, himself an immigrant, lived in the desperate conditions he would later make famous. Riis, a police reporter for The New York Tribune, covered impoverished areas, places riddled with crime, overcrowded areas full of people scraping money together by any possible means.
Riis taught himself photography to document the conditions of these neighborhoods, sharing them with a shocked public. The resulting collection of photographs, How the Other Half Lives, exposed the worst, blighted slums. It quickly became a bestseller and sparked nationwide interest in tenement and social reform. The City, by order from President Roosevelt, closed the worst lodging houses. And the city, again, tried tenement reform and stricter enforcement of tenement housing policies.
