Changing Nature and Needs of Social Housing in the Nineteenth Century - Dissertation Example

People flocked in from different parts of the country as they saw an opportunity to earn better income. Among these people were also the factory workers and other low-income earners who came to earn a living but got trapped paying high rent for the houses where they stayed. Most of the workers lived in terrible condition often sharing rooms with 10 to 15 other workers. It was the time when two philanthropists stepped in to help the low-income earners. George Peabody and Octavia Hill, they tried not only to provide the low-income earners with low housing facilities but they also tried to improve their psychological conditions so that they could happily work and live in London.

So here goes the question, how did George Peabody and Octavia Hill want people to live?Social housing is a concept that came into existence in London in the middle of the 19th century to provide housing for low-income workers. A lot of people started traveling to London in order to make money. Among these people were teachers, lawyers, doctors, factory workers, clerks, government officials, and people from many other occupations (Ineichen, 2003). London was home to people with different cultures and social classes.

It welcomed everyone to make a good living. However, low-income earners faced a lot of difficulties living in London (Reeves, 1996). They earned nearly twice as much as they earned in their hometown but they had to pay about thrice the amount of rent they used to pay in other cities. In order to avoid paying a lot of rents, low-income earners started sharing houses and even rooms (Burnett, 1986). A single house would see up to four to five families living in it. Sometimes 15 to 20 workers would have to manage in a single room, as they could not afford to pay the rent of the house they were living in (Reeves, 1996).

The need for social housing arose during this time when the local authority in London was not doing anything for the poor working class.The objective of the research is to study two cases in detail, George Peabody and Octavia Hill, and then discuss how the two social workers helped to serve the social housing needs of the low-income earners in London. Part of the discussion will entail looking at the reasons that contributed to the shortage of houses in London, the description of people that required social housing, and discussing the manner in which George Peabody and Octavia Hill versioned how people need to live.