Shift Sleep

In the view of one newspaper in Chicago (a city which had long housed its poor and blue-collar classes indifferently, to say the least), the housing situation in northwest Indiana in the spring of 1918 was "deplorable." The war effort required heavy production by the steel and other mills in the region, which meant that the mills needed workers, and what the mills offered looked like steady, reliable, well paying jobs. So thousands of job-seekers poured into the region, straining its capacity to house them. According to the Chicago News, "They are sleeping 'em in eight-hour shifts down Gary way — three men in a bed, eight hours each," and these eight-hour bed rentals were a "common practice," which may have been deplorable but was the only way to cope with the sudden swelling of the population.


Source: "Housing Conditions Said to Be Deplorable in Calumet Region." Hobart News 27 June 1918.