A poorhouse or workhouse is a government-run (usually by a county or municipality) facility to support and provide housing for the dependent or needy.

Workhouses

In England, Wales and Ireland (but not in Scotland), ‘ workhouse’ has been the more common term. Before the introduction of the Poor Laws, each parish would maintain its own workhouse; often these would be simple farms with the occupants dividing their time between working the farm and being employed on maintaining local roads and other parish works. An example of one such is Strand House in East Sussex. In the early Victorian era (see

Poor Law In English and British history, poor relief refers to government and ecclesiastical action to relieve poverty. Over the centuries, various authorities have needed to decide whose poverty deserves relief and also who should bear the cost of hel ...

), poverty was seen as a dishonourable state. As depicted by Charles Dickens, a workhouse could resemble a reformatory, often housing whole families, or a penal labour regime giving manual work to the indigent and subjecting them to physical punishment. At many workhouses, men and women were split up with no communication between them. Furthermore, these workhouse systems were instituted under the ''Poor Law Amendment Act 1834'': The United Kingdom passed this act to attempt to cut expenditure on those in poverty, reduce the number of beggars on the street, and inspire lower-class people to work harder in order to better provide for themselves.

Poor farms

United States

In the United States, poorhouses were most common during the 19th and early 20th centuries. They were often situated on the grounds of a poor farm on which able-bodied residents were required to work. A poorhouse could even be part of the same economic complex as a prison farm and other penal or charitable public institutions. Poor farms were county- or town-run residences where paupers (mainly elderly and disabled people) were supported at public expense. They were generally under the direction of one or more elected or appointed "Superintendent of the Poor." Most were working farms that produced at least some of the produce, grain, and livestock they consumed. Residents were expected to provide labor to the extent that their health would allow, both in the fields and in providing housekeeping and care for other residents. Rules were strict and accommodations minimal. Poor farms were based on the U.S. tradition of county governments (rather than cities, townships, or state or federal governments) providing social services for the needy within their borders. Following the 1854 veto of the Bill for the Benefit of the Indigent Insane by

Franklin Pierce Franklin Pierce (November 23, 1804October 8, 1869) was the 14th president of the United States, serving from 1853 to 1857. He was a northern Democrat who believed that the abolitionist movement was a fundamental threat to the nation's unity ...

, the federal government did not participate in social welfare for over 70 years. The poor farms declined in the U.S. after the ''Social Security Act'' took effect in 1935, with most disappearing completely by about 1950. Since the 1970s, funding for the care, well-being and safety of the poor and indigent is now split among county, state and federal resources. Poor farms have been replaced by

subsidized housing Subsidized housing is government sponsored economic assistance aimed towards alleviating housing costs and expenses for impoverished people with low to moderate incomes. In the United States, subsidized housing is often called "affordable housin ...

such as public housing projects, Section 8 housing and homeless shelters.

Canada

In Canada, the poorhouse, with an attached farm, was the favoured model. According to a 2009 report by the ''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part ...

'', "pauperism was considered a moral failing that could be erased through order and hard work". The oldest government-supported facility of this type that is still standing (now a museum), is located in Southern Ontario between Fergus and Elora. The Wellington County House of Industry and Refuge was opened in 1877 and, over the years, housed approximately 1500 deserving poor, including those who were destitute, old and infirm, or disabled. The 60-bed house for inmates was surrounded by a 30-acre industrial farm with a barn for livestock that produced some of the food for the 70 residents and the staff and also provided work for them. Others worked in the House itself. A hospital was added in 1892. The nearby cemetery has 271 plots. In 1947, the House was converted into a home for the aged and in 1975 the building reopened as the Wellington County Museum and Archives, one of the

National Historic Sites of Canada National Historic Sites of Canada (french: Lieux historiques nationaux du Canada) are places that have been designated by the federal Minister of the Environment on the advice of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada (HSMBC), as being ...

Gallery

File:Woman's Hall Poor House.jpg, Women and children in St. Louis Poor House, 1904 File:Male Pauper Barracks Poor House.jpg, Male Pauper Barracks in St. Louis Poor House,1904 File:Die Gartenlaube (1854) b 457 2.jpg, German Poor house, 1854 - The Garden Arbor File:Concrete Sewer Blocks made at the Halifax Poor Asylum (City Home), Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, 1899.jpg, Concrete Sewer Blocks made at the Halifax Poor Asylum File:Russischer Photograph - Ein Altenheim (Zeno Fotografie).jpg, Russian Poor house, Unknown date File:New York City Farm Colony “inmates” at meal time, 1904.jpg, New York City Farm Colony “inmates” at meal time, 1904 File:Murals by Charles Davis in the workroom of the New York City Farm Colony, Staten Island, 1938.jpg, Murals in workroom of the New York City Farm Colony, 1938 File:Poorhse.gif, Women in Poor House File:The Five Nations Poor House.jpg, Five Nations Poor House, ca. 1918

References

External links

Jack London's firsthand account of life and poorhouses in the 1902 East End of LondonWorkhouses in and around Bures, Suffolk, by Alan Beales

A study of Kansas poor farms
/ by Kansas Emergency Relief Committee (1935) {{Authority control

House A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air condi ...

Public housing Workhouses Poverty ja:救貧院 (プアハウス)