Poverty seventy-five years ago was atrocious

In 1950, the Goldsboro Jaycees produced a survey of the housing in town and it was abominable to put it bluntly. The first public housing project, Lincoln Homes, was being built and the Jaycees hoped to spur the community to build even more affordable housing.

Members surveyed 199 homes in several different neighborhoods. 119 houses (57.5%) had no indoor toilet, 26 homes had no electricity, and 184 (89%) had no bathtub.

If that weren’t bad enough, the survey found that in 24 cases, four or five individuals slept in one bed. Dozens of others were sleeping on cots and couches in hallways and other common areas.

Poverty is still a problem in this country but there is no question that it has improved significantly over the past 75 years.

Selected pages from the survey: