Poorhouse

A poorhouse is a publicly maintained facility for the support and housing of dependent or needy persons, typically run by a local government entity such as a county or municipality.

Related Topics:
Facility - County - Municipality

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• In Victorian times (for Britain itself, see Poor Law, but also elsewhere), poverty was seen as a dishononouring, guilty state (lack of the highly praised virtue of industry being the presumed reason), justifying a rather uncharitable treatment, known from the dickensian portrayal of a dehumanized regime resembling a Reformatory (children could also be kept there, with their family or alone), or rather penal labour, as the poor could be put to hard, manual labour and were subject to corporal punishment.

There lot was often not much better, largely depending on the authorities and the staff, eslewhere either, e.g. in Saratoga County (New York) the 137 'inmates' (mind the term!) of all sexes and ages could be beaten.

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• The term is commonly applied to such a facility that houses the desitute elderly; institutions of this nature were widespread in the United States prior to the adoption of the Social Security program in the 1930s. Facilities housing indigents who are not elderly are typically referred to as homeless shelters, or simply "shelters," in current usage.

Often the poorhouse was situated on the grounds of a poor farm on which able-bodied residents were required to work; such farms were common in the United States in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

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Perhaps the best example of a "poorhouse" serving the elderly today is the Laguna Honda Hospital & Rehabilitation Center in San Francisco.

Related Topics:
Laguna Honda Hospital & Rehabilitation Center - San Francisco

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Poorhouse: See also ►