Flophouses and the Elm City

Eve Tushnet: What this country needs is a good five-cent flophouse? On the return of rooming houses as a way of combatting homelessness.

Meanwhile, New Haven closed what I think was the city's last flophouse last fall. (Read the article, and get treated to a nice piece of the "destroy the village in order to save it" logic that largely doomed rooming houses in the past:)

Andy Rizzo, LCI's director, says the building did not pass the annual housing code inspection, which found such problems as blocked stairways and broken windows. [...] "We've had problems in the past with this building," Rizzo says, "and we want to make sure it's safe for the tenants."

For the tenant's own sake, we must thrust them out of the only in-city housing they can afford, and onto the streets!

Among those tossed out were the "Shakespeare Lady", Margaret Holloway. I lost track of Margaret at around this time; if anyone knows of her whereabouts, I'd be interested to hear it. Otherwise, I guess, just keep her in our prayers.

(unrelatedly, how can it be that there are no videos of Margaret up on YouTube? this seems like the kind of thing YouTube was created for!)