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Apoorhouse orworkhouse is a government-run (usually by acounty ormunicipality) facility to support and provide housing for the dependent or needy.
InEngland,Wales andIreland (but not inScotland),[1] "workhouse" has been the more common term. Before the introduction ofthe 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 isStrand House inEast Sussex. In the earlyVictorian era (seePoor Law), poverty was seen as a dishonourable state. As depicted byCharles Dickens, a workhouse could resemble areformatory, often housing whole families, or apenal labour regime giving manual work to the indigent and subjecting them tophysical punishment.[2]
At many workhouses, men and women were split up with no communication between them. Furthermore, these workhouse systems were instituted under thePoor Law Amendment Act 1834:The United Kingdom passed this act to attempt to cut expenditure on those in poverty, reduce the number ofbeggars on the street, and inspire lower-class people to work harder in order to better provide for themselves.[3]
In theUnited States, poorhouses were most common during the 19th and early 20th centuries. They were often situated on the grounds of apoor farm on which able-bodied residents were required to work. A poorhouse could even be part of the same economic complex as aprison farm and other penal or charitable public institutions. Poor farms werecounty- 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[s] 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 theBill for the Benefit of the Indigent Insane byFranklin Pierce, the federal government did not participate in social welfare for over 70 years.
The poor farms declined in the U.S. after theSocial 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 bysubsidized housing such aspublic housing projects,Section 8 housing andhomeless shelters.
InCanada, the poorhouse, with an attached farm, was the favoured model. According to a 2009 report by theToronto Star, "pauperism was considered a moral failing that could be erased through order and hard work".[4] The oldest government-supported facility of this type that is still standing (now a museum), is located in the Southwestern-Ontarian hamlet of Aboyne between the larger, nearby communities ofFergus andElora. TheWellington 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.[5] Others worked in the House itself. A hospital was added in 1892. The nearby cemetery has 271 plots.[6] 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 theNational Historic Sites of Canada.[7]
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The House of Industry and the Bank Barn were built in 1877. The House of Industry and Refuge or "Poor House" provided a home for the "deserving poor" of Wellington County. The Barn and Industrial Farm were an important part of the House. The Farm grew produce and livestock to feed the inmates (residents) and staff at the House. The Farm also provided work or "industry" for the inmates. In the 19th century, Industrial Farms were a vital part of public institutions like hospitals, prisons, asylums and Houses of Refuge.
This is the earliest surviving example of an important 19th century institution, the government-supported poorhouse. Erected in 1877, it was the shelter of last resort for the homeless and destitute, who traded spartan accommodations for domestic or agricultural labour. With changing attitudes and the introduction of alternative forms of social assistance, its function shifted to the care of the elderly and infirmed and additions were built to respond to their special needs. Closed in 1971, this building, and its history, illustrate the Victorian roots of the 20th-century social security system in Canada.
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