Poorhouse
A poorhouse or workhouse was a type of government-run facility to support and provide housing for the dependent or needy.
Workhouses
In England, Wales and Ireland, "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, 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 in an attempt to cut expenditures 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.
Poorhouses in the United States and Canada
United States
In the United States, poorhouses were most common during the 19th and early 20th centuries. These locally-run public institutions filled gaps in the provision of welfare in a time before Social Security, Medicaid and Section 8 housing. These institutions were intended to be "spartan and uncomfortable" as a way to convince paupers of the value of working themselves out of poverty. As governments sought to relocate the poor beneficiaries outside of city centers to more rural areas, poorhouses became known as poor farms, which in effect exposed the "stigma and shame society placed on those who were unable to support themselves".Poor farms were based on the U.S. tradition of county 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, the federal government did not participate in social welfare for over 70 years. In a poor-farm system, indigent people were often situated on the grounds of a farm in 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. 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 by providing housekeeping and care for other residents. Rules were strict and accommodations minimal. Poor farms were county- or town-run residences where paupers were supported at public expense. They were generally under the direction of one or more elected or appointed "Superintendent of the Poor."
Based on extensive historical research, a scholar has noted that the harsh conditions in poorhouses played a crucial part in shaping the history of organized child placements in the United States, as private organizations sought to bridge the gap in services catered to the poor, specifically children. Notably, the patterns from the poorhouse system reinforced the perception that available public services are "barren and stigmatized," which promoted the idea that motivated private individuals or organizations are better suited to provide specialized care to children. As such, there was a shift from poorhouses to institutions like Orphanages for childcare.
The poor farms gradually 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 such as public housing projects, Section 8 housing, and homeless shelters.