ALMSHOUSE

also called Poor House, or County Home, in the United States, a locally administered public institution for homeless, aged persons without means. Such institutions radically declined in number in the second half of the 20th century, to be replaced by other means of subsistence and care. Dating from colonial days, it was formerly used as a dumping ground for the mentally ill, the epileptic, the feeble-minded, the blind, the deaf and dumb, the crippled, the tuberculous, the destitute aged, homeless unemployed, vagrants, petty criminals, prostitutes, unmarried mothers, and abandoned and neglected children. Operated often in conjunction with a farm, with emphasis on meeting costs through the sale of farm produce, the almshouse, or county home, incurred widespread criticism after the turn of the 20th century for its failure to provide differentiated treatment for the varying problems presented by residents, the minimum character of medical and nursing care offered, the low sanitation and safety standards, and the physical and mental deterioration in residents invited by neglect and the incompetence of the management. These evils were gradually but not altogether eliminated by the shift of the sick, the handicapped, and the young to specialized state institutions, a process that began in the middle of the 19th century, and the transfer out of able-bodied aged who could qualify for old-age assistance under the Social Security Act of 1935. From a peak of probably 135,000 in the early 1930s, the population of county homes dropped to an estimated 88,000 in 1940 and to 72,000 in 1950. Residents in 1950 consisted largely of aged infirm individuals. Closings and consolidations reduced the number of homes from 2,200 in 1923 to approximately 1,200 in 1950. The prohibition in the Social Security Act against federally aided old-age assistance to residents of public institutions reflected a conviction that almshouses were unnecessary; but experience after 1935, particularly the rapid growth of commercial nursing homes, indicated that many aged persons required sheltered care or at least home-supervised care and that, in the absence of other free facilities, the indigent aged will use some kind of local public institution. Recognition in the 1940s of this need came at a time of increasing public awareness of the lack of adequate facilities for the chronically ill long-term patient. As a result, a number of states passed legislation encouraging the conversion of almshouses to county infirmaries. Social security benefits and, later, Medicaid also substantially lessened reliance on public homes, until they became virtually obsolete.