typically did not offer beds, providing instead "mattresses or piles of rags with a blanket", hammocks, or simply floor space (with the expectation that renters had their own bedroll). An even lower variant of the flophouse was "unlicensed dives where a lodger could sleep in a corner of a tenement room for 5 cents, or for 3 cents curl up in a sheltered hallway", an approach sometimes used in after-hours theatres. These rough conditions caused concern amongst reformers and activists, who got City Hall and police stations opened up as emergency lodging, an approach that served only a small percentage of the underhoused population. Another effort was municipal lodging houses, such as the building opened in New York City in 1896. At municipal lodging houses, residents got an iron cot and two light meals if they agreed to "interrogation, fumigation, a shower, a promise of docile behavior, and often at least two hours a day chopping wood or cleaning alleys". Some philanthropists opened hotels for lodging house purposes, such as the 1897 Mills Hotel built by Darius O. Mills. In 1913, the Golden West Hotel was built in San Diego to provide low cost lodging for working men. The Salvation Army opened its first mission in 1890s, soon rising to 44 locations across the US where low cost beds and food were available. While the Salvation Army and similar mission lodging houses were cleaner and offered free or very low cost meals and lodging (often "in return for a sermon or prayer meeting"), they had strict rules on behaviour. References External links 1932 New Statesman article regarding Common lodging-houses in London Affordable housing House types