Nursing Homes and the Congress: A Brief History of Developments and Issues Page: 6 of 155
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CRS-4
Critics argued that the 19th Century poorhouse system represented a
totally unworkable and undesirable solution to the growing problems of
aged dependency in the United States. Charges were made that the alms-
house and other similar types of public institutions were inhumane,
1/
inadequate, and unnecessarily costly for society to maintain.-- Other
answers to the problems of dependency had to be formulated.
One of the new approaches adopted by some of the States during this
time was the creation of programs to provide cash assistance payments
for needy older people who had no personal means of support and no
financially competent relatives to help out. By the middle of 1931, 18
of the States had established various- programs of "old-age assistance,"
"old-age pensions," "old-age relief, " or "old-age security" for the
2/
increasing numbers of dependent aged population within their boundaries.-
The growth of these State-financed and administered public assistance
(welfare) programs for the elderly proceeded rather slowly until the
Depression when their expansion stopped altogether. With the collapse
of the economy, the numbers of older people seeking public aid suddenly
increased. State funds needed to support the assistance programs, on
1/
See, for example, The American Poorfarm and Its Inmates, Harry C. Evans, 1926.
2/Social Security in America: The Factual Background of the Social Security
Act, as summarized from Staff Reports to the Committee on Economic Security,
1937.
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Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service. Nursing Homes and the Congress: A Brief History of Developments and Issues, report, November 1, 1972; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metacrs8392/m1/6/?q=%22congress%22: accessed May 22, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.