Brooklyn charitable organizations for the poor collection

In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, as New York City experienced a dramatic rise in poverty, public welfare took up more of the city's annual budget than any other issue. In response to the growing welfare burden, a number of charitable organizations were established to provide relief for the poor. One of the city's first such charities was the Humane Society, which was established in 1787 and provided medical care and food for impoverished citizens. By the mid-19th century, advanced levels of charity organization allowed for the formation of a number of specialized poor-relief charities. These specialized organizations either served a particular social or ethnic group, or provided a particular type of charitable service, such as medical care or the offering of moral and spirtitual counseling. As poverty in New York continued to intensify in the late 19th century, the settlement house movement began to take root, with the City's first settlement house, the Neighborhood Guild, being founded in 1886. In addition to their major functions, which included advocating for child labor reform and tenement house legislation, settlement houses also pressed for the building of public recreational areas and the improvement of public health and education. In the years leading up to the Great Depression, attitudes toward poverty began to reflect the notion that public welfare was the responsibility of the state rather than private citizens; consequently, state-funded initiatives, such as the New York State Public Welfare Act of 1929, began to provide services that were previously offered by private charities. Several state-funded public welfare programs would emerge throughout the 20th century, but as these programs achieved only varying levels of success, a number of private charities, such as the Community Service Society (founded in 1939), continued to offer relief to New York's poor.