Several of these men were writers in addition to settlement house workers and used their writing as social protest and a means of reform.

Residents between 1900 and 1907 included socialist writer William English Walling, a founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; Pulitzer Prize-winner Ernest Poole; Howard Brubaker, who later became a columnist for The New Yorker; writer Arthur Bullard; journalist Hamilton Holt; and author Walter Weyl, a founding editor of The New Republic.

Their interest in reform led to several articles and books on the housing and employment situation of workers on the Lower East Side, particularly women and children.

Many of the immigrants they met on the Lower East Side were Jews from the Russian Empire who were typically severely repressed under Nicholas II of Russia.

"[5] University Settlement continues to provide support services to residents of the Lower East Side, and now offers programs in 31 locations across Manhattan and Brooklyn.