🌅 How the Government Once Solved a Housing Crisis

SOURCE

Eran Ben-Joseph (2025)

WHAT TO KNOW

• In 1917, as the Great War raged across the Atlantic, Congress embarked on an unprecedented nationwide effort to house workers near the shipyards, munitions plants, and steel factories necessary to supply the war effort. By 1918, the federal government had become the nation’s largest housing developer, designing and constructing more than 80 new residential communities across 26 states in just two years.

WHY IT MATTERS

• The communities built by the U.S. Housing Corporation featured liveable neighborhoods complete with schools, parks, and stores, and, rather than the standardized apartment-style “projects” associated with public housing today, offered residents thoughtfully designed single-family and small multifamily units that workers could eventually own. Within only a few years, the government developed 5,000 acres of land into housing for more than 170,000 people, constructing over 18,000 homes and residential units, 18 schools, 8 hospitals, and 17 churches.

CONNECT THE DOTS

• Experts describe the U.S. Housing Corporation’s legacy as brief but impactful, proving that large-scale public housing could be well-executed and reinforcing the federal government’s “major role” in finding innovative solutions to complex problems. Congress dissolved the corporation following the end of World War I, however, as the U.S. faces a different type of housing crisis today, nothing but politics stands in the way of the government re-entering the market and ushering in a second era of quality, affordable housing.