One of the hallmarks of the early postwar years was the lack of housing. There had been a depression followed by a war, which meant that there hadn’t been much new housing construction for a long time. And suddenly, millions of servicemen were returning home from winning a war, getting married, having children, and needing a place to live.

As this March 1946 issue of Popular Science points out, for many, “home” meant a bedroom in someone else’s house. In fact, the number of families doubling up exceeded the entire populations of New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia combined.  Some kind of stopgap housing had to be built, and decommissioned military structures were put into service.  The federal government made Quonset huts available to cities, universities, and non-profit agencies for use as housing.  Those entities were responsible for providing the real estate and building streets and other infrastructure.  The also agreed to rent the units on a non-profit basis and dismantle them when the crisis was over.

Photos and stories about one such neighborhood near where I grew up in Minneapolis can be found at this site and this site.