The face of the suburban ring of the New York Metropolitan Region is in the process of being transformed under the impact of what is likely to become the Nation’s greatest housing boom.
The veterans emergency housing program itself calls for 1,200,000 housing units in 1946 and 1,500,000 units in 1947. This represents an amount of housing equivalent to all housing built in the United States in the seven-year period 1933-1939 or an average five-year period in the years 1920-1940.
The Administrator of the National Housing Agency reports that 496,000 units were started during the first six months of 1946. This rate indicates that the goal of 2,700,000 homes in the next two years can be reached. Perhaps all the 2,700,000 units cannot be completed by the end of 1947, but the mere start of construction carries problems to the communities. For even a house in frame is fixed, for better or worse, in relation to the streets, sewers, schools and parks of the community in which it will stand as a completed home.
