]

While the North was very desirous of the Negro migrants in order to
utilize their labor, moreover, it was, nevertheless, ill-prepared to
provide them proper dwelling places. The rush of the Negro laborers to
this section suddenly overtaxed the capacity of the habitations
alloted to Negroes, thus causing a demand for houses which far
exceeded the supply. The result of this was the bringing on the hands
of the North a serious housing problem which required immediate
solution. The railroads were the first to attempt to meet the
situation by adopting the method of erecting camps to house the large
number of single men who had been imported from the South. These roads
were the Pennsylvania, Baltimore and Ohio, New York Central, and Erie.
The camps constructed by the Pennsylvania were wooden sheds covered
with tar paper and equipped with sanitary cots, heat, bath, toilet and
wash-room facilities, separate eating room and commissary. This road
built thirty-five such camps, each capable of accommodating forty men.
The camps of the other railroads consisted of freight cars and
passenger coaches converted into sleeping and eating quarters for the
men. In some cases old houses were renovated and used for the same
purposes. Camps were also used by the large steel companies of
Pennsylvania to house their workers. These were largely old barns and
old houses which were transformed into living quarters. They were
reported to be inferior to the railroads' camps in matters of
equipment and sanitation.[111]

The most difficult part of this housing question, however, was that of
community housing, the problem of supplying men with families with
adequate living quarters. An investigation of the housing conditions
among migrants of this type in twenty cities of the North and West
showed that everywhere this problem was very acute. In few cities,
where the Negro migrants were mixed in with the whites, the former
were provided with fairly satisfactory housing conditions, but were
compelled to pay comparatively high rents for least desirable
quarters. Exceptions, nevertheless, were found in these places where
the invasion of white districts by Negro families had resulted in the
moving out of the white residents. Here, very desirable houses for
Negroes were available, but at rental rates far in advance of those
formerly paid by the whites.[112] The small number of available houses
and the high rents asked for the same, moreover, caused the