The $50 Cottages San Francisco Built for 16,000 Homeless People in 1906

The $50 Cottages San Francisco Built for 16,000 Homeless People in 1906 On April 18, 1906, a devastating earthquake and the fires that followed destroyed large parts of San Francisco, leaving thousands of families without homes. With entire neighborhoods reduced to rubble, the city faced an urgent question: where would people live while they tried to rebuild their lives? The answer was an extraordinary emergency housing effort. San Francisco built thousands of small cottages to shelter people displaced by the disaster. These modest wooden structures were designed to provide basic housing at a time when conventional homes were scarce and rebuilding seemed almost impossible. In this documentary, we explore the history of San Francisco's earthquake cottages, how they were constructed, what life was like inside them, and how the city organized temporary shelter for people who had lost nearly everything. We also examine the costs, the challenges of emergency housing, and what happened to these cottages after the city began recovering from the disaster. Some were eventually moved to private properties and converted into permanent homes, leaving behind a surprising piece of San Francisco history. How did a city respond when thousands of residents suddenly had nowhere to go? And what can this forgotten housing experiment reveal about disaster recovery and affordable housing today? Watch until the end to discover the story behind San Francisco's earthquake cottages and the people who depended on them after one of the most devastating disasters in American history. #SanFranciscoHistory #1906Earthquake #AmericanHistory #HistoricHomes #ForgottenHistory #DisasterHistory #CaliforniaHistory #AffordableHousing #HistoryDocumentary #2026 Subscribe for more forgotten history, remarkable American stories, historic communities, and overlooked moments from the past.