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You often here people refer to the current housing shortage in Berkeley as “Berkeley’s worst housing crisis ever”. That’s probably not so. An arguably worse crisis was during World War II when the East Bay was flooded with war industry workers and, because of wartime material shortages and rationing, it was hard to get either construction materials or approval to build new housing. 

In addition to war workers at that time Berkeley was temporarily housing refugees from other countries, the spouses and families of servicemen who were based in the Bay Area—or had shipped out to the Pacific from here—and large numbers of men from the Armed Forces who were either passing through or temporally assigned here for training or active duty. 

There were repeated calls for residents to open up their homes to renters, make their spare bedrooms available, and convert houses into boarding quarters. There was even, in 1942, some possibility rumored that the Federal government might order non-essential residents to temporarily move out of the city so war workers could use their homes (nothing came of that, of course). 

So from about 1941 to the late 1940s there was a huge local housing crunch. One of the suggestions made at the time was to provide spaces to temporarily park trailers where newcomers, particularly war workers, could live. 

For example, in October 1942 a local businessman, G.A. Beukers, made a serious proposal to the City Council “to convert the entire length of Sacramento Street center parking lot from Alcatraz Avenue to Hopkins Street into a trailer camp.” (Berkeley Daily Gazette, October 20, 1942). 

At that time the Sacramento median was asphalt and dirt—a former rail right of way—not landscaped as it is today. He suggested that the City could earn as much as $45,000 from renting the space. 

Official Berkeley turned thumbs down to the idea of a temporary linear “trailer camp” on Sacramento Street, in part because there was fear that people living in trailers would bring unsanitary conditions and crime, and their presence would lower property values. 

Sort of like some of the arguments against recreational vehicle living in Berkeley’s housing crisis today. 

So Berkeley didn’t experiment in the 40s with a trailer park, temporary or otherwise. 

But neighboring El Cerrito did. A dog racing park east of San Pablo Avenue was turned into a large trailer camp ground. 

After a year, the results seemed wholly positive. Thousands of new residents, many of them workers in the Richmond shipyards, had been accommodated—there was space for at least 500 trailers—the park had both local supervision and its own elected self-governing council, and even the conservative Berkeley Gazette acknowledged in mid 1944 that things had gone well. 

Below, I’ve transcribed an article from the July 13, 2019 Gazette so you can read the local view from 75 years ago for yourself. 

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El Cerrito Trailer Park is Named Model Community: 

War Experiment Blends Well With City 

Berkeley Daily Gazette, July 17, 1944. Second section 

By Zerelda Owsley 

April 15 of this year marked the first anniversary of a unique experiment in war time living--the Fairmount Trailer Park in El Cerrito. Situated on the grounds and in the buildings of the outlawed dog racing track, more than 500 trailer spots have been home and hearth to almost 5000 persons within the space of a year's time. 

Under the general management of Judge Martyn Turner, the trailer park has a Citizens' Council, headed by Mrs. Frances McLane, which handles internal problems and disputes. Group bathing, washing and ironing facilities, child care, nursery school, 'teen age club rooms, Boy and Girl Scout troops, library and a weekly dance every Saturday night are some of the activities carried on in the trailer park. 

In every patriotic fund drive, the Fairmount Trailer Park has contributed a creditable share of El Cerrito's quota, and in addition, often goes far over the prescribed quota for its population. 

Since its inception more than a year ago, not one major crime has emanated from the trailer park, the most serious charges made against a man for disturbing the peace and investigation of arson. The Citizens' Council members are elected every three months because of the ever-changing population. Mrs. McLane has been chairman of the Council since its initiation in September, 1943, by successive elections. 

One nurse is on hand at all times, with a doctor giving half-time. At the present there is no group insurance plan in effect, but the residents are attempting to work out a plan which will be more successful than one which operated during the first few months of the park's development. 

There are about 1,638 persons in the camp now. Many of the trailers have small picket fences built around them, flower pots grace approaches, and Victory Gardens are thriving in the vacant ground surrounding the park. 

Although space and permanent equipment were provided by the Federal Government, the park is self-supporting now. At a recent breakfast, representatives from 33 different states sat around the table, many of them University graduates from State colleges. 

As an experiment in adaptability, the trailer park has proved that tolerance and reason can adjust almost any problem. With workers leaving and arriving at varied hours, the question of undisturbed sleep became acute quite early. The solution was simple. Certain areas were set aside for various shift workers and, as a consequence, day sleeper areas are combatively more quiet than any section of an average community could hope to attain. Other critical points have been solved with the same common sense and simplicity. 

Juvenile delinquency is no more prevalent in the trailer park than in surrounding neighborhoods. Births, weddings and deaths have occurred in the park and they would in any small section of the United States. 

Marketing, gas shortages, recreation limitations, higher salaries and wages, and other conditions that have created stress in long-established communities have created the same stress in the trailer park. 

But the lawlessness, illness and lack of sanitation that El Cerrito and neighboring cities feared when the Trailer Park was organized have never come to pass. Fairmont Trailer Park is an integral part of El Cerrito, a self-respecting and a respected segment of war time emergency." 

(Note: "marketing" in the second to last paragraph refers to going to the grocery market--that is, shopping for food and other staples.)