Housing was not a policy issue in our nation until the mid to late 1800s. Prior to that, before the industrialization of America, most Americans worked where they lived. By the 1850s, when massive job creation occurred in the cities and rural Americans and immigrants flooded the urban centers in great numbers, there was a critical housing shortage. The major cities of the east coast, particularly New York, continued to pass legislation adopting building codes and housing quality standards, while the federal government continued to see no role for itself in housing policy.