Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(orig. US milit. in Vietnam) any form of shelter from a peasant hut, to a bunker, to an office building; now a general word.

1967		E. Shepard Doom Pussy 47: In a hootch, three battle-seasoned warriors [...] slept through it all.
1978		J. Webb Fields of Fire (1980) 84: Wondering where the company commander’s hootch was.
1985		(con. 1969–70) D. Bodey F.N.G. (1988) 30: A hooch is a hole. Its upper sides and roof are layers of sandbags.
1993		T. Jones Pugilist at Rest 28: All the members of Force Recon Team [...] were sitting in the interrogation hootch at Camp Clarke.
2013		D. Whish-Wilson Zero at the Bone [ebook] [D]ero hoochies, crusty blankets and plastic bags containing clothes and books inside dwellings just large enough for a drinker to crawl into.
2022		K. Noem Not My First Rodeo 183: [W]e tried to sleep in our ‘hooches"—shipping containers converted into sleeping berths.