Name: ______________________________________________ Period: __________
Life during the Great Depression:
Hoovervilles
Learning Target:
Describe how men,
women, and children
struggled to survive
during the Great
Depression.
Hooverville:
a homeless encampment
during the great
depression.
Impacted:
Men, women, and
children from all walks
of life.
When?
In the months and years
to follow the stock
market crash of 1929.
How City
Officials Helped:
They let them live on the
land (many times, they
were trespassing on
private property) Some
local businesses also
opened soup kitchens to
feed the poor.
During the Great Depression the term "Hooverville" became a common phrase used
to describe shantytowns and homeless encampments. All across America,
homelessness quickly followed joblessness as the economy began to crumble in the
early 1930s. Homeowners lost their property when they could not pay mortgages or
pay taxes. Renters fell behind and faced eviction. By 1932 millions of Americans were
living outside the normal rent-paying housing market.
Many squeezed in with relatives, as population densities within units soared in the
early 1930s. Some squatted, either defying eviction and staying where they were, or
finding shelter in one of the increasing number of vacant buildings.
Hundreds of thousands of men, women & children took to the streets, finding what
shelter they could (under bridges, in culverts, or on vacant public land where they built
crude shacks). Conditions were filthy! These shantytowns quickly become known as
Hoovervilles – a deliberately politicized label, emphasizing that President Herbert
Hoover and the Republican Party were to be held responsible for the economic crisis
and the miseries that accompanied it.
Each city dealt with these squatter encampments in their own way – some allowed
them for a time, others set to the task of destroying the Hooverville as soon as it sprung
up. Most of the people who found themselves living within these shantytowns were
not used to poverty. They came from all walks of life before the Depression
(construction workers, lawyers, teachers, etc.), but now each of them had to get used to
a new way of life; one of hardship & despair.
Seattle's Hooverville was one of the largest, longest-lasting and best documented in the
nation – it stood for ten years (1931-1941). At the dawn of the Depression, Seattle city
officials burned the small Hoovervilles, however, a more sympathetic mayor eventually
won office and he stopped the assault on Seattle’s shantytowns. Seattle’s main
Hooverville housed a population of nearly 1,200 & eventually covered over nine acres
of public land. The area formed its own unsanctioned community government,
including an unofficial mayor, and enjoyed the protection of left-leaning political
groups & sympathetic public officials until the land was needed for shipping facilities
on the eve of World War II. Early in
1941, the Seattle Health Department
established a Shack Elimination
Committee to identify unauthorized
housing clusters and plan for their
removal. A survey located 1,687 shacks
in five substantial colonies, as well as
several other smaller ones. In April,
residents of the main Hooverville were
given notice to leave by May 1. Police
officers doused the little structures with
kerosene and lit them as spectators
watched.
Seattle's Hooverville had lasted a full
decade.
1. Describe the types of people that lived in Hoovervilles.
2. Based on the reading and what you can observe from the picture on the first page & the map
above, discuss the living conditions in a Hooverville.
3. Thoroughly explain what eventually brought about an end to the Hoovervilles in Seattle?